Almost all the things that we don’t need anymore, but we can’t let go off always ends in the garage. Some items stay there for years, some until you figure out a better home for the item. While doing this frees up the spaces in the house, it’s only temporary as things pile up. Next thing you know, it’s hard to move around while cleaning the car.
During the pandemic, I had the luxury of time to clean and organize my garage. The first step I did was decluttering the garage and deciding on what item goes and what item stays. I parked the car on the street, picked a section of my garage to start with and pulled everything out onto the driveway to sort them through. This made segregating easier to do and allows you to see what space you have to work with and what types of storage might work best when it’s time to organize the items you’re keeping.
Once you’ve pulled everything out, it becomes easy to put the “unwanted” in one corner and the “useable” in the other. It speeds up the process by preventing us from agonizing over each individual item.It is easy to identify if things were spread out in the garage.
The daunting task of “to throw or not to throw” followed. Those worn parts from the cars that I had forgotten or refused to throw, it all went to the “timbang” or “pa kilo” corner. Those extra oils for top up and the old car parts from the project car, which were just one too many.
Some parts were hard to let go. You always tend to give reason to each spare item. “Ah magamit pa na o mahalin pa na.” (Maybe it can still be used or sold).This sort of delayed the whole process.
Make a default ‘keep’ list to help you decide on what goes and what stays. When deciding what to keep and what to throw away, ask yourself: “Is this item in the garage for a reason, or because I don’t know what to do with it?” If it’s the latter, either find a use for it asap or get rid of it. Whatever doesn’t make your “keep” list, is, by default, clutter.
With your “keep” items set aside, start going through the rest of the things you pulled out of the garage. Identify items you’d like to sell and those that you can give to your circle of car friends. Have cleaning brushes, rugs, plastic wraps, cardboard boxes or garbage bags so that you can pack up those “donation” items as you work and stash them somewhere out of the way.
Dedicate an area of your garage where you can store all the items for sale. Keep the items clean and well packed. Post those items in Social Media or upload photos of the items in those Car Club Chat Groups. The faster they get sold, the more you’ll free-up space, not to mention the extra money you’ll earn from those items.
In general, the best way to avoid clutter is to get organized. Get one of those steel shelves for your garage. This will greatly help in segregating your car cleaning materials, oils and extra car parts.
Now that you’ve reduced your inventory down to what is needed and finished your garage cleanup, seize the opportunity to keep clutter from building back up. So, what’s the best way to organize a garage? Always stick to your “default keep list”.