While a tie might be the usual gift for Father’s Day, why not consider something a little different? The garage is a space in the family home that tends to get cluttered with pour-over items from the house, making it hard to find the things you need or to use as a workspace. Working with a professional organizer to declutter the garage is the perfect launch to Dad’s quality time in one of his favorite places to putter. He will have his “man cave” back and enjoy the space without tripping over unnecessary items. While you may not want to go all out with a remodel, decluttering and organizing the space to make it accessible and useable will turn it into a sanctuary for DAD. If you want to tackle the job on your own, here are a few tips to get you going.
Divide and Conquer to Declutter
If your garage is crammed to the ceiling with mysterious boxes and other items, it can feel overwhelming to start to declutter. The most common strategy for taking on a cluttered room is to segment the room and start in one segment, organize it, and move on to the next. At Clutter Corrections, we recommend the right front corner of the garage, next to the door. This space is next to an accessible “staging” area in the driveway. Once you have finished this corner, you can proceed clockwise around the garage.
Sort Your Cluttered Garage into Categories
Many people use the garage to store all kinds of different items. From Christmas ornaments to camping gear, needed but less used stuff has a way of getting hidden on a back shelf, challenging to find and access. Putting these categories of items in the same place, and better yet, storing them in labeled bins, makes them easy to find and easier to store. Seasonal items can find a place on top selves in the off-season and get rotated down when they are in use.
Look for Like Items
How often have you made a quick run to the hardware store for a tool or some duct tape because you need it urgently and it is nowhere to be found? As you sort through items in your garage, put like items together so you can see how many hammers and glue tubes you’ve accumulated over the years. Selecting and keeping one of each, or at the very least keeping like items together, is an easy way to reduce the volume of possessions stored in the garage.
A Clear Floor Speeds the Decluttering Process
The floor area is valuable real estate in a garage. By clearing it, you create opportunities to install shelving units, cabinets, or other storage systems that utilize vertical space. These storage solutions help you categorize and store items more efficiently, making them easily accessible when needed. Removing unnecessary items from the floor allows you to evaluate their usefulness and determine whether they should be stored, donated, sold, or discarded. This process helps you declutter and optimize the available space, ensuring that only essential items remain in the garage.
Restore and Repeat
Once you’ve identified the items you want to store in the first segment of your garage, you can put them in the newly tidied space. Using shelving, bins, and other storage solutions will help to keep the items easy to find and access. Now that you have a clean, decluttered corner, it’s time to move to the next space in the garage and repeat the process. If you don’t do the entire garage in one sitting, it is still recommended that you finish each section entirely before stopping for the day.
If you are not sure how to get started, you might want to consider working with a professional organizer. Clutter Corrections offers in-person and virtual sessions to help you set the garage up as the perfect gift for Father’s Day. Contact us to schedule a consultation.