Does your garage look like this? Are you fed up with the mess? Can you find what you need? If you are like many Americans, you can’t park your car in the garage. I’d like to remind you that your car is worth much more than the stuff in your garage. The weather conditions, especially in Arizona, do a number on our cars if they are not protected from the sun and heat. Your priority should be to park your car in your garage and not to protect your clutter!
So where do you begin? You have to remember the basics for organizing any space in your house and that includes your garage. You need to remember S.P.A.C.E – 1) Sort, 2) Purge, 3) Assign a home, 4) Containerize, and 5) Equalize. The acronym comes from Julie Morgenstern’s book “Organizing from the Inside Out.” I use these basics everyday with my clients on the jobs that I do.
Let’s break it down! You have to keep in mind that everything will have to come out of the space that you are working on. If the entire garage is too much to handle in the designated time frame that you have, break it down into segments. Sorting and purging go hand in hand when you get ready to start a project. Determine if you are going to donate, consign or have a garage sale with the items that you are getting rid of. Keep in mind that some of the items will only be worthy of the trash, so have two areas ready to start with bags or tubs (I use black lawn bags for donations/consignment and large white kitchen bags for trash as this helps keep the items separate in my mind). As you sort, put them in one of the designated bags and/or sort your items into like categories. Continue to do this until either the garage or the portion of the garage you are working on is done. The sorting process is very important because you want to end up with all like items together. If all like items are together, you will always be able to find what it is you are looking for when you need it.
Now comes the assigning a home portion of your project. Once all like items are together, you will need to determine what you need to get to on a regular basis, what you only need to get to periodically and then what comes in between. This will determine where those items are placed in your garage. If it is a category that you need to access on a frequent basis, put it in a convenient place that is easy to get to. If it is luggage, which you might only use once or twice a year, it can go up or out of the way. Do you see where I am headed? Make the placement of your items convenient for your lifestyle.
Finally, what does equalize mean? This is the process where you might need to tweak an area because you find that a category needs to be in a little different location. Or the place that your shoes are located needs to be moved to a more convenient place. Don’t be afraid to make the necessary changes to your masterpiece to that your newly organized space works for you!
Remember, organizing is a process and I truly use this process every time I tackle a project. It works and if you really understand the process you too can organize any space in your house.
Happy Organizing! Bridges
