5 Steps for Creating a Garage You Can Love – and UseBy Barbara
Hemphill
A major US corporation recently launched a new line of products it hopes
will create a $650 million retail business – appliances and storage
devices designed to appeal to the 65 million garage owners in the U.S!
According to a 1994 study by the U.S. Department of Energy (and we won’t
even explore what launched that study!), 25% of people with two-car
garages didn’t park any cars in them and 32% parked only one. When it
came to three-car garages, only 13% parked three cars. . So, if we don’t
park cars in our garages, what do we use them for?
Based on nearly twenty-five years of assisting our clients in organizing
homes and offices in North America, I can attest to the fact that a
large percentage of garage owners consider their garage a convenient
on-site storage facility, or major irritation, often an embarrassment.
Not because of the age or condition of the car parked there, but because
of the clutter – frequently moved from one garage to another.
One of the major principles of our company is Clutter is Postponed
Decisions® -- and what better place to store postponed decisions than a
garage? So how do you get rid of the clutter? Consider these five tips:
1) Design your vision. Create in your mind a picture of how the garage
would look if you got rid of the clutter. If that’s impossible for you,
think of how you would feel if you could actually park your car in the
garage? Perhaps you could allow houseguests to get directly into your
car in the garage without driving it to the front door in order to avoid
their seeing the ness. Or, maybe you could find the barbeque utensils
you need in a few seconds instead of having to buy new ones!
2) Eliminate your excuses. Disorganization can range from circumstantial
to chronic. It doesn’t really matter what caused the mess – they may
very well be legitimate. The question is how much longer are you willing
to put up with the situation? If you can’t do it yourself, resolve to
get help. After hiring us to help him clean up his garage, a client
said, “I can’t believe I drove into my garage every day for three years
chastising myself that I hadn’t done anything with all that clutter. For
a few hundred dollars, it was done – and I didn’t even have to do it. I
wonder what took me so long?”
3) Commit your time. Decide when you will get started on solving the
problem. A client recently hired us to clean her garage. When it was
over she commented, “That was a lot different that I thought it would
be.” “How?” I asked. “For one thing,” she replied, “I thought it would
take four weekends.” We were done in six hours. The first and simplest
step is to identify a specific place to put the items you find that you
no longer need or want. (Donating unused but useable items to a local
charity, selling them on e-Bay, or having a garage sale, if you’re into
such things, will not only make you feel better, it can even earn or
save you money.
4) Select your tools. Choose the right tools for what you want to store.
Two of the most effective solutions in a garage are shelving and hooks.
They don’t have to be costly to be functional, but if you dream of
having a garage that is aesthetically pleasing, there are a variety of
attractive and function options. In order to determine what size of
storage units you need, use the most basic or organizing principles:
Group like items together. Then determine if you really need or want
that many empty boxes, garden tools you never use, or appliances you
never really liked anyway. Check out organizing, discount, hardware, and
home and garden stores and catalogs of an amazing variety of equipment.
5) Maintain your success. That old adage “A place for everything and
everything in it’s place” sounds admirable, but for most of us, it’s
just impossible. In the rush of everyday living, things just get messy –
and that includes garages. But if there IS a place for everything,
cleaning it up presents no major challenges, and getting other members
of the family to help is easier too!
Picture your garage as a place you can love – and even park your car.
Imagine that!
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