Hello Friends,
If you think you missed the May newsletter, you are on to something. On May 2nd, my husband suffered a severe stroke. While he should recover fully, it is a long and slow process and we are doing our best to get him back to himself. I’ll take a second here to encourage you to learn the signs of stroke. We had zero warning, some do get warning signals, but we got none. Knowing a few of these, along with fast medical attention and stroke drugs, saved my husband’s life.
On a lighter note, I have become an amazon affiliate, this allows me to make recommendations of products I love and use to my readers and followers. I am finalizing all this now, and soon it will be posted by topic on my website. Electronics, items by room type, items by sub type like organizing containers and bins, garage organization and so much more. I anticipate it will be complete in the next month. I do earn, in some cases, a very small referral from Amazon when you purchase an item I suggest. My goal is to have list of helpful things for decluttering, organizing, and living smaller that will become your favorite things too.
Newsletter Topic of the Month - Garage Clutter
Garages tend to be the catch all for homes as they have limited visibility and are not “public” spaces. We stuff in there to handle “later” and pretty soon, it is overwhelming. Here are some tips to keep it manageable.
· Start with the obvious, trash, recycling and donations. These are commonly relegated to the garage to deal with later, but later gets pushed off until there is no more space. Grab all your amazon and delivery boxes and break them down to recycle. Toss anything that is trash. Gather up and bag all the items that you have been stockpiling to donate, and hit the donation drop off. This should give you some breathing room and space to work.
· If you have a full weekend, empty everything out on to the driveway. Have the appropriate shelving or storage on hand so it can go back into the garage in an organized fashion. Make more bags or boxes for donation and toss items that are broken or trash. Dedicate zones for specific uses; sports equipment, tools, extra household items like food or cleaning products, camping items or the like. For extra help in making sure things go back to where they belong, label the sections. Involve all the household members to make it go faster, then celebrate with a pizza dinner or your favorite takeout.
· If you have a few hours, or less, start by tackling one area. Work on that section until it is tidy, and either use a bin or box for items that need to go in other locations. Put those away at the end of your tidy so you are ready to start the next section with a clean slate when you have more time.
· Utility cabinets, rolling shelving, wall racks, and overhead racks all make for improved storage, especially if your garage is minimally sized. Match bins to the shelving and ceiling racks so you can store seldom used items, like Christmas décor, out of the way of foot traffic and your car. Rolling shelving is easily moved, even when full and gives the most versatility. Utility cabinets keep things looking nice, and corral smaller items. Overhead racks are fantastic for long term storage items you are not ready to part with, but don’t have floor space for. They still allow for car parking, and walking around in the garage, but keep things away from water, dirt and pests.
· Wall systems are great for organizing sports gear, small tools, pet items and more. You mount the rack system, then add accessories like hooks, shelves, and baskets. These grow and change with your needs, which makes them super versatile. They can be great for the side wall of the garage where you store shallow items out of the way and are also great for visual folks who like to see their items.
· A high perimeter shelf all around the top interior walls of the garage is a great way to store longer term items and keeps the middle section open.
· Label all areas, so everyone in the family knows where it goes, this will save time in the long run.
· Spend 10 minutes each weekend (or pick a day that works for you) to do a quick tidy, box breakdown and clean up to keep your garage looking great.
· Use a wall rack for mops and brooms to store shovels and similar tools, even some sorts equipment. They are low profile and easy to install and make storage a breeze.
· Install good LED shop lights if you can't clearly see what you have, and the space is easy to work in.
· If you park a car in your garage, try to sweep it out weekly so you are not tracking that dirt and dust into the house.Use a good, absorbent microfiber mat at the house door to clean off your shoes.
Get my whole list of favorite garage organization products here!
Garage Recomendations
.pdf
Download PDF • 672KB
Product of the Month:
