Let’s face it; maintaining a neat and orderly garage is tough. Clutter is bound to accumulate as your garage can become a convenient place to store items that are difficult to find homes for. Over time, it can make finding the things you need a little tougher, and make your garage look less organized than you would like.
Depending on how many items found their way into your garage, it might feel overwhelming to tackle a spring cleaning project - but it’s ultimately a worthwhile endeavor that will save you time and headaches in the future.
On top of all the clutter, you could even be tracking in mud and grass every time you step inside after doing yard work. A deep cleaning might be in order so that you can have peace of mind, knowing you are entering the spring season with freshly cleaned floors and dust-free surfaces.
Make an Initial Assessment
Before you start rifling through your garage and throwing out old tools without thinking, take a step back and look at all the things you have stored in your garage, and assess how much of it is clutter, unused, or unnecessary.
If it’s been a long time since you did any sort of spring cleaning in your garage, you might want to clear some time and set aside a Saturday afternoon to be as thorough as you can.
Get Rid of Stuff You Haven’t Used and Don’t Plan to Use
When spring cleaning, there are three categories you should put items in as you go through various parts of your house: keep, throw away, and donate. You can use containers and trash bags to sort as you go through your tool bench and storage areas.
If you have been telling yourself for years that a certain tool might come in handy one of these days, but you’ve never used it, odds are you don’t need it. Don’t be afraid to part with old items or items you feel guilty for not using a lot. For the sake of spring cleaning and decluttering, feel free to add the old fishing rod to the donation pile.
If you own multiples of an item, use your discretion as to whether it’s necessary to have more than one of it. Sometimes clutter is the reason you have more than you need of something. Your favorite electric screwdriver might’ve been lost in the pile of junk on your tool bench, so you went out and bought another because you thought you lost it.
It is truly gratifying to clean out a spot in your house that has been accumulating clutter over the years and your garage is likely to be a hotspot that is in desperate need of some spring cleaning to reveal items like these.
Utilize Shelves
Once you’ve narrowed down your storage areas to the essentials, it’s a good idea to start reorganizing your things in a way that makes sense to you. Similar items should be with similar items in order to make it quick and simple to find what you need. Depending on how much space you have in your garage, investing in some shelved storage units might be a great way to organize your belongings in a way that is clean and easy to access. Shelves are great for bigger items - like basketballs and footballs.
If you fish or enjoy hobbies that involve lots of small pieces, a bin with multiple drawers will allow you to be thorough with your organization. You can even go one step further and label each drawer appropriately so you don’t have to try to memorize which drawer has bobbers and which one has hooks.
Use Your Walls for Convenient and Efficient Storage
If shelves are simply not an option or you still have a number of things that need homes, you can look to your walls as an interesting way to store stuff.
For items like baseball bats and fishing poles, you can buy or make your own storage systems that display them in a visually appealing way. The days of throwing bats, rackets, and rods into an old trash can are over.
Most outdoor and sporting good stores sell racks that display your equipment in a visually appealing way, but if you’re interested in going down the DIY route, you can do something to make something for less than $25.
If you have a tool bench in your garage, you can apply this same principle to your tools. You can buy or make holders for your various screwdrivers and hammers and have them mounted on the wall. It’s an attractive way to remove clutter from your bench.
Clean Your Garage
Now that you’ve taken care of cleaning off your surfaces of excess clutter, you can focus your efforts on cleaning your floor and other heavily used surfaces that have likely built accumulated dirt and dust over time.
The first thing you should do is sweep out the garage floor to remove all of the dirt and leaves that have found their way in. Dust is going to build up over time and it’s important to take care of that as well.
You can then proceed with hosing down your garage floor. You should also use a cleaner in conjunction with the water in order to get a deeper clean.
Something that a lot of homeowners overlook is checking their garage door and opener to make sure it is functioning correctly. You’re going to want to inspect the door for any signs of rust or wear and tear that might be preventing the door from opening properly.
After you’ve finished cleaning your garage, it is safe to say your spring cleaning session is complete! You can be proud of the work you have done and all that you have accomplished. Not only have you made your garage a more efficient place to work and store your stuff, but you’ve also made it much cleaner in the process.