Garages allow things like old sporting equipment, tools that have been long-forgotten, old kids’ toys, half-complete DIY projects, rusty car parts, storage boxes, and more to hang around like a bad cold. This is another challenging space to declutter – challenging, but not impossible! From my experience, this is where most of the items that make you think you might use or need one day end up. I’ve got news for you: If you haven’t used it in the past five years, the chances are high you will never use or need it.
The following pointers will help you declutter your garage so you can actually use it for parking a car or two. We recommend planning this project for a weekend with good weather so you can pull EVERYTHING out and sort through it before putting anything back in.
Tips for Decluttering Your Garage
- Take everything out. There may be a few extreme cases where this isn’t possible, but you will have the most success if you start by completely clearing out your garage space.
- Sort through your finds, putting like things together. This is the most important step as you work to free up some space in your garage. Put all of the tools together, the sporting equipment together, the gardening tools, the hardware etc. But don’t put them back in the garage yet.
- Purge. If you have duplicates that you don’t expect to use in the next five years, get rid of them! If you are holding on to worn or damaged anything, you should probably say goodbye to it too. That one tool, that did only one thing that one time – sell it or give it to a friend.
- Organize. After you have sorted through all of the items in your garage and decided on the things you are going to keep, you need to plan how you intend to store everything to maximize your space. This may require purchasing more storage bins, a tool cabinet or pegboard. You may also need to install some sturdy shelving. When possible, try to create storage space in your garage that is up and off the ground to maximize space. Be sure to clearly label everything to identify the contents, so you can find things easily later. Check out this post for more garage storage ideas.
- Rent extra storage space. This garage decluttering tip may feel like cheating, but it’s a very practical move. If you still have a lot of items you want to keep after decluttering your garage, but don’t have the space for them, consider moving some things to a local storage unit to free up space around your house.
PART 3: How to Declutter Your Home for Good
Trust me, after you spend the time removing clutter from your house, it will be easy to let it back in due to all the excess room!
“Make a commitment to yourself that once an area is decluttered, it will no longer become storage space for stuff you don’t know where to put. For example, after you clean out the entry closet, you can’t come across a broken item in the entertainment center and move it to the entry closet—that’s not decluttering; that’s simply rearranging junk!”Davonne Parks, author of Chaos to Clutter-Free and www.davonneparks.com
Prevent the clutter in your home from returning in the future with these four simple tips:
- Don’t allow potential clutter into the house in the first place: Before you purchase or acquire anything new, ask yourself, “Do I really need it?” and “Where will I keep it?” If you don’t have an immediate answer to those two questions, don’t bring it home.
- Declutter a little each day: Deal with mail, clothes, toys and other common clutter a little each day. Set aside 20 minutes a day and you’ll avoid having to find hours to clean up messes in the future. If you build this time into your daily routine, you are likely to have greater success. If daily isn’t doable, plan a weekly declutter sweep and be sure to give yourself enough time.
- Use the one in, one out rule: Whenever you bring something new home, you have to throw out or donate something else. You can even implement this room-by-room – it will make you think about where you will keep this new thing.
- Don’t buy. Rent or borrow: If you need something only once in a blue moon, consider renting or borrowing it. When it comes to books and video, the library is a great resource, or you can opt for digital versions, which take up far less space!
“Be okay with imperfection. Don’t let perfect become the enemy of better. The first time you go through your home, you won’t remove all the clutter. But you will make progress. In just a few short weeks (or even days), you will begin to feel different about your home. You will enjoy it more—as if a burden has been lifted from your shoulders. It won’t be perfect, but it will be better. And that’s the best any of us can hope for in this life.”