Clean Out & Organize Your Garage in 4 Easy Steps

Many of us ignore the garage when we're cleaning the whole house. This overlooked space in our home is usually a storage dump for all sorts of items that we then forget about for months. But, with every inch of the garage piling up with unused items, where do you even start? Get to work with these steps, and you won't even recognize the garage considering how organized it'll look!

Throw the Garbage Away 

The first step is to throw away all the garbage accumulated in the garage, and this garbage can vary from piles of empty cartons to rusty old tools. Anything that isn't of actual value to you, you'll have to discard it. Ask yourself whether the things you've kept in the garage are useful or not. Think about the last time you used that specific item. If it's something that you haven’t used in ages and don’t intend to use in the near future, add it to the trash pile. 

Now, Deal with the Trash 

There are several ways in which you can deal with this trash pile. You can either donate these items to a needy person you know or stumble across, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". You can sell everything in this trash pile for a hefty sum. Surf Craigslist, Freecycle, or eBay, and you'll be amazed to see how badly someone wants to buy what you were just about to discard. You can even rent a dumpster and toss the whole pile in there if you don't prefer donating or selling it. If the stuff you're throwing away isn't much, a couple of pickup truck loads will do the trick. 

Organize What’s Left

Another way to make your garage look clean is to organize whatever's left in an orderly manner. A haphazard arrangement of items not only takes up more space but is something you'd never want to lay eyes on again. 

• What Should You Keep - Before we jump on tips on organizing the leftovers, you’ll first need to know what stays in the garage. Keep a rule of three while dealing with such a situation. Firstly, you can only keep things which you've used at least once in the past year. Secondly, anything that's broken and you've thought of fixing a dozen times but haven't been able to, can't be a part of your clean garage. Thirdly, ensure you keep stuff that is hard to buy or rent as it can prove to be valuable in the time of need. 

• How to Organize Your Stuff - Just like your home, make sure you arrange your garage items in an organized and systematic manner. Install shelves, hang a pegboard on the wall, and set up storage baskets around the place. Put things that are frequently-used in places that aren't too hard to access. Hang your golf bags and gardening tools on the wall. Use the bins for the items that are least used and keep the lid on the bins. 

Perform a Deep Clean

Your garage can have various types of stains. There can be mud and dust in the corners, and the walls can be a host to mold and old cobwebs. So, the best way is to start from the top and end at the bottom. Sweep the whole place, including the walls, and use a vacuum cleaner. Later, scrub the ground with a floor cleaner to get the stains out. Also, use an effective disinfectant starter kit to wipe down all the surfaces so that there are no residing germs in your garage. Use bleach and water for the walls and keep the mixture sitting for about 30 minutes before scrubbing it down. After you're done, dry the walls and ground by first using a mop and then by a floor fan. The process might take 2-4 hours to completely dry.

Final Take

Once your disorganized garage goes through a deep-cleaning and organizing process, it won’t be hard to maintain it as long as you don’t pile garbage in there. Be sure that you’re only putting the things you really need in the garage and tossing out the rest as soon as you can.