Vol. 4 No. 5 April 2008

Welcome

It’s spring! It’s spring! Yippee-yahoo! Do you have spring organizing fever? I sure do! What is it about this time of year that just makes us want to get things in order?

Recently I organized and spring-cleaned my garage and it felt so good! Plus, I’ve been organizing garages for clients as of late. So I guess I have garages on the brain. If the garage is on your radar screen, too, you’re in luck! This month’s article is all about getting the garage in order. I hope you enjoy.

Speaking of garages, if you haven’t visited my blog in a while you’re missing a lively discussion on garage sales: is it a good idea to have one or not? If you’re considering holding a garage sale this spring, be sure to give this post a look first. Then, decide what’s best for you.

So…it’s been a long, long winter, but here at simplify 101, just like in nature, there’s something fresh and new on the horizon. We’re just days away from a really exciting announcement. Be sure to keep your eyes on your in box so you’ll be the first to know what we’ve put together and how it’s going to help you on your organizing journey. It’s a whole new way to get organized and you’re going to absolutely love it!

Alright…that’s it for now. I hope you enjoy your spring cleaning endeavors as much as I’m enjoying mine!

Happy organizing!

Simple Tips to Organize Your Garage
By Aby Garvey

Spring is in the air and you know what that means: it’s time to organize the garage! And while this may not be up there on your list of oh-so-inspiring organizing projects, it truly is exhilarating to pull your car into a neat and tidy garage at the end of a long day. So, let’s get busy and get your garage in ship-shape. Ready?

Why Start in the Garage?
Admittedly there are more inspiring spaces in the home to organize. But an organized garage goes a long way to setting the organizational foundation for the rest of your home. Here’s why. If your garage is a primary long-term storage area in your home, it’s probably filled with items you haven’t seen or used for years. (Did I call that one right?) This is the low hanging fruit of organizing: items that are easy to let go of and create more space to store other things that may be lingering inside your home. Your garage may also be storage central for key activities in your life like sports gear, lawn products, and car care items. Plus, your garage is (or probably should be) the home to your second most valuable asset: your car! Having a place for your car and your car in its place…well that’s called protecting your investments.

So now that you’re super motivated to organize your garage…what next?

Take a Lay of the Land:
As with any organizing project, start by stepping back and assessing what’s going on:

1. Which storage solutions and organizing systems in your garage are working well for you?
2. Which systems need a complete overhaul?
3. Which items in your garage are no longer used, needed or loved? Think in terms of activities you once enjoyed but no longer partake in. Our interests change with time and the garage can be a vivid reminder of this fact.

Let It Go:
At this point, you’re motivated to organize your garage and you also have a good feel for the changes you’d like to make. Now it’s time to let it go…literally. Go through the stuff in your garage and decide which items should stay (because you use, need or love them) and which ones it’s time to kick to the curb. Then, start kicking!

Create Zones:
As you identify items you’d like to keep (because you use, need or love them) group like items together. This will allow you to create zones or areas in your garage that house everything needed for a particular activity.

Here are some examples of common garage zones:

1. Grab-and-go: insect repellant, sunscreen, lip balm, hand sanitizer, umbrellas, and other items you need regularly when you’re out and about.
2. Outdoor play: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, flashlights (for flashlight tag) and firefly jars.
3. Outdoor entertaining / relaxing: folding chairs, coolers, vinyl table cloths, picnic gear, etc.
4. Lawn care: lawn mower, trimmer, oils and gasoline for the mower, fertilizers, and so on.
5. Car care: car washing items like buckets, sponges, soap, towels, as well as extra antifreeze, windshield wiper blades, wiper fluid, etc.
6. Gardening: gardening gloves, trowels, shovels, rakes, potting soil, pots, garden clogs, etc.
7. Out of Season: sleds, snow boots, and other winter-weather gear.
8. Trash and recycling center: establish a bin for all your recyclables and carve out an area close to the door to make recycling a breeze! Don’t forget to include a place to corral all recyclable items like plastic shopping bags, newspapers, cardboard, glass and plastic.
9. Long-term Storage: if your garage is your primary, long term storage area, group your storage items together in a centralized area of your garage. Separate storage items from those things you use regularly throughout the year. Use less-easy-to-access storage for your long term storage items.
10. Sports: create a zone for all of your family’s favorite sporting activities. Store everything needed for each sport including helmets and other safety gear all together in a single area.
11. Tools: create a tool station complete with the consumable items used for each type of job. Hammers with nails; screws with screw drivers; etc.

Establishing zones in your garage will make it a breeze to find what you’re looking for and put things away when you’re done.

Invest in Smart Storage:
The garage has definitely gone fancy in terms of storage and organization options…there are a lot of high-end cabinets and activity-specific storage solutions out there. If your interests change frequently or you have young children whose interests may change, or these high end storage solutions don’t fit your budget, you may prefer to do what I do: use readily available, flexible storage items that will continue to work as your interests and storage needs change. Here are a few of my favorites:

Shelves:
These plastic shelves are a terrific solution for the garage. They’re sturdy yet lightweight and easy to set up. Plus, the larger unit is sized to hold storage bins. An added bonus!

Bins:
My all-time favorite bins come without lids. These work great for often used items in your garage like sports gear, car care items, or insect sprays.

5-gallon paint buckets:
At $5 a pop these plastic buckets can corral all sorts of unruly gear…like tennis balls, baseballs, and the corresponding rackets and bats. Or use a bucket to hold car washing essentials.

Add Flexible Labeling:
Labeling your garage storage containers and shelves will remind you what goes where. This will help keep your zones (and the efforts of your garage organizing project!) in tact in the months ahead. Storage bin labels allow you to create easy to read labels that can be easily changed when your interests and / or storage needs evolve.

Create an Overflow:
If your garage is anything like mine, it worked fine back in the days of tiny sports cars and no kids. When we added two kids and two sets of everything that goes along with them—bikes, bike helmets, tennis rackets, baseball gloves, sleds, lawn chairs, etc.—plus upsized our cars to accommodate our expanded family, well, our garage certainly felt the squeeze. A few years ago, after tiring of tripping on scooters, skate boards and lawn spreaders, we decided it was time to create a storage overflow. For a minimal investment (all things considered) we added much needed storage space and invaluable peace of mind. The storage shed, which resides in the back yard, stores infrequently used gardening items and things used only in the back yard…like the hammock.

That reminds me…my hammock is calling. But I’m confident you can take it from here. Good luck with your garage organizing project. You’ll be so glad you did it!

Create a Bucket Full of Clean.
Corral basic cleaning supplies and tools into a large galvanized bucket or plastic supply caddy. Stash basics like dust cloths and dusting sprays, surface cleaners and wash cloths, window cleaners and even toilet cleaning essentials together in a handled carrying container. Then, when cleaning day rolls around, simply carry your bucket from room to room for a quick and easy cleaning session! *Important* remember to store all cleaning supplies out of the reach of young children.

For more fun ideas for using buckets to organize, visit this post on my blog.