Do You Dread the Garage Cleanup?

You know that you have a problem if you are forced to park your car on the driveway because your garage is so full of clutter and the place is so dirty. This room is designed as a place to store your cars or trucks and not for any other purpose, so it is time for you to stage a garage cleanup.

Come up with a plan of action if it has been a long time since you attempted a garage cleanup last. A lot of clutter will have found its way in there and it will have become a dumping ground for things that you can’t find a good place for within the home. For example, all your gardening stuff, your Christmas decorations, unused pieces of furniture, “essential” pieces that you found at a local sale, or your chemicals and cleaners.

Large items are first on your list when it comes to a garage cleanup. Don’t store unused pieces of furniture in there, get rid of them. After all, if you do not have enough room in the house or they clash with your decorating style, you do not need them and they should be donated to charity and picked up right away.

Once larger items have been removed during your garage cleanup by giving them away to charity, you will have room to move and can then begin putting all the other items into various categories according to, for example, holiday or Christmas items, memorabilia, recreation, garden tools and chemicals. Everything else goes into the trash pile.

Categorize and compartmentalize all your items much more efficiently by erecting special cabinets and racks on each of the three walls in your garage. Now all the items that you will be keeping as opposed to throwing out can be placed.

Underneath all those items that you have just moved from the floor will probably lie layers of grime, oil stains and chemical spills. This is one of the most unpleasant tasks of a garage cleanup, especially when you find the stains are ingrained. So, in the future make sure that you have absorbent mats in places where ever spills may occur.

Following a garage cleanup, take some time to think about where you are going to place all those items in future. Absorbent mats go beneath all your cars and trucks and in deed anywhere that cleaners or chemicals might spill. A gallon of liquid at any time can be absorbed by these mats and they just need to be washed, dried and replaced periodically. These durable items will save you the effort of getting on your hands and knees to scrub away those stubborn oil stains.

Your driveway needs to be reserved for visitors who are much more likely to come around for the weekend barbecue in the future, if your family cars are parked in the garage where they should be. In this way, a garage cleanup can have extra positive effect.