Whole House Organization Challenge: Week 3
Whew, what a weekend! Prior to taking on this project I viewed owning a garage purely through rose-colored glasses. "Oh how nice it would be to have...a gym...a place to store all those large items that take up space in the house...yadda, yadda, yadda". But I quickly came to my senses after having to clean and organize one. Ha!
Reorganizing this garage was certainly a first for me. Nevertheless, I'm happy to say that I completed this challenge, and I hope you did too. I can’t wait tell you all about it. Welcome to Week 3 of the Whole House Organization Challenge!
Affiliate links may be included in this post. This means that should you purchase a linked product, I may receive a small commission, but at no additional cost to you. To read my full disclosure click here.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, let me remind you of the before and my working concept for the space.
Addressing the Problem Areas of the Compact Garage
- Clutter (obvious)
- Inability of the driver to see lawn care equipment stored on the floor (you gotta see what I came up with)
- How to protect the car doors when exiting the vehicle in such a narrow space
- Creating wall storage for the garden tools
- Making better use of the pre-existing workbench left by the former homeowner
Clutter
Cleaning out the garage was actually the easiest part. In all, the decluttering process took only about an hour. Why? Most of the items stored there by the homeowner were either broken or no longer needed. So we went from having 2 lawn mowers to just one. We also discarded a garden hose, old paint, boxes, and tons of other things. .
We even found 5-6 new bags of rock salt! THIS is the reason why I do this challenge every year. When an area is stuffed with clutter- almost always - there are duplicate items. It's just too hard to look through all that stuff to find what you need. So you end up going to the store and buy it. After you're done with the item you just purchased, you toss it in the pile of clutter and that process starts all over again.
Lawn Care Equipment
Remember that I was nervous about asking the homeowners to purchase this lawn mower storage tower from Amazon. After giving it more thought, I decided that with a teenage driver in the home, it might not be a good idea to purchase it for the garage.
Can you imagine how devastating it might be for a driver to accidentally tap the tower of stacked lawn mowers and snow blowers while parking, only to have one topple over onto the car? I could hear that little penguin's voice from the GEICO commercial saying "Nope, nope, nope..I'm gonna follow my instincts" LOL!
RELATED POST: How to Successfully Organize a Compact Garage
Not to toot my own horn, but boy am I ever proud of myself! I mean look at me... Do I LOOK like the kinda chic that builds stuff? I have lots of furniture concepts in my head. Some I even draw out from time to time. But build? Yeah right. All I can say is that the pressure of having to blog about your progress can sometimes pull some amazing things out of you.
For the record, my husband did stop by later that day to check all of my cross and sister joints. After adding more security to one of them I was given the all clear. Total cost for this project: $18-20.
Notice that it's high enough to keep the driver from overshooting the parking target, and that it also serves as a stopper for the car. The homeowner said this was a huge help. Mission bien accomplie!
Door Protection & Other Lawn Equipment
I found these handy padded strips on Amazon that I designed to protect the car doors and the wall. I mounted one on each side, and at one of the homeowners request, I added more reflector tape.
I’m so grateful that my husband was able to swing by to help mount the hooks needed for the weed Wacker storage. This is an old home. And the wood is very very dense. That’s great for mounting hooks for Storage. But it also required a ton of muscle. With a bit of shuffling we were able to find a place for everything. By the way that is not a gun on the wall. It’s the nozzle for the HGTV pressure washer. Bah, ha, ha, ha!
The Work Bench
The previous workbench showed all of the dirt and grime. But a coat of high gloss black paint fixed not only that problem but all of the imperfections in the unit itself. Black storage bins were used to store those annoying items that create clutter. There's now even a place for Dad to kick back and hang out with the guys.
In my haste (ahem exhaustion), I forgot to add a photo of the inside of the workbench cabinet. When I have a free moment, I'll swing by to get a photo of that from the homeowner. But for now, you'll just have to trust me.
Next Space: the Bath Linen Closet
Please tell me what do you think about this garage organization makeover?
