{"id":21174,"date":"2020-12-08T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/website-design-cheltenham.co.uk\/garage-shelving\/2015\/04\/02\/is-it-time-to-organise-your-garage\/"},"modified":"2021-02-19T16:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T16:39:22","slug":"is-it-time-to-organise-your-garage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174","title":{"rendered":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0Assess, Analyze and Prioritize<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the biggest problems you may encounter when you organize your garage (or any space that\u2019s cluttered) is that there is no plan for the space. Folks fail to take time to analyze and visualize the space to figure out how they want it to function. What is your priority for your garage? To park your car (one of your biggest investments)? \u00a0To have a workspace? To store seasonal items and sporting equipment? \u00a0Or maybe all of the above? \u00a0Well, you might be able to have all of that if you just take a moment and prioritize how you want to use the space. With your priorities in line, you\u2019ll have an easier time purging and organizing the space because you\u2019ll be able to determine what belongs in the space and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Clear The Space<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You\u2019ll need to start with a clean slate. \u00a0Get a couple of tarps and blankets to place your items on and lay them in an open area like the driveway or lawn. \u00a0Once everything is out, be sure sweep and wash down the floors and walls.<\/p>\n

NOTE: This may be a great opportunity to paint the walls and stain your concrete floor. \u00a0It\u2019ll give your space a fresh, clean, new look.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Sort By Putting Like Items With Like Items<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As you pull things out of the garage, gather all of your sporting equipment together in one spot, then your tools, lawn gear, camping gear, decorations and so on. \u00a0You can even get down to the itty bitty nails and screws\u2026sort these out as well (this might be a good task for an older child to do for you). \u00a0Sorting like items with like items may seem like a \u201cno-brainer\u201d but it is a\u00a0key\u00a0<\/em>step in the organization process not only when you are sorting but when putting things back into their established zones.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Start Purging!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Be ruthless in this step. \u00a0Try to commit to getting rid of 50% of the stuff in your space. \u00a0Even if you don\u2019t get rid of that much, making the effort will go a long way. \u00a0To purge, start by making four piles:\u00a0keep, donate, trash, recycle<\/strong>.\u00a0As you purge, place each item into its respective category. \u00a0Get\u00a0rid of anything that is broken or things you haven\u2019t used in over a year. \u00a0Return items that don\u2019t belong to you or belong somewhere else other than the garage. \u00a0Get rid of duplicates. \u00a0Remember\u2026you\u2019re trying to\u00a0organize<\/em>\u00a0your garage\u2026how many hammers, screws, brooms, basketballs, bats and rakes do you really need? If you\u2019re having trouble getting rid of stuff remember to ask yourself these questions: \u00a0Do I love it? \u00a0Do I use it? \u00a0Have I used it in the last year? Do I really need it? \u00a0If not\u2026put them in the donate, trash or recycle piles. \u00a0Donating items is a wonderful thing because you\u2019re giving someone else the chance to enjoy and appreciate your items.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Take Inventory of What You Have Then Map Out Your Space and Create Zones<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Now that you\u2019ve cut down all of your stuff, take inventory of what you have that way you\u2019ll have a better of idea of what organizational items you can work with or what you\u2019ll need to purchase. \u00a0NEVER purchase organizational products before you\u2019ve purged\u2026it\u2019ll save you time, money and frustration. \u00a0Now, map out the space. \u00a0Draw it out on paper or use masking tape to mark off outlines of the different spaces\/work zones. \u00a0You can mark off the spot reserved for your car, heavy duty shelving, paint and hazardous material cabinet, sports equipment, lawn care supplies, tools shed or workbench and bike\/recreational equipment. \u00a0Don\u2019t forget to go vertical and overhead. \u00a0Consider your walls to hang items or install shelving. \u00a0And what about the ceiling? \u00a0You may be able to put plywood boards along rafters to store seasonal or seldom used items. \u00a0Also think about convenience and frequency of use. \u00a0For example, you probably want a trashcan near the driver\u2019s side door of your parked car so that you can easily throw away items. \u00a0Or place your recycling bins next to the door leading into the house to make it easy to toss items into them. \u00a0Or how about hanging \/parking the bikes near the garage door so it\u2019s easier for the kids to grab their bikes and go!<\/p>\n

\"Garage\"\"<\/p>\n

NOTE: \u00a0At this point, if you don\u2019t think you\u2019ll have enough space for all of your zones, you may need to go back and purge some more. \u00a0Just remember your priorities and stay focused on creating a useable and functional garage!<\/em><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Determine Your Organizational Supplies<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Now that you\u2019ve mapped out your zones, gather your supplies. \u00a0Use large trash cans to store rakes, shovels and brooms upright. \u00a0You can also use a large trash can to store sporting equipment like, skateboards, balls, bats and gloves. Use pegboards to hang tools. \u00a0Use large hooks mounted to studs in the wall or ceiling to hang bicycles and extension cords. \u00a0Consider getting a cabinet with locking doors to store paint, chemicals, cleaning supplies and any other hazardous materials. \u00a0Get some solid wood or metal shelves to store heavy equipment and storage bins. \u00a0Use clear plastic containers to store like items (this makes it easier for you to see what\u2019s in the container). \u00a0Consider a rolling tool rack\/cabinet to transport supplies while keeping them organized. Use glass jars or small plastic containers to keep nails, screws, nuts, hooks, and washers organized. \u00a0Use tin cans to store paint brushes or screwdrivers. \u00a0Get a door mat to dust of shoes before entering the house. \u00a0And get a label maker! Labels will help you organize your \u201cstuff\u201d like never before! When you organize your garage, you organize your DIY project workflow, which makes things LOTS easier!<\/p>\n

\u00a0And finally\u2026<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Put Everything Away In Its Proper Zone and Label Everything You Can!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is the fun part because the finish line is in sight! \u00a0Start putting things away in their designated zone and start labeling. \u00a0I am a huge fan of label makers. \u00a0It just makes it easier to find and put things away. \u00a0Label makers are great for labeling cords, containers, drawers, boxes and shelves. \u00a0If you don\u2019t have a label maker, use masking tape or duct tape and a permanent marker. \u00a0Be sure to label the front and sides of storage bins so you\u2019ll be able to read them no matter which way you face them. \u00a0The ideas are endless when it comes to labeling. \u00a0You may want to check out my post on\u00a0label makers. \u00a0The bottom line, label as much as you can..it is another very important element to organizing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0Assess, Analyze and Prioritize One of the biggest problems you may encounter when you organize your garage (or any space that\u2019s cluttered)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":998,"featured_media":47588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2980],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nIs It Time To Organise Your Garage? - Garage Shelving<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage? - Garage Shelving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"1.\u00a0Assess, Analyze and Prioritize One of the biggest problems you may encounter when you organize your garage (or any space that\u2019s cluttered)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Garage Shelving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-08T16:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-19T16:39:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"413\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Marney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Marney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage? - Garage Shelving","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage? - Garage Shelving","og_description":"1.\u00a0Assess, Analyze and Prioritize One of the biggest problems you may encounter when you organize your garage (or any space that\u2019s cluttered)","og_url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174","og_site_name":"Garage Shelving","article_published_time":"2020-12-08T16:38:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-19T16:39:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris Marney","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Marney","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174"},"author":{"name":"Chris Marney","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/51e1710bbea2c652f097b67115b73bae"},"headline":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage?","datePublished":"2020-12-08T16:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-19T16:39:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174"},"wordCount":1148,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174","url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174","name":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage? - Garage Shelving","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-08T16:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-19T16:39:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/51e1710bbea2c652f097b67115b73bae"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Garage_Clutter_0.jpg","width":620,"height":413},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?p=21174#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is It Time To Organise Your Garage?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/","name":"Garage Shelving","description":"Shelving, Racking & Workplace Storage Solutions","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/51e1710bbea2c652f097b67115b73bae","name":"Chris Marney","url":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/?author=998"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/998"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garage-shelving.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}