Home Organization Project 31

This week’s home organization project – also known as get rid of stuff or move – was our garage and can we have a drum roll, please? Scratch that. Mini-drum roll, please. It’s still an old garage that only recently had rats, squirrels, and spiders living in it.

At least now it’s an old garage without cob-webs and creatures. My husband, Brad, told me my expectations about what our garage would look like when we finished were unrealistic. He’s right. I wanted it to look like a showroom. (All of the ‘before’ pictures are here.) I’m an eternal optimist so my expectations are always too high.

Yes, better, but still an old garage that’s held together by metal strapping + 50,000 nails – I know this because we ‘fixed’ the garage ourselves several years ago. While Brad held the metal straps in place, I used our friend’s nail gun and discovered my love of nail guns! When the garage finally tips over; it’ll go down in one piece.

Before…

During….

After….

Home Organization Project Week #31

1. Weekly. This week’s project: the garage – which included my husband’s beloved wood stack!
2. Small. This was not small! This took all day but we celebrated with cold beer and chips + guacamole when we were done.
3. Clear and clean. After taking almost everything out of the garage, we swept and vacuumed. Do shop vacs actually work or are they just the noisiest appliances around?
4. Get set. We had several items from the garage go into the basement tool room – that will be a project! – and several items from the basement went into the garage.
5. Pack it out. We got rid of several items – 3 cheers for ‘Free’ Craig’s List! – and we have a huge stack on the driveway that needs dealing with – it ain’t pretty – but it’s progress. The scrap wood recycling center is in our future!
6. Stop buying. We did not buy a single item for the garage – and got rid of a lot more than I had hoped. The punching bag we borrowed from our neighbors is getting returned to them, too. Hanging in our basement, it got punched too hard and came out of the rafter (!!!). I don’t think the garage is sturdy enough to handle those kind of blows. If you’ve got teenagers – or ever been one – you know what I’m talking about. Both my son and daughter have pummeled that bag.
7. Less is more. True. Yesterday, I went get my bike and didn’t run into anything or knock stuff over while getting it out of the garage. That, my friends, is progress.

Two big, dreaded projects are done – this one and my sewing studio – and we’re 31 weeks into the year. Next year, look for me to make a really, easy to accomplish ‘New Year’s Resolution’ and not this every single week, lots of work type resolution. I know doing it every week was so that we could keep it easy but the garage was anything but easy! Yes, I am glad we’re clearing through our home of 19-years but honestly I’ll be very happy to hit ‘publish’ on week #52.

What are you working organizing and sorting through this week?

52 weeks of home organization

As part of our New Year’s resolution, we’re cleaning out a different area of our house every week this year. Find all of the “weekly home organization projects” – or click the image below.