Garage Organizing Day 1999

Do you ever feel like in order to clean the garage you'll need a wrecking crew?

It was New Years Day 1999 and I'd just finished organizing an area in the garage for my shipping escapades. WOW, did it feel good! I'd gotten so much more done in one day than I'd expected! It had turned into a WHOLE garage organizing day.

I suggest that whoever needs to start a cleaning/organizing endeavor get some teens and pay them a couple of dollars. The money is worth their moral support. When certain personality types have moral support and a bit of help organizing, it makes it easier to accomplish the task that seems overwhelming when done alone. Not only that, but it genuinely helps teenagers feel like they are needed and important as well as gives them a role to follow when we ask for their help.

Before I started I looked around the garage and tried to picture how I wanted to store everything, whether that would be in plastic bins or boxes. K-Mart was having a sale on their Sterilite. So I went over and bought more than what I thought I'd need. Don't you just hate when you get going on a good cleaning project and run out of storage bins?

When I got home we started by pulling 2 large trash cans into the garage and placing them strategically. I then told each of the girls where to stand so that I could hand or toss them things to put up or throw away. The stack of bins was near me with shipping labels and a sharpie marker.

It starts... I opened up a box, went through it, kept what I wanted and threw away what I didn't. I sorted in the bins as I went along. When a bin filled up, I'd write what was in it on the label, stick it on and hand it to one of the girls to put up. If there was anything I didn't want, I'd toss it over to be thrown away. This went on for about three hours before I could finally see the floor in the garage.

If or rather WHEN I have this to do over again, I am planning on going at it from a different angle. Next time I'm pulling everything out of the garage first. Then I'll go through, sort and throw out. This will leave me with labeled bins and empty shelves. It will be much easier to then put bins on shelves according to who the bin belongs to or what type of items are inside, etc.

Oh, one more thing. Set aside a whole day for this. Get someone to come over and talk things through while you work. If this is not something YOUR personality needs or can handle, ask someone to watch your children for the day and offer to do the same for her in return. In a nutshell, plan, plan, plan ahead and make a list of what you would like to accomplish! Then, prioritize what needs to be done. If you don't finish the whole project in one day, you will have at least gotten to a good start and finishing will be much easier.

Copyright © 1999 Susie Glennan

Bio: Susie Glennan is the President of The Busy Woman, Inc. - DBA: The Busy Woman's Daily Planner®. She has been featured in Smart Money Magazine, The Washington Post, and others. Her products have been featured in Real Simple and Parenting Magazines, CBS Early Show, San Antonio Living Show and many more!

Susie has been happily married since 1982. She is mom to 3, Homeschool Teacher, Toastmaster, Speaker and is Author of numerous articles that have been published in magazines, across the web and at www.thebusywoman.com