Tips for Cleaning and Organizing Garages and Sheds

Organizing your garages and sheds can be a nightmare. There are many things we tend to just toss in the garage or shed and they end up being just crammed in there wherever there's space. Sometimes, we even have to leave our cars out in the driveway because we have a garage full of clutter. You can take back that control of your garage or shed by following a few simple rules.

Try to think of your garage or shed like you do your home. Give it the same kind of makeover to organize it.

First, sort through all the things in your garage or shed like you would your closets and kitchen. Take your items and sort them into piles that are categorized:

• Things that need to be thrown away.
• Things that need to be donated or sold.
• Things that can be moved to another area such as the attic or basement.
• Things that need to stay in your garage or shed.

For the things you are keeping, sort those into groups such as tools, toys, lawn equipment and sports equipment. Build some shelving (if you don't have any) and put things up that need to be off the floor. Hang some brackets in your storage space so that you can easily access and spot lawn equipment items. Find a small box of some sort to store things that can easily get lost, like nuts and bolts. Always keep a wastebasket in your garage or shed so you can use it for trash at all times and never have to leave things lying around that you don't need. If you repaint your garage floor, it will make it look nicer and that will give you incentive to keep it nicer!

Cleaning out garages and sheds isn't something many people look forward to doing, but with a few good organizational tricks, you can do it and it won't be so hard to keep up with in the future. If you have a place for everything, your space will always remain neat.