How to Organize Your Garage:
Getting Started

Before you focus on how to organize your garage (or any room, for that matter!), it's so important to declutter first.

Seriously.

In my opinion, organizing before clearing out the clutter is like waxing the car before you have washed it.

In other words, it just doesn't make sense.

In fact, when you clear out the clutter first, organizing is pretty darn easy.

So get on some clothes you don't mind getting dirty, roll up your sleeves, and let's figure out how to organize your garage.

First, before you even start going through all of those dusty boxes, decide what you will do with the stuff you decide you aren't going to keep.

Will you be donating items, selling them, having a garage sale, or throwing them? Or maybe a combination of all of the above?

When you have decided up front what you will do with things you'll be getting rid of, you will also be less likely to get stuck half-way through and get frustrated and overwhelmed.

Most of the stuff that people store in their garage ends up there because they don't know what else to do with it. They aren't using most of that stuff regularly, otherwise it would likely be in the house, playing an active part of their lives.

Things that legitimately have a home in the garage are:

• your CAR :)
• tools (that you actually use)
• parts for the cars (the ones that you currently own, not parts for cars that you owned 10 years ago)
• bikes and related gear
• holiday decorations (that you DO use at the holidays)
• yard tools and equipment (again, that you USE)

If you find any of these things in your garage, they are probably clutter:

• lamps that you're not using
• boxes of clothes that don't fit
• boxes of anything that you haven't opened in a year or more
• furniture that doesn't quite work in your current home
• old lawn furniture
• anything broken that hasn't been fixed in over a year
• old phone books
• stationary bike you haven't used in a decade
• anything you can't remember what it is

In other words, most of the stuff people put in their garage is clutter. Figuring out how to organize your garage alone won't help much...but getting rid of a lot of the stuff first will!

Once you have cleared out what doesn't belong in your garage, the next step is to organize what's left.

The challenge with most garages is that they are usually wide open spaces...with lots of opportunity for disorganization and accumulation of junk.

I'm going to invite you to think of storage areas in your garage like your silverware drawer...with those little slots for forks, knives, and spoons. When you put away your flatware, you don’t have to think about where things go, do you? They go in their little slots.

Imagine how to organize your garage the same way you see your silverware drawer: tools, garden implements, sporting equipment, and so on.

1. Sort your things first and group similar items together
2. Create a ‘home’ for everything...because if it doesn’t have a home, it WILL get messy and unorganized fast
3. Now you can go out and get organizers – bins, hanging racks, shelves – whatever you need to make the space really function well for you.

Now let's take how to organize your garage in bite-sized pieces...


And when you're ready, move on to Organizing Your Garage:  Car Supplies.

For more information about the steps to clear out and organize your garage:

Organizing Car Supplies
Organizing Gardening Supplies
Organizing Trash and Recycling
Organizing Holiday Decorations
Organizing Bikes, Helmets, and Gear
Organizing Sporting Equipment
Organizing Painting Supplies
Organizing Tools
Organizing Brooms, Snow Shovels, and Maintenance Supplies
Organizing Camping and Fishing Gear
Organizing Miscellanous "Stuff"

For more information about garage storage:

Garage Organizing Systems
Garage Wall Storage
Garage Tool Box Organizers
Garage Tool Organizers
Garden Tool Organizers
Garage Shelves and Racks

For more information about outdoor storage:

Outdoor Storage Benches, Cabinets, and Boxes

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