Finishing Up The Garage Declutter

 

Everything I have or will be bringing into my house needs to have a home because without that it just becomes stuff.  That includes the garage too.  Without a place to store our items we end up with clutter and chaos making it more difficult to do what we like to do.  We struggle to find what we need when we take on a project.  We can’t keep an inventory of what we actually have on hand so we end up buying more we didn't need.  Working in this way and living in chaos adds stress and anxiety to our daily lives.  My goal is to always work to improve my quality of life.  Regularly cleaning, maintaining and organizing my home is one of those ways I can improve my quality of life.  I want to enjoy going out to the garage, not dread it.

 

When my BFF was here during my staycation we were able to make a good dent in decluttering my garage. I got rid of a bunch of stuff I definitely did not need like a ton of cardboard boxes I had been saving just in case I needed “a good box”.  There may have been an eyeroll from someone.  I filled up my recycling wheelie bin and set it at the curb for collection.  After it was emptied I ended up filling it up a second time.  I gathered up all of the donations I had collected and got that pile dropped off at the thrift store.  I also dropped off the glass recycling.

 

Getting better

I later went out there to clean and reorganize the shelves I had decluttered.  I like to have like items with like, that is what makes the most sense to me when I am organizing.  When I was finished I was thrilled to see some open spaces.  Things were no longer jam packed.  When I have too much stuff and not enough room to store it I tend to get frustrated because I knock things off the shelves when I’m moving stuff around to get to what I need.  I had eliminated the potential for this to be a problem anymore.  Yippee!

 

Love this!  So much nicer! 😀

I ended up moving that green extension cord

A week later I made it back out there to work on the other side where I have a set of shelves that hold all of my supplies for my vehicles, the yard and garden, the house as well as all of my power tools.  After decluttering and clearing the shelves I wiped them down and then put everything back on placing like items together.  All of my supplies for taking care of my vehicles are on one shelf.  The yard and garden supplies and bug sprays now sit together on another.

 

I decided to eliminate the big bin I kept my power tools in because it had become too heavy and was getting difficult to get on and off the shelf.  Instead I emptied it out finding five worn out blades for my reciprocal saw at the bottom.  I have no idea why I saved those.  After tossing those out I placed the tools on the shelf next to my miter saw so I now have them all on one shelf and easy to access.

 

The vacuum cleaner now has a place to live on the bottom shelf.  The power washer sits next to it and on the wall right next to the shelf I installed a bracket to hold the wand and hose for the power washer.  Bungi cords become a tangled mess so I hung them up on the side of the shelf so that won’t happen anymore.  My step stool has a home when it is folded and not in use.  It now sits in between the shelf unit and the deep freezer.

 

Everything has a home

The front corner where I hang my yard tools was nice, but it could be nicer.  With a little rearranging and a few more brackets I was able to better organize them so it is much easier to access them without knocking others around or off onto the floor.  No one needs to get hit in the head with a shovel.  Well, maybe someone does, but it isn't me.  Anyway, everything has a home there too.  

 

After a break to hydrate and have a bite to eat I went back out to the garage to attack the top shelf where, yes I hate to admit it, I had more empty cardboard boxes.  For the third time I filled the recycle wheelie bin with broken down boxes.  The shelf is now empty except for one box filled with the empty flats I keep my empty canning jars in.  I’m good with that.

 

Before

Wow!

And with that my garage is officially done.  Moving forward I am going to really work hard to keep things neat, clean and tidy and not allow it to become a dumping ground out there or a place to hoard things I don’t need.  In fact, I’m hoping as time goes on to declutter more items and embrace the open spaces I create in the process.