How to Finally Clean Out Your Garage
Spring is in the air and the sounds of lawnmowers and birds chirping are all around the neighborhood. It is not hard to get motivated to get outside and start thinking about ways to make your home come out of winter gloom and get into the spring and summer spirit. Everything is greening up and feeling light and airy. Then you open the garage door. The first impulse is to step back and close the door. Out of sight out of mind. Let’s be honest it feels like an overwhelming project. Just like any project you know that the rewards will be amazing but, taking those first steps might feel like an overwhelming task.
What is the old saying, “A goal without a plan is a plan to fail?” We here at Capstone know that garages help sell homes. Especially, when they are seen by potential buyers as added usable space for them. Many people have a garage as a must-have on their wish list when buying a home. From car enthusiasts looking for a place to store that old T-bird to someone looking to make a home gym or some even needing a place for band practice. Having a clean garage can show buyers that your garage has potential for them. If you are not selling anytime soon, cleaning out your garage can still be a great way to improve your quality of living.
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After some research and cleaning out our own garages we have come up with some tips and tricks to get you started. We even made some labels to get you off to a good start.
Step 1: Get some friends and family to help. Especially if you have children that contribute to the extra clutter in the garage. They are a big help to carry things out and they can help go through the things that they might not want to keep. Try to choose people that you feel like you will work well with and that will help you enjoy this process.
Step 2: Pick the day. It might take a few hours or most of the day depending on the amount of stuff you have in your garage and if you are wanting to change it or paint it. Check the weather report on the day that you are looking at having your cleanout. Our suggestion is that you are going to drag out all that stuff and separate it into piles into the driveway. You don’t want to get started just to have to drag wet stuff back in.
Step 3: You’re going to want to separate your things into piles. Having a driveway or open area makes this easier to do. We have created labels so you can designate areas for your piles. These piles are: Sell, Donate, Recycle/Trash, Keep. You might also have a pile to return to the original owner. This pile is if you have things that have been borrowed that you need to return to someone. You can print these to establish where you would like the piles to live. This will keep everyone on the same page about where to put things.
Step 4: Now that you have picked a nice day and got your team together. On the day of the clean-out, turn on some fun music and get some ice-cold drinks and snacks together, and get started. Lay out where all your piles will be and start on one side of the garage. Starting on one side and working all the way around to the other side of the garage will help you know what has been completed.
Step 5: Start pulling stuff out and sorting your stuff into piles. If an item is too heavy to move and it is going to stay, just work around it.
Step 6: Once everything is out time to clean, paint or do whatever updates are needed. You can take this time to add some organization to your space. Be sure to look for all kinds of opportunities to create space. Hanging up bikes or building floating shelves around the top of the garage can create areas to get things up off the floor. You can also take this time to designate space for whatever you want to use your garage for. Having a corner designated for certain activities can help keep things clean because they have a home. Putting things together also helps to show you if you have an excess of things that you could pair down and do without. This can also help to see what items might need maintenance or need to be replaced.
Step 7: Once you have cleaned out the garage and your new organizational systems are in place it is time to move the trash pile to the trash. Load the donations in the car and don’t forget to pick up that donation ticket for taxes. Load up the recycle can. The sell pile can wait until after you put the kept items back in the garage. You will want to go ahead and have a staging area for those yard sale items or items you want to sell online.
Step 8: Take a deep breath, look at all you have done, and thank your team. Now enjoying pulling your car inside or jamming with your band.
Cleaning out the garage can be a huge task. It can be easier to do it all at once. But, if you do have to break it into sections that’s okay too. The important thing is to get it done if it is what you want to do or need to do. Going through and doing a sweep for trash or gathering things to donate is progress towards having a clean garage. If you are looking to sell your home let a Capstone agent tell you how much value your clean garage adds to your property. Because we know it does.
