It’s pitiful that it’s taken us this long to whip the garage into shape but, then again, this is what our garage looked like when we moved in – pretty much filled to the brim with random things left over from the renovation.  Not pretty!!

Fast forward one year, and our garage still looked like this:

I know, there’s no excuse!!  I’m blaming it partially on being a DIY-er – I hate to get rid of anything that could even possibly be used in some sort of project sometime in the future.  Everything has potential, right?  Of course, the other explanation for the disaster of a garage is that I have a serious problem when it comes to tackling large mounds of junk – I get intimidated and wind up just leaving it there for way too long.  Sad, I know.

After awhile, we kind of stopped trying and would just leave things wherever they happened to fall.

Am I the only one guilty of this?

Anyway, over the weekend I had finally had enough.  The weather was beyond gorgeous and I was suddenly filled with inspiration – I was going to tackle the garage (and luckily my hubby was more than willing to jump in and help).  Here was my plan:

1.  Make piles. We started out with 4 main piles – trash, garage sale, keep in the garage, and take in the house to go through.  The small trash went straight into the garbage can and the bigger stuff went to our side yard to wait for bulk trash pickup.  The garage sale stuff migrated to the side of the garage where it will live until we finally get around to having a garage sale, and the stuff that we needed to go through went into the house.  At that point, all that was left was the stuff that needed to stay in the garage.

As a random aside, we found a box of old wallpaper – remember the fuzzy gold stuff from our entryway and the black & white flocked wallpaper from our bordello-inspired powder room?

Yup, that’s it!  That gave us quite a giggle.

2.  Make smaller piles. The “stay in the garage” stuff was then divided and organized – moving blankets were folded and put in boxes, empty storage containers were stacked, Christmas goodies were piled together, garden hoses were rolled up, etc.

3.  Find places for stuff. We decided to put the smaller things on the shelves to keep them from getting unruly – all the bigger stuff went around the perimeter of the garage.  This might not be the approach that everybody would take, but it works for us because it leaves the middle of the garage open for cars.

4.  Whip out the broom. I was shocked by how much random debris we had in the garage – dirt, leaves, dust, you name it it was in there.  You might want to wear a bandana or something around your nose and mouth so that you don’t breathe all of that nastiness in – I was sneezing and stuffy for the rest of the day, so clearly I should have thought ahead on that one!!

After just a few hours of work, this is how our garage looks now:

You might not see a huge difference, but let me tell ya – now we can actually find things and my car gets to live in the garage instead of the driveway.  I’m a happy camper!!

Of course, there’s still a ton of things that I’d like to do to make the garage even more functional, and maybe even a little attractive.  I’m envisioning a system of wall hooks to hang our real estate stuff, a painted garage floor & a new paint job on the walls & shelving (it has a gross, speckled look now), and maybe even a little work table in that back right-hand corner next to the sink.  We’ll see if another bout of motivation strikes!

What about you guys?  Did you tackle any projects around the house?  And am I the only one that could only fit one car in her two-car garage?

I know, I know – it sounds crazy.  Before I get into the specifics, let me give the background for this story…

When we were deciding how to renovate our kitchen, everyone that we talked to was all atwitter about our lack of pantry space – we were getting rid of upper cabinets in a lot of areas, and the kitchen did not have a built-in pantry.  What was a girl to do??  I was considering a lifetime of takeout and fast food when all of a sudden – I got it!!!

What about that water heater closet in the garage?  Before you think I’m crazy, hear me out – the water heater closet was accessible from the garage, but backed up into the laundry room which was . . . you guessed it – right next to the kitchen!

So now I had a space for the pantry, but where was the water heater going to go?  Straight to the attic, as it turned out.  That little baby made the move with no trouble and was soon joined by another water heater friend, and they lived happily ever after.  Moral of the story – stick your water heater in the attic and use the extra space for something a LOT more fun, like a pantry or a closet.  Brilliant!!

Once the water heater was relocated, we patched up the garage access to the closet, made an opening in the laundry room, put in some shelves and got right down to enjoying our new pantry.  Problem solved!!