By Ronnie L Green
Many people send hours keeping the insides of their homes neat & clean. However, their garage is a different matter, often neglected until cleaning is absolutely necessary. The garage often becomes a kind of a catch-all for the stuff that gets kicked out of the house. It also becomes a storage area for large, bulky items such as sporting & camping items, tools, unused chemicals, lawn care equipment or other things. The garage is also exposed to outdoor elements such as rodents, insects & mold. Because of this it's not a friendly environment and people really don't like being out there for long. As a result, many people often put off cleaning and organizing their garage.
Organize
Organization is a great place to start when tackling a large cleaning project. It's always a good idea to sort through your stuff and divide it into piles according to usage. Keep all of your holiday items in one pile, your sporting goods in another pile, etc. Be methodical, as the more things that you can place together in related groups, the easier it will be to see what you want to keep, what you have in duplicate and what you no longer want or need.
Throw Out What You Can
Discarding old or unnecessary items is one of the most important steps in the cleaning process. While we think that VCR, excess wallpaper or that stack of old magazines might come in useful one day, chances are they will not. Keeping these items, as small as they might seem, can take up valuable space in your garage and make things appear cluttered. As you organize your items into piles, make sure you have a garbage pile and add to it. Be aggressive in your decisions to throw things out, remembering a good rule of thumb is to throw out anything you haven't used in over 18 months. If you're throwing out any paperwork that might have personal information, it's a good idea to shred this before tossing.
Many people send hours keeping the insides of their homes neat & clean. However, their garage is a different matter, often neglected until cleaning is absolutely necessary. The garage often becomes a kind of a catch-all for the stuff that gets kicked out of the house. It also becomes a storage area for large, bulky items such as sporting & camping items, tools, unused chemicals, lawn care equipment or other things. The garage is also exposed to outdoor elements such as rodents, insects & mold. Because of this it's not a friendly environment and people really don't like being out there for long. As a result, many people often put off cleaning and organizing their garage.
Organize
Organization is a great place to start when tackling a large cleaning project. It's always a good idea to sort through your stuff and divide it into piles according to usage. Keep all of your holiday items in one pile, your sporting goods in another pile, etc. Be methodical, as the more things that you can place together in related groups, the easier it will be to see what you want to keep, what you have in duplicate and what you no longer want or need.
Throw Out What You Can
Discarding old or unnecessary items is one of the most important steps in the cleaning process. While we think that VCR, excess wallpaper or that stack of old magazines might come in useful one day, chances are they will not. Keeping these items, as small as they might seem, can take up valuable space in your garage and make things appear cluttered. As you organize your items into piles, make sure you have a garbage pile and add to it. Be aggressive in your decisions to throw things out, remembering a good rule of thumb is to throw out anything you haven't used in over 18 months. If you're throwing out any paperwork that might have personal information, it's a good idea to shred this before tossing.
