Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!
In today’s 5 minutes we’re going to express-organize your garage (yes, I’m serious!).
Remember: clarity, freedom, and order. Let’s begin.
Day 10: Organize Your Garage
Step 1: Get a large box or bag (you may need several). Quickly scan your garage and toss into your box/bag any:
- Junk
- Outgrown toys and clothes (if sorting through boxes for donate-able items is an obstacle to getting it done, then simply toss it all)
- Ancient seasonal items, holiday decorations, etc
- Rusty or broken tools
- Rusty or broken gardening implements
- Rusty or broken garden furniture
- Prehistoric gardening supplies
- Memorabilia (unless it’s genuinely meaningful to you – and if it’s been gathering dust out here for decades, then let’s be honest, it probably isn’t)
- Stuff from when you last moved that’s never been unpacked (if you haven’t opened it you don’t need it)
- Notes and books from school, college, etc
- Accoutrement for abandoned hobbies, sports and interests (if you take it up again, buy what you need afresh; it will cost you less overall when you take stress, clutter and mental clarity into account)
- Anything you haven’t used in the past 12 months.
Step 2: Pop your boxes/bags into the trash or take them the car for a trip to the tip.
And you’re done!
Got an Extra 5 Minutes?
- Consider whether you want to install shelving, hooks, etc, to better organize your garage space.
- Make a note to buy shelves, hooks, and supplies, and/or or to contact a handyman.
Now isn’t that a beautiful thing?
The 30-Day Organize-athon Mantra
Move fast. Don’t overthink. Let it go!
Leave Your Comment Below…
Please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.
See you tomorrow!
[Image by aussiegall]
OK, I’m counting this one done – we (hubby and I) worked for about 30 mins (does that count as 1 hour?) AFTER getting home from the 5th presentation of our Easter play!! I am exhausted, but I HAD to do my “chore” for the day. There is significant improvement in the garage, but this will be an on-going project. It is the only significate storage place in our house, the plan is to buy some hefty shelving and get everything off the floor!
Thanks for the kick start on this one!
Well that was daunting!
I basically went across the tool benches dumping anything that I didn’t know what it was good for. I’ll leave the organizing of the tools up to my husband!
Cyn
I like that idea of 5 min a day on a daily basis! That just might work for me!
Day 10 done!!!!!!!!
Shed is done! 14 bags of empty bottles had accumulated during the winter. And we had time to re-pot a plant! 🙂
Well I don’t keep anything in the garage (men’s domain you know!!) So instead I spent 5 minutes in my little outside area I keep some gardening stuff. Hope this counts as done!
We don’t háček a garage. So I cleaned out my car instead. I think that still counts right.we also cleaned the house. I swept and found a huge dust bunny under the couch and an even bigger one under the bed. Ewes. So I will go with done.
Very sore back …..got 5 minutes in the locker done because I don’t have a garage
Michelle, thank you so much for re-clarifying the purpose of these 5-minute challenges for those of us who have major decluttering & reorganization needs. It is easy to get discouraged when the need is so huge. I want to tell you, though, that these challenges have actually given me hope that I CAN make progress. As you stated, they have become a springboard for more in-depth decluttering for me.
I deal with chronic illness and for the past 6-7 years have had such low energy that I haven’t kept up with anything but the most basic (i.e. laundry, meals) family needs. I live in a fairly small house, which means things seem to pile up a lot faster since there just isn’t enough storage for all of it (thus the need for decluttering!) I found your site a month or so ago and have been slowly implementing a lot of your ideas. What has changed with me has more to do with what goes on in my head than with much measureable progress, although I have actually been making progress as well.
The way you encourage your readers to just START, and then give practical, specific tasks that can be approached in “small bites” has given me renewed hope that I don’t have to live in an overwhelmed state anymore. You offer a lot of free tools, for which I am grateful. The thing I think that has made the most impression on me, though, is to realize I have developed a habit of NOT taking care of things/putting things away right away. Just making that ONE change (breaking this habit and creating a new habit of immediate action) has made a major difference already. It hasn’t changed my energy level, but my state of mind is much more positive.
My garage will be the last area in my home I try to conquer because there is so much that needs to be done INSIDE, but I believe now it CAN be conquered because I’m seeing change already in my home.
I just want to thank you for your encouragement, and for what I believe I will be able to (probably slowly) accomplish using the tools I am learning here.
This one will have to stay on my list for later. The garage (where my washer/dryer are) was built in 1943 and is currently holding everything I own that I don’t use on a daily basis and is ready to be bulldozed in the near future. So I have printed out the tips, and I will use them then to make my new garage be picture perfect!
This is an ongoing process that I work on everytime it’s nice outside and my son is in the driveway playing. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff out there! It was the dumping ground for all of our boxes when we moved in a year ago. I didn’t empty or put away everything, so it was time to get it going!
Done!
5 minutes for the garage? You’re kidding, right? 🙂
Looks so much better, and I swept out a winter’s worth of road sand that hitchhiked in on the car to boot!
lol. My son did this for me just yesterday. His time was a gift and my garage is tidy and cleaned. I am a lucky mom.
The garage was done not long ago so we decided to do the shed. A little smaller, but messy!!! Took about 3 hours, but it is imaculate! So nice to go in there, and no spiders 🙂
Lucked out on this one. Just cleaned out the luggage closet in our garage spot. We live in an apt. building. Got rid of 2 unused pieces!
this was a great one for my husband (and a good break for me!) All done!
No garage, so instead, I lugged the drafting table downstairs and cleaned out the dormer that it was blocking closed. Found a whole box of stuff I had saved for a consignment store. Heading over tomorrow. Woo hoo!
Never a lack of things to do, and thanks to y’all, never a lack of motivation!!Thanks!
Yahoo! Done ~ great feeling driving into a CLEAN garage! Who would have thought?! Thank you so very much!
Thisis my husband’s area, so I just fixed up the toy area for the 5 minutes. It is already undone, but I tried!
Ended up different than what I planned. Worked on fixing things, but I’m happy. 😀