Did you know that some of the greatest modern accomplishments have all been born in the same room of the house? Joey Ramone, Silicone Valley moguls, and countless entrepreneurs all have this one inspirational room in common- the garage. Is your garage inspirational? Can you park in it, can you find your tools? Watch this video for tips on organizing and inspirationalizing this often forgotten space. You will be one step closer to your own garage innovation.
(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/tcdshelf.)
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and online program. I’m standing here in my garage where I just installed these great garage shelves, and I thought I would share some tips about organizing your garage because it can be one of the most difficult areas to organize in the entire house.
We talk about clutter being delayed decisions and delayed actions. What happens is, you’ve got these objects inside the house and you’ve delayed the decisions about these objects to the point that they’ve marched themselves out into your garage, just waiting around in a clutter cemetery, waiting for you to have some kind of day of reckoning. By the time you get out here to do that, it is a very difficult decision, because you have already not been able to decide this for a while.
Why not clear the path for those difficult decisions by answering a few questions and deciding a few things up front about the project itself and make the whole thing easier so that you can focus on those objects and deciding about them. I’m going to share three big things to ask yourself and decide before starting your organizing project in the garage.
First think about your storage. A great question to ask yourself is, “Do I want shelving, or do I want cabinets?” I chose shelving so I can have the adjustability and versatility that shelving provides. These are the ClosetMaid heavy duty maximum load garage shelving pieces. I can reconfigure these however I want. Add shelves, move them around, there are hooks that I can add, and they’re easy to install. I was able to put this in and then I can change my mind. In a previous house, I had a wall where I knew where I wanted things to be and I had a permanent plan for the garage, and I put in cabinets. And ClosetMaid has cabinet options too. That can be great, because you want to have a nice, streamlined look in your garage. If you’re going to do shelving, make sure that you get 16-inch shelves whenever possible. Big things like coolers or large storage tubs, don’t fit very well on a 12-inch shelf, and they’ll hang over.
Look at how you’re using your vertical space, like shelves and cabinets, but also any place that you can fit a hook or that you can have any other way to mount something on the wall or the ceiling. I have these ceiling wall hooks that you can use. You can hang a bike, a ladder, extension cords with these things.
The second thing is about your time and resources. Allow plenty of time for a garage project. Probably more than you think. Allow a time when you don’t have any chance for rain, either that day or even the next day. You might want to have tarps available to have things that you’ve sorted out into the driveway covered up overnight, for a little bit of protection. Also, make sure that you have your disposal plan all figured out. Where are you going to donate? Hopefully to Goodwill. Where are you going to take things if they require junk removal or if you have a junk removal service come and get them? What day is your garbage pickup and what things do they accept?
Think through the functions of your garage. Anything that you have as a hobby like fishing, golf, woodworking where you might need a workbench. Any other kinds of functions, like I have this little car-washing center here with my water hose and car-washing towels. Think about any of those functions and make zones for those functions to happen in your garage.
If you want to find out about these great ClosetMaid shelves or the cabinets they have, go to closetmaid.com, you can also visit Home Depot to see these in person or pick them up. And you can find out more about all of these garage tips that I have on our YouTube channel, at http://www.clutterdiet.tv.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
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