It’s been a harsh winter this year, but spring is just around the corner and with spring, comes organization! An organized life is a happy life! Clutter causes confusion and makes you tired just looking at it and thinking about it and knowing you have to do something about it. If you can’t find the lawnmower or fit your car into the garage, it might be time to organize. If you are frustrated because you spend hours digging out the kids sports gear only to find just one soccer shoe and not the other, it might be time to organize!
If you are ready to tackle this project, but simply can’t muster the motivation to get started, here are some things to help you get started.
This project does not begin with just taking everything out of the garage. Oh no! It starts with consulting a closet design company. A closet design company, you say? Yes! They can help you design the right organizational components to organize everything in the garage. If the kids play soccer, they have special racks for all the equipment, so you never have to spend time hunting down all the gear before you go. Whatever your hobbies are, fishing, skiing, skating, gardening – they have all the accessories to keep everything organized and in it’s place.
When consulting with a closet company, make sure they know what your budget is for the project. Make sure you have a budget in mind and stick to it! You can get just as much organization with simple shelves as you can with fancy drawers, baskets, work stations and cabinets. As a matter of fact, you don’t really need to spend a lot to get organized. By simply adding plain, adjustable shelves, you can store almost everything in the garage. Adjustable shelves offer you the ability to change your system as your needs change. Of course, closet companies offer a wide range of accessories like drawers and baskets included in their systems, but you don’t really need these. You can buy all matching boxes at Target and still achieve the same thing, but spend a lot less! The most important thing about doing a garage is having the shelves to put things on. You can also add doors if you don’t want to see everything. It’s always wise to have at least some small sections of storewall (http://www.storewall.com/index.php ) or pegboard for hanging shovels and other small tools. Once you have selected a designer to work with and placed an order, you’ll feel much better and more motivated to get started with the rest of the work.
You’ll want to take a weekend and spend it taking everything out of the garage and sorting everything into the following categories… “keep”, “toss”, and “donate”. Get rid of everything that is trash and donate things you don’t need or use anymore to a charity. Store the “keep” items in the garage until your installation date.
Most garages have drywall but have not been painted. If this applies to you, you may want to consider painting the garage before your closet company returns to install the new system. Closet Prep & Paint can help with this part! We take down any existing shelves or cabinets, repair the walls, paint and haul away all the debris. If your garage doesn’t have drywall yet, we can hang the drywall and finish and paint the garage. Visit us at www.ClosetPrepAndPaint.com for more information. We have a spring promotion from March to April 2010 for $75 off the prep work in garages (orders over $500).
Once your walls are ready and your new system is installed, it’s time for the fun part! Moving back in! Once everything is in it’s place, you can stand back and admire your hard work. You may not want to go back to the disaster in the house and end up spending the night in the garage. But that project is for another day. Make sure to leave the garage door open so that all your neighbors can admire your work as well! You’ll be the envy of the neighborhood and be able to park the car in the garage once again.
