This past weekend may just be proof that I’ve become dangerously obsessed with organization and DIY projects: I spent the weekend at my parents’ house, and couldn’t keep from finding projects to complete. With my mom out of town for the weekend, my dad and I went crazy with an organizational overhaul of several spots around their new house. We spent the majority of Saturday cleaning up and straighten out the garage, which had become overwhelmed with clutter after they sold their old home and moved the final odds and ends to the new one.
Here’s a few of those messy “before” shots we all love so dearly:
As soon as my mom backed her car out of that garage and hit the road, we dove in, piling everything in the driveway and weeding out everything that could be Free-cycled or sold on Craigslist. Then, with a quick trip to Lowe’s, we got my dad’s pile of garden tools under control by installing rows of hooks up high on the garage wall.
The ladies who live on either side of my parents both happened to catch us in the act of organzing. They’re both uber-organized, so it was quite the complement to see them ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our handywork! Of course, they were also taking inventory of what tools they were going to borrow from us, now that those tools were all on display.
We hung the tools on the wall, sorted gardening items, salvaged a plastic shelving unit that was half in the garage and half in the basement, made one more long shelving unit out of my old college cinderblocks and boards. . . And with that, TA-DAH, we were done! I looked over the garage in all its finished splendor and couldn’t believe how clean it was.
Here’s a few up-close peeks at how we got the clutter under control:
We “contained” the gardening clutter in style – using some unused flower pots, we sorted small gardening tools, gloves, sprinklers, and garden shoes for easy access.
And my mom’s little roll-around gardening stool also stores the tools she uses most often. Last, but not least, we were really hung-up on how neat and tidy my dad’s tools looked on display.
As I headed home on Sunday my dad said “And I was worried I wouldn’t be able to entertain you all weekend!” Clearly he had NO idea what he was getting himself into!
What about you? Any great garage organization tips you can share?
2 Comments
Good work Jane! Your parents might consider some additional shelving on the “Gardening” wall to utlize the middle and upper parts of the wall if they make additional future purchases. Containers might also help to keep everything neatly in it’s place and maintain the great garage organizing work that you’ve done.
Kudos 🙂
I agree that the other wall has a lot of unused space that could be maximized for storage solutions, but my dad wasn’t quite ready to install anything yet. I have a feeling that late this fall we’ll need to add a shelving system, at which point I’d love to move all their storage to clear plastic bins so that everything is contained but easily seen.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your ideas!!
:),
Jane