Every home needs a good reset once we’re out of our winter hibernation; all that cabin fever can kind of make you hate… your cabin, if you will. And that includes your garage. Here are our 10 best tips for giving your garage a good scrub and revamping your organization, Marie Kondo style:
1. Empty everything out of your garage. Wait for a day that’s nice and sunny and/or grab a couple camping canopies to house all your stuff during the cleaning process.
2. Check the perimeter of the garage where the walls meet the floor. Clean any debris and gunk away. Check for any water intrusion or other damage, and once everything’s all clean and fixed up, spray with an insect barrier. When summer and fall come around, you’ll be glad you did.
3. Clean any windows, including the ones on your garage door, fix any broken or worn seals, make sure the sills are in good condition (read: not termite or water damaged), and switch out any panes that are chipped or broken.
4. Has your concrete floor seen better days? You can get small tubs of premixed vinyl concrete at the hardware store to patch cracks. If you want it to look new after patching, or to seal everything together, apply a skim or sealant coating.
5. Take a walk around your garage door and its infrastructure. Remove any surface rust, gunk, debris and otherwise. Check various fittings and other door components for rust, stripping, etc.
6. Once everything’s nice and clean, it’s time to organize! The name of the game is vertical space. Go get yourself some 2x4s, big lidded plastic tubs and peg board.
7. Create 2×4 “tracks” that anchor to the rafters so you can hang all the big plastic tubs in your unused overhead space.
8. Pick a couple walls to hang peg board on and create a tool-hanging system that works for you.
9. Are you handy? Because we’re loving these fold-down work tables, and they’re pretty easy to do. You can even hide a bit more wall storage behind it, too!
10. Now it’s time for the… fun part? Grab all those peg board hooks, big plastic tubs, and tape and a sharpie for labeling, head outside and start putting things away. Create a system – this isn’t the time to stop at the 1 yard line. When the driveway’s empty, you’re done!
And of course, don’t forget to have your seasonal professional garage door and garage door opener inspection, maintenance and tune up done.Feeling inspired yet? Let’s go get it!