How To Reclaim Your Garage Storage | Long Island

You can’t beat the convenience and security of having a place to protect one of your largest investments – your vehicle. However, many people can’t use the garage for its intended purpose because it has become cluttered with of all sorts of items, but there’s hope. Transforming it into a "showroom" for your car or reclaiming it for a workshop, playroom or man cave isn't difficult. All it takes is a weekend and a little elbow grease.

How To Get Started With Reclaiming Your Garage Storage

One of the main reasons why people procrastinate when it comes to organizing the garage is that they don’t know where to begin, so here are some helpful steps to making your dream garage a reality.

Set A Date

Give yourself a deadline (like a garage sale) as an incentive to get the job done. Then determine how far in advance of that deadline you would like to begin and write the date on your calendar.

Assemble Some Supplies.. And Reinforcements

Gather all your supplies ahead of time. You’ll need cardboard boxes, heavy-duty trash bags, garbage can, work gloves and, if necessary, a dumpster - which you can rent.

Depending on the size of your project, it may be necessary to bring in some support. Who can you enlist for help? Consider calling in family members, a paid helper or a professional organizer.

Divide And Conquer

Dividing the project into small steps so you can stay on task without becoming overwhelmed. Begin in the area that will give you the fastest visible results; immediate gratification is a great motivator.

As you empty out the garage, you will need a place to sort items in categories, like the driveway or the front lawn. This will free up some space to move around inside the garage. Some zones to create are: ‘donate’, ‘sell’, ‘recycle’, ‘toss’ (dumpster) and ‘keep’.

The ‘keep’ area will need to be subdivided into categories like: tools, sporting gear, toys, gardening supplies, etc. Use labeled boxes to sort them into categories.

Get Tough! And Let Go Of Stuff

This is usually the biggest hurdle. Only you can decide what to keep and what to toss. However, if you want to reclaim some space in your garage, you will have to be ruthless. If you find yourself using excuses like: “I might need it someday” or “I paid a lot of money for it”, you may need someone to encourage you to just let go. If you haven’t used it in years (or ever), can you really justify having it occupy valuable space? Remember, you could always borrow or rent tools if you need them.

No Time For Visits Down Memory Lane

If you happen to come across any boxes of old mementos that will be time consuming to go through, and perhaps difficult to make decisions on, it’s best to put them aside to deal with later so you don’t get bogged down.

Create New Storage Solutions

Now that you have edited down to the essentials, it’s time to put everything back in the garage. In order to keep clear as much floor space as possible so you can park your cars, you should maximize the vertical space in your garage. With the right storage solution, this will be easy because you’ve already sorted everything into categories.

You might consider one of the many wall organizing systems on the market. There are a variety of accessories and shelves that will maximise your garage storage. Well placed work benches, shelving and cabinets will keep your things clean, organized and accessible all year round.

Which means you can even rearrange your items with the seasons if needed; in the summer, store the bikes near the exit and in the winter, move the snow shovels to that prime spot.

In Summary

Regardless of which solution you choose, the most important step is to begin. A qualified design consultant can help you work out a storage solution that best suits your needs and budget.

If you are a resident of Long Island you have an exclusive opportunity to obtain a No Obligation FREE Consultation from Prestige Garage.

Call us today and book in your complimentary consultation and before you know it, your garage will be transformed to a place of pride.