Safeload Coverage
When it comes to organizing the different rooms in your home, the garage is one of the toughest rooms to tackle.
It’s often the place where you store just about everything imaginable — including items that are broken or that you’ve forgotten about entirely. With so much clutter in one space, getting organized can seem like a daunting task.
It’s easier than you might think, however. With these five simple steps from Moving Help®, organizing your garage can be simple and satisfying. Here’s how to organize your garage.
1. Start With a Basic Clean
It always helps to start with a clean slate, and your garage is no different. Start by giving your garage a basic cleaning. Use large garbage bags to collect any trash or loose debris you find, dust off the shelves and large items in the garage, and sweep the floor.
It also might help to keep a basket or bucket on hand for collecting small parts or objects as you go. You can sort through these later — for now, just get them out of the way.
2. Categorize Your Belongings
With the garage a bit more tidied, you can begin separating your belongings into these three categories:
- Keep
- Donate
- Discard
How it works is simple.
The discard category is for items that you can throw away, like broken toys or sports equipment. The donate category is for belongings that are functional, yet you no longer need, like children’s clothes, old furniture, appliances, or tools. Finally, the keep category is for items you’re certain you want or need in the future.
If you’re not ready to start donating your belongings, you can simply label them for now. It also might help to create an inventory of everything in the garage and whether you plan on keeping, donating, or discarding it so you act accordingly in the future.
3. Organize the Garage Into Zones
With your space cleaned and your belongings categorized, you can start thinking about where you want these items to go.
We recommend creating zones in your garage for all your like items. For example, one corner is for sporting goods only, while a specific shelf is just for automotive supplies.
Zones can be as big or small as needed, and they don’t need to be so rigid. The main goal is everything ends up having a place to “live” in the garage that makes sense.
4. Get Creative With Storage Methods
There are plenty of ways to store items in your garage beyond the classic shelving options (though shelves are great too). What you have in your garage will determine the best type of storage methods for you. Here are some creative storage methods you may want to consider:
- Pegboards — Perfect for storing small, lightweight items like tools so they’re always at the ready and easy to access. An ideal solution if you have plenty of wall space.
- Overhead Racks — Utilize the vertical space in your garage and hang racks from the ceiling. Hang bicycles and store all kinds of items up and off the ground.
- Cabinets — Ideal for storing cleaning supplies, automotive fluids, and other potentially harmful chemicals that you don’t want near children or pets.
- Plastic Storage Containers – These versatile storage tools can be used for just about anything. Keep them in cabinets, on shelves, or on ceiling racks.
- Wall-Mounted Hooks — Another way to use your empty wall space is to employ wall-mounted hooks. Hang bikes, lawn tools, sporting equipment, and more.
5. Look Into Self-Storage
Truth be told, all the organizing in the world might not be enough depending on how much stuff and space you have to work with in your garage.
In these instances, self-storage might be the solution needed for you. A storage unit is great for keeping seldomly used items like holiday decorations and seasonal clothing out of the garage and instead in a safe, clean place nearby.
We have tips on how to pack a storage unit and what’s not allowed in a storage unit. Of course, you can always hire local Moving Help Service Providers to load or unload items out of your storage unit.
Need help organizing your garage? Moving Helpers can help by packing your belongings and moving them out of the garage and into a nearby storage unit.
