Garage Fall Cleaning

Garage doors and the rest of your garage go hand-in-hand. In order to truly appreciate all of the wonderful things that a garage door and automatic garage door opener provide you you need to be using your garage relatively often. When using your garage door for things like a workshop, self storage and the ever popular car storage things tend to get a little hectic. Inevitably things that you only meant to store in the garage for a day or two end up spending months or years in some corner and things get piled on top of one another before you know it. You never mean for this sort of thing to happen, and you have the best of intentions to use that bread maker you got more often, but for now it just seems like the best place for it is the garage for now. With fall having just technically started it is a better time than ever to take this opportunity to get your garage in order so that you can truly make the most of your garage, garage door, and maybe even of the new season. You may have heard of spring cleaning, but I am sure many of us decided to put off that garage project in favor of just cleaning up the rest of the house, so now is your chance. The garage, much like your attic or basement, can quickly go from an organized warehouse of sorts to a mess that seems like it could takes weeks to fix. It is a slippery slope and there is no better time than the present to get things in order so that you don’t have to dread the opening of your garage door every day after work. In this article we will go through a few tips to making the most out of your garage’s space, but if you have any of your own tricks or tips don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.

The first tip that I think should probably be relatively self explanatory is have a system and stick to it. Whether your system is that you have things that stay in the garage for fall and winter that are exchanged with your summer and spring things last the end of the seasons or if you use the things that make up your garage and then put them back straight away into their place it is important to have a system. Your system doesn’t have to have color coordinated boxes that coincide with family members and their month of use, but it has to be a system that makes sense to you and that you can stick to. The plastic bins that they sell at a lot of hardware stores or grocery stores are a great way to organize your garage and give yourself a system. These will also keep your things safe from most pests like insects and rodents while keeping them dry. The only problem with these is that they can sometimes end up taking up more space than expected making you box things up together that are not really intuitively in the same category. Whatever sorting system you use make sure that it doesn’t allow for things to go months without being used while they collect dust and get pushed further into your garage. If you can try and make everything accessible without having to move other boxes through he use of shelves so that things stay in their place more easily and can be found more easily. This will mean that going into the garage to get something is closer to a five minute chore than a 20 minute one full of mutterings and frustration. When thinking up a garage organization system that will work for you try be aware of your space restrictions and give things each their own spot so that you won’t be tempted to put more and more things into the garage that might disrupt your system.

One way to keep your garage organized is to have less in it. Obviously there is a reason you are keeping all of the things stacked up in your garage, or at least there was when they were put there. If you haven’t gone through your garage in a long time you may find yourself thinking about having a garage sale or simply throwing things out. If you are tempted to do these make sure that you designate a pile of things to donate to a local charity, that way you can feel even better about cleaning up your garage. Most of the things that have slowly made their way to the back of your garage are probably going to be things that you thought you needed to save months or years ago but now can’t even remember purchasing. In most cases the easiest thing to do is to set a time limit for how long something gets to stay in your garage without being used before it gets put on the chopping block. More expensive things may get a bit more time, but remember if you aren’t using the things in your garage you might just be able to use the money that you could get to from selling them.

Another way to make sure that your garage becomes and stays organized is to focus on the places that can’t have things stored in them and work around them. Where your garage door is, your car is, and the poor to your home are all places that really shouldn’t have things piled up around them. These spaces need walkways to get through them, to allow your garage door to open and to allow your car a place to sit. Without all of this your garage pretty quickly becomes extremely useless when compared to other garages. For a garage to work you have to have walkways to your door, your car, and your garage door at a minimum otherwise you are really losing a fair bit of functionality as far as your garage goes. An easy way to plan out your garage to make sure that you have adequate room to maneuver yourself and your car is to make a quick sketch or drawing of your space, your car and your things.

These previous tips and tricks have all been with the average two car garage owner who uses it simply to store a few things in addition to their cars. However, many garage owners use their garage for more than just car storage and instead use it as a type of workshop. This can make things even harder when it comes to organizing because things are usually works in progress and need a great deal of accessibility and maneuverability around them. If you have a garage workspace you may very well hear yourself cursing at the clutter, but not really knowing where to start in order to take back your workplace from all of the stuff. Having a workspace in your garage has a bevy of benefits, like being able to do work at nearly any moment of the day and having zero commute if it is your source of employment. However, these benefits obviously come with some drawbacks, especially if your garage tends to get disorganized quickly. Disorganization can quickly spread from your storage spaces to your work space resulting in a whole less productivity and a lot harder of a job. 

If you have a workspace in your garage and still use it for storage purposes as well you are going to have a tough time separating the two, but it is very important to have a clear distinction between your work area and the storage area for your home or you will be constantly sidetracked by cleaning and organizational efforts. If your garage is relatively disorganized you may need to focus on both at the same time in order to separate the two, but in the future you will be able to really just focus on the worst part of your garage and leave the other portion for another day. If you are the only one who uses your garage workspace or another family member is the sole user of the space make sure that they re able to keep the space clean and organized on their own so that in the future they can do their own cleaning and organizational maintenance so that things don’t overflow into the rest of your garage.

Getting your garage organized so that it can be easily cleaned is something that could take all day or even multiple days if things are really bad. You won’t regret putting the time in though because it will make your life loads easier in the future and you will most likely be able to get a lot more usage out of your garage and the things stored in your garage if they are more accessible. With the change of the seasons it is a perfect time to put in the work and get a system in order that will keep your garage clean and usable for the years to come. Having a clean and relatively orderly garage will also help keep debris from getting into your garage door opener’s workings and will make having somebody come out to do some garage door work for you a lot easier and a lot less embarrassing, so if you haven’t started yet get to planning what your dream garage will look like on the inside and see how you can make it happen.