As the weather gets warmer and the spring cleaning urge hits, it’s a good time to take stock of your garage. Is it a functional space or just a repository for junk? Are there more logical ways to store your belongings?
Before you rush out and buy new shelving and cabinets, professional organi
zer Cindy Tyner recommends putting some serious thought into how you want to use your garage.
She says the No. 1 mistake people make is pulling everything out of the garage first and then getting overwhelmed when they try to cram it all back in.
“People go out and buy things, like storage systems and bins, and say, ‘This is what I need to get me organized,’ but the things don’t fit the purposes they need,” said Tyner, who owns an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based organizing business called Functional Spaces.
One way to get your priorities straight is to purge all unnecessary items before you bring in storage tools.
That should include anything you haven’t used in the past year or even six months, said Phil Clarke, whose Woodinville-based company, The Man Garage, specializes in custom garage interiors.
“They must clean things up,” Clarke said. “They must throw things away.”
Once you’re organized, you have to work to stay organized, Clark said. That means even more selective pruning of your belongings.
“You continue to do it. That’s really the key,” he said.
Once you’ve decided how to use your garage, here are some tips to help you finish the job:
Clear it
Pick a sunny day and clear out all your belongings. Decide what will stay, what can be donated and what should be thrown away.
“If you haven’t used it in a year, you need to ask yourself, Does it make sense to keep it?” said Sean Hunt, president of Garage Specialists Inc., a San Bernardino, Calif.-based company that cleans and organizes a few hundred garages a year.
Clean it
Sweep and wash the floors and walls. A fresh coat of paint can brighten the walls, and paints made especially for garage floors protect them from oil and gas stains. Home Depot, for example, sells gallon cans of Rust-Oleum Epoxy Concrete Floor Paint for $31.97. A gallon covers up to 400 square feet.
Store it
Consider what kind of storage you need. Costs vary significantly, from $40 plastic shelving to $350 steel shelving. You can use old kitchen cabinets or buy new ones. Gladiator GarageWorks, a division of Whirlpool Corp., makes heavy-duty plastic tracks that run along the wall and can be fitted with cabinets, hooks or baskets. A two-pack of 48-inch-long tracks is $29.99; a six-pack of bins that fits into the tracks is $14.99.
Kris Nielson, the CEO of Monkey Bar Storage, a Rexburg, Idaho-based company that makes steel shelving systems, said people can spend up to $10,000 on custom garages. His company, which has 68 outlets in the United States and Canada including Seattle, charges an average of $1,500 per garage to install steel shelving systems, which he says are designed for durability and efficiency.
“This is not your dining room. It’s your garage,” he said.
Use space wisely
For items you only need occasionally, such as holiday decorations, consider overhead storage units.
A 4-square-foot Racor platform, for example, holds up to 250 pounds and can be lowered with a cable system. Hyloft makes a smaller, less expensive overhead storage system, measuring 45 square inches.
If you want a workbench, consider one that folds into the wall.
Be logical
Store things close to where you need them. All the gardening equipment should go together, for example, and the bike helmets should be next to the bikes.
Use the outside
Consider a deck box for children’s toys or a storage shed for gardening tools. Lowe’s sells Rubbermaid’s Roughneck storage shed for $299, for example.
Hire an organizer
Organizers can give you good ideas. Costs vary by region and project. They will charge you more, for example, to buy and install storage units than to work with units you already have.
Hunt said his company will fix up a garage in a day for an average of $1,500 or so. They also come back and do tune-ups when you need them.
Tyner gives free 30- to 60-minute consultations and then charges $40 an hour, although she notes that organizers’ rates vary widely by region.
Herald writer Sarah Jackson contributed to this report. Contact Jackson at 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Resources
Garage Logix of Lynnwood offers custom garage interiors with packages starting at about $3,000. Garage murals are also available. Contact Eric Koho at 866-277-7630 or see www.garagelogix.com.
The Man Garage of Woodinville specializes in custom garage interiors with packages ranging from $1,500 for a small garage to more than $8,000 for garages with custom cabinets and special flooring. Contact Phil Clarke 206-250-5288 or see www.themangarage.com.
Monkey Bar Storage Solutions of Seattle charges an average of $1,500 per garage to install steel shelving systems. Contact Kevin McCallister at 425-282-5315 or kevin@monkeybarstorage.com or see [URL]www.monkeybarstorage.com;http://www.monkeybarstorage.com[URL].[/URL]
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