Pro Tips for Organizing Your Garage

Summertime is a great time to clear out the garage. With the nice weather and warm evenings, you can throw open the doors and really clear out all that junk you’ve been storing in there for years.

Like most Americans, you probably have way too much stuff in your garage. So much stuff that you probably don’t use most of it, and chances are, you don’t even know what’s there anymore.  It’s time to organize your garage.

Empty the Garage, Sorting as You Go

The easiest way to organize is to remove everything from the garage all at once. While you’re doing so, designate piles for sorting items. Create one pile for trash, donations and recycling. For everything else—items you’re going to keep—sort them by style and use. Put sporting equipment together, and lawn tools in a grouping.

Clean the Garage

Once the garage is empty, give it a good cleaning. Sweep it out and take the opportunity to paint the floors, walls and ceilings if you want. This will give you a nice, clean palette to begin organizing what you keep.

Create an Organizational Plan

Take a look at your “keep” piles and think about how you can best organize them and draw out a plan for how you are going to store them in the garage. Do you need shelves, racks or hooks? If so, install them now, based on your plan. Place the least-used items higher up or near the back, with the most-used items in the most convenient locations. Plan for “drop zones” where you can temporarily place items as you come in or out of the garage.

Involve the Family

Get the family involved. Let the family members sort through items they frequently use and determine their new home in the garage. If they have input as to where they go, they will be more likely to return the items to their homes after use.

After you’ve returned all the items you’re going to keep to the garage, stand back a moment and admire your handiwork! It will all look clean and organized.

Maintain your Garage Organizational System

Now the trick is—keeping it that way. Make it a habit to return items to their proper location. Trace around items on a toolbench, for example so that when you remove an item its profile remains and you can easily see where to return it. If you bring in new items, create a permanent home for them also.

What to Do with Items You’ve Removed from Your Garage

So far, we’ve only talked about organizing the items you will be keeping and returning to the garage. What do you do with all the rest?

If you’re in northern Virginia, Maryland or Washington, D.C., call 123JUNK. Our professional team will pick up almost anything you’ve cleared out of your garage—from old lawnmowers to trash. You don’t need to sort the items you won’t be keeping. We’ll do that for you after we haul it away.

Please note, however, that there are items considered to be hazardous that we cannot take, like chemicals, fuels and solvents. Please refer to our “What’s on the Hazardous Materials List?” blog post for details on what those items are and how to dispose of them.

123JUNK will give you flat rate pricing that includes everything. There won’t be any surprises once we arrive. Then our team will load up everything you want to go and take it away in our big red truck.  With our Donate-Recycle-Dispose™ process, we’ll go through the load, donating items we think can be reused to our charity partners, delivering recyclable items to the local recycling center, and disposing of the rest.

We’ll provide you with a receipt, along with photographic evidence, for your taxes for any items that go to charity.

Organizing your garage can be done in as short as one day. Especially when we do the hard work of hauling away unwanted items for you. Don’t wait until winter when you really need to use the garage and it’s too full. Use these warm summer months to get that garage organized.  We’ll help!

Learn more about our Garage Cleanout Services

Contact 123JUNK today to set your junk hauling appointment.