REFRESHINGLY EASY STEPS FOR

Organizing Your GarageIf you’re like most people, your garage is much more than a safe place to park your car. In fact, plenty of families can’t even fit one, let alone two, cars inside. For some reason, people tend to treat their garage like a dusty catch-all for life’s miscellaneous stuff.

This season, set aside a weekend and utilize these tips to organize your garage.

CATEGORIZE AND PLANYes, it’s hard to resist just getting down to work. But with every medium to large project, it’s smart to have a plan, even if it’s an outline. Start by moving everything off the floor and sorting it into piles in your driveway.

Once you narrow it down to the items that will remain in the garage, make subcategories depending on function.

Things to throw out

Items to donate

Things that need to be moved somewhere

else in the house

Items to remain in the garage

DRAWN TO MAGNETSEvery garage has a tool box, and in some cases several tool boxes. With each tool having a unique shape, they can be tricky and frustrating to store. There is one thing that almost every tool has in common: metal. To organize your tools, try using magnetic strips. It’s an inexpensive, easy, and effective solution for your clutter.

HOOKED ON HOOKSUtilizing hooks in your garage can be the cornerstone of inexpensive DIY organization. Configured correctly, your basic coated garage hooks can hang anything from bikes to sporting goods, and almost everything in between.

REJOICE FOR JOISTSThe wooden beams in your garage are called joists. These joists help hold your roof in place and bear any weight if you have an attic over the garage. Now, in between the joists there should be a space about 12”x10” wide. Take flat wire shelving and screw it to the bottom of the joists — making a shelf that can run the length of your garage ceiling.

THE PRECISION OF THE TENNIS BALLIf you are going to park a car or two in the garage, you know that it can be annoying or even possibly costly, if you don’t have some sort of visual clues on when to stop your vehicle.

STEP 1. Park the car in the garage at its ideal spot. Place a visual marker, like a rake or snow shovel, in line with the center of the windshield to indicate where your twine should hang. Pull the car out of the garage.

DON’T WORRY All you need for this is a tennis ball, 3-5 feet of twine, and 2 stainless steel screw eyes.

STEP 2. Twist the first screw eye into the ceiling in line with your rake or snow shovel and directly over where the car’s windshield would be.

STEP 3. Thread the twine through the screw eye and let hang to the ground.

STEP 4. Pull the car back into the garage until the twine rests at the center of the windshield.

DIY TIP: It shouldn’t be too hard to screw the eye into the ball, but you could use a drill if needed.

STEP 5. The bottom of the ball should be resting on the windshield and lined up with your visual marker. If so, you’re precision parked. Nice job.

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THAT ORGANIZED FEELINGThe sense of accomplishment that goes with organizing is

profound. So, if you have some momentum built up, you could move on to organizing your kitchen.

Find some helpful tips on that next project HERE.