“Our home is our castle” as the old saying goes and homeowners spend billions each year to make them just that. However, the one room of our home where the door is open daily for the entire world to see tends to be the most unsightly, poorly utilized and neglected.

If you are like most people, you are in love with your stuff and are not going to part with it easily. Many of you have every tool and gadget known to mankind. The only problem is that you cannot find most of it when you need it. Don’t act like you don’t know what I am talking about. We can all remember a time when we got ready to do a project and had to repurchase the supplies because we could not find the ones we knew we already had…somewhere.

But here are some basic questions you need to be asking yourself if you are truly committed to winning the war on clutter in your garage:

• Do I really need three lawnmowers (one of which doesn’t work), two edge trimmers and 46 flower pots?

• What good is it doing me to have so much stuff and not being able to find it when I really need it or remember that I even have it?

• Does it make sense to park my expensive cars in the driveway or on the street because my garage is full of a bunch of things far less valuable “that I might need someday?”

Where do I begin?

There are some things you need to think about before you dive in to your garage organizing project to ensure that the outcome will be the one you are looking for. I know you are anxious to get started, but just trust me on this. You need to think about how you want to use your garage and how you want it to look when you are finished with this project. In simplest terms, you need a plan. It doesn’t have to be a complex one at all, but you need a clear vision so you will know when you have achieved success.

Analyze your needs

Before you can analyze how you want to use your garage in the future, you need to consider how you have been using it up to now. Some questions to ask yourself include:

• Has your garage been used to park cars?

• Do you have a functional workbench area? Is it large enough?

• How many bicycles and other types of large sporting equipment do you store out there?

• Has your garage become a disorganized maze of boxes and garbage bags and you have no clue what is inside any of them?

• Do you store a lot of lawn and garden equipment, lawnmowers, a snow blower and patio furniture in the off season?

• Are you using wall and ceiling space effectively?

• Are you storing a lot of large and bulky items which are making your garage less functional and roomy?

Consider the elements

Not all garages are created equally. Some of them

If you live in a humid climate, you will not want to store photographs, important papers or clothing in your garage for long periods of time because they will mildew. I would encourage you to store photographs in archival boxes on the upper shelves of a closet in the house rather than taking a chance on storing them in the garage for even short periods of time. If you decide to do so anyway, then invest in containers which are air-tight and keep the moisture out.

Depending upon where you live, temperatures in your garage can easily exceed 120 degrees in the summer. Is this where you want to store your candles, furniture, your old wedding dress and other family heirlooms?

Plan Your Project

We have all heard the riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?” with the answer being “One bite at a time.” The same approach holds true for your garage. One of the cardinal rules for any organizing project you undertake is to break the project down into small, manageable pieces. Simply put, this means that it is not wise for most of you to plan on tackling the entire project in one day. You will defeat yourself before you even get started! By breaking the job down, your goal becomes much more realistic and attainable.

Instead, decide how much time you plan to spend on this at any given time and choose a realistic task which can be completed within that designated time frame. If you have only two hours, it would not be wise to empty the entire garage and expect to be able to put everything back in an orderly fashion. However, it would be very realistic and much more manageable to clean off the top of your workbench, organize your tool box or sort your paint supplies in that amount of time.

Once you have devised a reasonable plan of attack, then you are ready to start organizing!

Barry J. Izsak is the President of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and has been helping residential and corporate clients nationwide get organized since 1996. He is author of the book Organize Your Garage In No Time (Que) ©2005. Barry is a national speaker, founder of ARRANGING IT ALL™ http://www.ArrangingItAll.com in Austin, Texas and an authorized consultant for the revolutionary software, Kiplinger’s Taming the Paper Tiger®.

Barry is a lively presenter and well known for his passion and quick wit. His keynote presentations are in high demand and he is asked to lead seminars and workshops at major corporations from coast to coast. He has been featured in hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, as well as on television and radio talk shows throughout the nation.

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