Clear Your Garage In Five Simple Steps

When it comes to a cluttered garage, things often get to a point where they seem too messy to fix without some Herculean effort. Your garage seemed so spacious – how did this happen? Easy: You got disorganized. To clean your garage you need to get organized, from the actual cleanup to how you act later on. By using the five-step process below, most people should be able to clean their garages in an afternoon and keep them clean. All you need is garbage bags, storage bins and a steel pegboard garage storage solution to get the most out of your garage’s interior space.

Step 1: Drive Away

Let’s make one thing clear: Never try to clean around your vehicle! Things will roll away underneath it, you’ll take longer to move things around and you’ll just end up with a half-finished job. It will also be difficult to execute Step 5 and install metal pegboards to make use of vertical space. So take your car out and find another place for it to park for the afternoon. If you’re worried about your reorganization efforts taking up space you need for the vehicle, just mark the space you need in masking tape. Simple!

Step 2: Take Out the Trash

Now that the car’s gone, take stock of all of the garbage in your garage. To do that you need to define “garbage” – and that can be trickier than you think. Garbage is anything you can’t or won’t ever use or sell. Many people are packrats who want to keep that rusty jar of screws or keys to your old, long-gone home, but be strong – they need to go. The same goes for that lawnmower you’re going to fix some day (if it’s been a year, that’s not going to happen – admit it!).  Once you’ve defined your trash, toss it out. You may need to run a load to the dump, but a lot of your garbage is going to be standard waste, good to go in a couple of bins. Make sure these are sturdy and able to stay outside, since if you bring them in you’re not really cleaning, are you?

Step 3: Move Things Back In

No, not “back in” your garage. This is your chance to repatriate all the stuff that’s wandered from closets, rec rooms and basements into the garage. Focus on moving these things back to their proper place. Families experience this kind of migration a lot; kids dump sports equipment, school books and other stuff at the threshold of the garage door. Well, it’s time to return these “gifts” to their senders. You may need to do some cleaning deeper inside your house, as indoor clutter tends to “invade” the space intended for these newly-returned objects.

Step 4: Organize Seasonally

At this stage the garage should only contain things that belong there. Now’s the time to ask yourself which objects belong there all the time and which should really only be there at certain times of the year. For example, if you only use your workbench in the summer, move it to a backyard shed. The same goes for garden tool storage. Likewise, move your skis, snowboards and other winter gear into a different area for the summer. Remember your choices so that when the seasons roll around you can switch out the right equipment in an hour or two instead of making these decisions all over again.

Step 5: Use Pegboards to Exploit Vertical Space

By Step 5 you should be left with only what you need in your garage for that particular season. Take a look at your garage. See any tables? Bare walls with nails? These are signs of under-used vertical space. Fix this by installing a steel pegboard system that’s strong enough to hang as much as possible, including bicycles, shovels, storage bins and heavy tools. For instance, Holey Rail’s steel pegboard system mounts on wall studs to let you hang very heavy objects – plastic bins and other items you’d normally have to leave on the floor. Once you’ve finished you should have a clutter-free garage with maximum available floor space. You only have the things you need, and have used pegboards to exploit wall space.