The Key to Organizing our Garage!

Welcome to our garage!
We finally did it… It took getting the inside of my house repainted, the holidays full of leftover boxes and decor to put away… then tripping 3 times in the garage to finally motivate us to organize!

I can’t believe I avoid the garage as much as I do when I’m normally such an organized and neat person.  I’m the type to go through closets and drawers every other month and I donate everything I can if we aren’t using it.  I despise clutter. For some reason I’m always a bit uninspired when it comes to working on the garage… (Is that a surprise to any?)
The key and saving grace to organizing our garage?  A book written and given to me from my sweet friend, Cyndy Aldred titled, ‘Organizing Your Life’.
It gave me the much needed motivation to turn our attention to the dark hole that I began to resent and avoid. ;)

This past Sunday we decided to tackle the mountain of boxes and cast off items in the garage. We made 3 different groupings: GoodWill, trash and things family or friends might want. It wasn’t too difficult once we began and I can’t tell you how much happier I felt when finished.. it was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. The entire process took TIME! Nearly 12 hours.

When we first moved into our home several years ago we made it a point to have built-in cabinets installed and a beautiful workbench put in for my woodworking, Mr. Fix-it hubby.   We also made sure to have the garage floor sealed with a commercial sealer (we hired someone to do it as it takes a few days when done correctly) so we didn’t track the chalky cement dust into the house from the kids and dogs constant comings and goings.

We purchased all our garage cabinets from a local bay area company, We’re Organized.

The cabinets have so many great features that set them apart from others.  Not only are they very large but deep also. You have the choice or drawers or shelves and we have a combination of both.  The shelves are extremely roomy and fit all my favorite clear containers from Lowes perfectly.  I love being able to see what’s inside of them.  Another feature we love is the cabinets can hold a ton of weight.  Super important as my Christmas decor alone must weigh a ton… ;)  Another nice feature is the cabinets clear the floor so we are able to hose out the garage easily.

Jeff loves his workbench with it’s butcher block top.  He is always building or fixing something and this piece is used non-stop.

I can’t tell you how happy I am having a clean garage. Excited to finally complete the long organizing and cleaning process we had fun moving a table and chairs from the house into the garage… along with an ice bucket of champagne to help us celebrate our labor in style. We feel we deserve it.  ;)
Now for the hard part… keeping the garage clean!

xx