The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge ~ Week Three

Is it Friday again?  Gosh how did that happen?  I only found about 2 hours this week to work on the garage but was still able to make quite a few changes in that time.  Let’s recap shall we:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Tackled this week:

1.   My husband put together his workbench
2.  We concentrated on the corner you see in the above photo…purging and rearranging

Still to do:

1.  Still need to return the sound board to its original owner
2.  Make a decision about what to do with extra empty totes
3.  Would like to figure out some sort of bike rake…currently they are just leaning up against one another
4.  Label, label, label

So if you have been following along with Sharon and I as we tackle our garages, you’ll know we are making progress using the PROCESS steps I put together to take the guess work out of it all.  This week is all about containerizing.  My favorite!!  Containers are super functional in that they help you create limits and boundaries.  A very important tool to help you keep your space organized and chaos free.

For my garage, we’ve purchased a new shelving unit for the back right hand side by the door.  It was $40.00 from Canadian Tire.  This is where I store my picnic bags and coolers, misc kid stuff, my husband’s work boots and other odds and sodds.  Still working on tweaking it a bit.

The other item we purchased was a new work/hobby bench for my husband, also from Canadian Tire.

To store the kid’s hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, bats, etc I simply use a big cardboard box.  I like it because it’s inexpensive and it’s tall so nothing falls out or gets tippy on me.  It works great.

If you have any questions about anything you see in the pictures, don’t hesitate to ask.  I’ll also post more detailed pictures next week once it’s complete.

Sharon has really been hard at work.  I am so so amazed at how gung ho they are to get it done.  I am also so impressed with something else they have done that is such an important part of this containerize step.

CREATING ZONES

Zones help you create designated areas for everything so all like items are together.  Look at how Sharon has divided her garage loft area into sections:

She gives detail on each in her post this week so be sure to check it out.  I was also thrilled to see how creative they were with shelving.  They had extra doors lying around so her husband added some legs and now they are awesome tables.  Love, love, love that!!  I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, containerizing doesn’t have to be expensive. Use what you have and get creative with it!

Remember we aren’t creating show rooms here, we are creating functional spaces we can actually use not just look at.

Sharon’s question for me this week is this:

How do I maximize this wall space with regards to all of the kids toys and equipment?

Sharon has about 14 bins of kid’s stuff currently on the floor that could definitely be stored more functionally by making use of all that vertical storage available.

My recommendation for Sharon would be to either add some shelving to the existing studs or add some stand alone shelves in front of the wall.  The shelves should be large enough to accommodate her tote sizes.  Immediately I thought that a few of these inexpensive Gorm shelving units from Ikea would work well.  This is what I would have preferred for my space if I happened to live closer to an Ikea rather than the flimsy resin one I purchased.

It’s hard to tell but I think she might be able to get two totes per shelf side by side.  Of course before purchasing any containerizing system please always measure first!  I would put the totes used by the younger kids on the bottom shelves and move up from there.   These Gorm units also have baskets you can add for even more storage for just $4 each.

Sharon is doing such a great job that I just know whatever she comes up with will be awesome.  I can’t wait to find out!

I also can’t wait to see your garage updates.  If you would like to share where you are with your garage makeover please link up below.  We’d love to have you join us!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge ~ Week Two

We are back!  How are you all making out?  This weekend I was dragging my feet I tell you.  Of course it could have something to do with the HOURS I spent trying to teach my youngest how to ride a two wheeler, talk about painful!  When we got back to the house I was already exhausted and not really wanting to tackle the garage.  It just felt like it would take hours to make headway.  Oh the stories we tell ourselves.  I decided to spend an hour working on the garage and whatever I got done would be better than if I did nothing at all.  My husband had already done a pretty big purge so I spent some time moving things around to make more efficient use of the space.  It didn’t feel like I’d done too much until I started looking back at the before pictures.

I went from this two weeks ago:

To this:

So much stuff went to the dump or second hand store.  You’ll also notice my husband cut one of the shelves down to make room for a new workbench he’ll be putting in.  Also the keyboard will hopefully be going back to it’s owner soon.

And from this on the other side:

To this:

I’m most excited about being able to access my freezer now without having to climb over anything.  Woohoo!  So it’s coming along, yay.  And now I’m feeling a little more energized about it.  This is why I highly recommend taking those before pictures.  We forget sometimes how far we’ve come but rather focus on how far we still have to go.  I’ve still got a way to go but seeing the progress like that is such an encouraging boost that motivates me to want to continue.

So this week sees us working on step O and C of the PROCESS.  My two favorite steps at that.  First up ORGANIZE.  This very important step includes:

Organize into piles – donate/toss/sell/keep/relocate – sort like with like – purge excess – the more you purge the less you have to find a home. Ask yourself some declutter questions.  Your goal is to bring back into your space only what you love and use and can fit into the space you have available. Purge until it fits!

Then and only then can we move onto CONTAINING all that remains.

Containerize – find storage solutions – containers establish limits and boundaries – designate a space for items being kept – consolidate where possible.

Sharon from Momof 6 has been busy working on her garage as well.  I love how she walks through each of the above steps as she works to organize and contain her stuff.  She is doing such a fantastic job, I am so very impressed.  You’ve got to go check out her post from this week to see what she’s been up to and how far she’s come.  It’s very inspiring!!

Check out some of her purge piles:

Love it!  So Sharon’s question for me this week is:

Many people (ourselves included) keep items in the garage that relate to home maintenance- the mostly-empty paint cans from our house exterior and trim (in case we need to do a touch-up or as a color reference for when we want to re-paint), or left-over scraps of hardwood from when we installed the floors, etc. But do we need to save all of these things? What is really worthwhile to keep? (And how we do convince our husbands of this?)

So I guess there are two pieces to this question….whether or not to keep all the bits and pieces of home repair and whether or not we can decide for our husbands just to turf it all?  Ha!  Certainly turfing it all would be the easiest option because less stuff means less to organize and less to contain.  Quick, faster, easier.  BUT you know I can’t tell you to do that.  Husbands can be very particular about their stuff and until their ready to turf it themselves, we’ve got to respect that.  We can however offer some suggestions on how to organize and contain it all so that it takes up minimal space.  Hopefully you’ll be able to compromise on the amount to keep but you might also have to get creative with your storage solutions as well to make room.  For example here is a great post on how to store leftover paint in mason jars.  I love how much less space it takes up.  Smart!

For more ideas and inspiration check out my Garage Pinterest Board.  I spent quite a bit of time updating it today and there are many great ideas over there for helping you get your garage organized.

So now it’s YOUR turn to show us your garage progress in The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge.  Link up below!!