As summer comes to a close you might be looking to pack up your yard in preparation for colder temps and more frequent rain and snow. If you’re going to store your summer gear in your garage now is the perfect time to get it organized and cleaned up. Not only will this make packing up faster and easier, but unpacking next year will be a breeze and you can get right back to enjoying all manner of cookouts and backyard events.
1. Prep
Before you start organizing, it is wise to first take inventory of what you actually use in your garage. If there are items that see consistent year-round use then you should put them aside to either be moved elsewhere or placed last so that you can be assured that they are always accessible.
Conversely, if there are items that haven’t left their spot in a couple of years it’s probably a good idea to move on from them, whether that be by donating, selling, or hiring a dumpster and binning them.
Once you have a good idea of what you’re going to be moving around, you should make sure you have a small area outside of the garage (and out of the way of any entry/exit points) to house bulkier items so you don’t end up fighting through piles of stuff while organizing.
The final step before beginning in earnest is getting lots and lots of storage: shelving, bins, wall hooks, and anything else that can take items off the ground.
2. Getting underway
Once you’ve set aside the necessary items and space, it’s time to get to organizing. You should focus your effort in sections, doing so will reduce stress and create convenient staging areas to envision how your storage solutions will fit in your fully cleaned garage. Items should be sorted by function and size; with similar items all being close to one another and larger items closer to the floor.