How to Organize your home, office, school and more

Can’t fit your car in the garage?  Can’t find your car in the garage?  Either of these can cause problems – First off, let’s face it, cars aren’t cheap and having to go get another one because you can’t find yours in the garage is a bit embarrassing, not to mention expensive.  Secondly if you can’t get your car into the garage because of the clutter, then you and your car and anything that you have in your car has to suffer through the heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, sleet, ice and other natural disasters while your clutter sits nice and comfortably.  It just doesn’t sound fair.  I know life isn’t always fair, but you should be able to put your car in the garage.  So – let’s learn how to organize your garage.

I have been in my share of garages, some were so full that you couldn’t turn around, some were completely empty (it was a house that had just been built), and then there is my dad’s.  He has an amazing garage. The man knows how to organize.  First off, it is big, then there is the way that everything has a place.  His garage is so organized that it is truly a marvel.  Did he do it overnight?  Of course not, in fact he didn’t even have a garage for a long time, but once he built it, he organized it. 

You don’t have to have a lot of space to have an organized garage.  Your first question should be – what is my garage for?  (no this isn’t a – gee where did my garage go, kid of question).  When I say this I mean, do you want to put cars in your garage?  Is it going to be used as a workshop?  Do you need space for outdoor equipment (lawn mower, rakes, shovels, etc.)?

After you purpose (yes, purpose is being used as a verb here – when you purpose a room, you are deciding what to do with your room) your garage, you start up the "Steps to Organization" to learn how to organize.

How to Organize: Step 1 – Sorting

Because the garage can become a dumping ground, this can take some time.  If you live in a neighborhood or near a main road and you want it to go faster, the just open up your garage door on a warm spring Saturday morning and put a garage sale sign in your front yard.  If you open it, they will come, yardsalers that is.  As you are working on sorting, random people will come into your garage and offer you money for things.  This is when you decide if something is worth keeping.  If so, say, I’m sorry that’s not for sale and direct them to your pile of things you have decided to part with.  If you live in Minnesota and it is the middle of winter, this may not be a good option for you.

Back to sorting, begin by making piles – you may need to open a door or move a vehicle out (once you find it) to has the space to sort.  You should have at minimum a pile for trash, a pile for donate or yard sale, a pile for keep in the garage and a pile for keep, but not in the garage.  Be careful with this last pile as you don’t want to clutter up the inside of your home, just to empty out your garage.  Once you have your basic piles, look through your two keep piles again.  Look at each item and decide if you really need it.  If you are holding on to items from someone else, return them.  (If they are the ones that left them, tell them you are learning how to organize and the mean person on the website said to tell them to come over and get their stuff or it’s going out in your yard sale.)

Anything that doesn’t belong on the garage, but is staying with you needs to find a new home.  Don’t just put it down and figure you will get to it later, find it a home now.  Toss the trash, sell or donate the "get it out of my house"pile, then move on to how to organize step two.

How to Organize: Step 2 – Building a border

The first thing to think about when organizing a garage is how much space do you have.  This may seem like a straight forward question, but when thinking space, don’t limit yourself to the floor space.  When deciding how to organize your garage think outside the box (and up the walls).  The great thing about garages is you can utilize floor space, wall space, and even ceiling space.

The second thing to think about is : PEGBOARD!  Pegboard is a wonderful thing and it looks just fine in a garage.  Most pegboard is either brown or white (usually with one color on one side and one on the other).  I recently found out that they have Galvanized Steel Pegboard, which is pretty cool looking.  In fact they have a whole organizational system to use with the metal pegboard.  (Check it out : Galvanized Steel Pegboard Tool Organizer , Metal Pegboard 2 Panel Kit , Master Metal Pegboard Workbench Kit)  What really matters is how you want it to look.  The reason that pegboard is so great is it is so customizable.  Below you will see a variety of ideas of how to organize your pegboard.  I am putting it together in a table to make it easier to see all of the different options.

Basic Hooks: 

 Baskets and Bins : 

 After you have the tools and other little things under control, you can start looking at how to organize some of the larger items.  To organize some of your larger yard tools you again have more options.  Depending on if you have more floor space or more wall space you can choose something like the GARDEN TOOL ORGANIZER or the Rubbermaid Deluxe Tool Tower either of these are great examples of floor yard tool organizers. If you have more wall space than floor space, then you can look for something like the Garden Tool Organizer or a simpler wall unit the the Strip Garden Tool Organizer.  Take a look at your various options depending on your garage layout.

There are so many ways to build your garage border, but not all of them will work forever since garages come in all different shapes and sizes.  Continue to build the border that works for you garage, if you run out of room on the floor, look to the walls.  If you run out of room on the walls, decide if you really need everything and whether it belongs in the garage, then look to the ceiling (Single Ceiling Storage Unit).  Deciding how to organize your garage isn’t hard when you know where to start.

Organizing your garage doesn’t have to be expensive.  When my dad was trying to decide how to organize smaller items, such as nails and screws he came up with a cheap but effective solution.  He 
built wooden shelves along the wall of his garage then he screwed and glued the lids of jars to the underside of these shelves. He uses the jars for storage of nails, screws, and all manner of
little things. This is a great way to store small items (the jars are glass and therefore, see-through), plus you are able to recycle things you already have.

How to Organize: Step 3: Filling in the pieces

The border is the hard part.  Once that is done, start putting things away.  You may need to tweak here and there, but you can do that as you go along.

How to Organize: Step 4 : The Final Step – How to Organize so you Keep it Organized

Don’t forget the all important final step. Keep your system going – if you find that in a short time your garage is becoming cluttered again, you need to rethink your system. If the border isn’t simple enough for everyone to follow, then you are going to be fighting an uphill battle. Learning how to organize isn’t supposed to be hard, if it is hard then something is not right.

Remember – you can do this.  Keep it simple, Keep it Organized.