Donna's Place For Everything

With April showers bringing May flowers, what does May bring?  It brings long days of leaving your garage door open for the entire neighborhood to see.  Are you comfortable with this?  If not, here are a few tips to help your garage get in tip-top shape for these long open-door months ahead.

1. Take inventory and evaluate your space.  Pull all items out on the driveway and make 4 piles:  Keep, Trash, Donate and Garage Sale.  To help simplify and speed up this process, follow a few rules:
   • If it’s broken, cracked, rusted or dried up, toss it.
   • If you have not used it, seen it or missed it in 2 years, toss it.
   • If you touch anything and have to plug your nose, toss it.
   • If an item is no longer age appropriate, toss it.
2. Evaluate the space with the items in the “keep” pile and create a plan to reassemble your garage.  Draft your plan on paper and measure/mark the walls first before purchasing any storage units.  This will help ensure all items will fit within your space.
3. Store like items together.  Create zones i.e. gardening, sporting, carpentry tools, toys, etc.
4. Think “UP” in the garage.  Use valuable wall space to hang tools, bikes, wheel barrels, hoses, tennis rackets, shoes, etc.  Home improvement stores sell numerous organizational items such as hooks, racks, peg boards, cabinets and shelves.
5. No matter how neatly you stack or sort garage items, it still might appear as unsightly clutter to the human eye because there is no decorative design element.  I recommend cabinets with doors wherever possible.  When using open shelving, corral items in clear bins to keep small items from falling over.  This creates a “drawer-like” feel.
6. Invest in a vacuum cleaner specific for your garage and keep it accessible.  Your garage instantly feels less cluttered when the floor is swept and vacuumed regularly.  A fresh coat of paint on the walls also helps.  A durable door mat at the door is a must!  Keep grass and mulch out of the house!
7. Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!  In the Spring/Summer months it feels like it is raining shoes. “Flip-flops, sneakers and sandals, oh my!” Hang shoe racks or shelves in the garage to keep soiled shoes out of the house.  A large bin or milk crate can store a family of flip-flops.

Hope this helps and as always…happy organizing!!