Behind The Door: Our Blog

We hate to say it, but the garage can be a breeding ground for old things, unused household items and winter gunk. Unless you’re extremely on top of it, the garage can become slightly dysfunctional.

And the worst part is that cleaning and organizing the garage is overwhelming for many people, and rightfully so! Garages are typically an enormous storage container for things we don’t want in the house. Yikes!

If you’re saying, “this sounds like me,” don’t be ashamed, we don’t judge. In fact, we want to help you with your spring cleaning this year!

To help you get started, stay on track, and succeed, we’ve created a garage spring cleaning checklist we think you’re going to love.

Here are our recommendations for things you’re going to need for the job.

• Gloves
• Broom
• Towels
• All purpose cleaner
• Stool
• Duster (extendable ones work great for hard to reach places)
• Boxes and bags (trash bags work well)
• Permanent marker for marking things (you will see why later!)

Okay, now for the real stuff!

▢ Assess the situation

Is this a job that you can tackle in a day? How about a week? This initial step will let you evaluate how much you need to organize, store and clean. The preparation stage is key!

▢ Move everything out of garage

Moving nearly everything out of your garage gives you a great opportunity to organize your items and belongings into groups. For this, organize your items into the following:

• Stuff to throw away or donate

• Stuff to stay in place

• Stuff that needs to move somewhere else (see storage section)

Now that you have the piles created, it will let you know what must stay and what must go.

▢ Throw away and donate

This is arguably the most important step of them all. All of that stuff in the “throw away or donate pile” from the previous step. Yeah, it’s time to let go.

Looking to make some extra cash from your belongings? Have an awesome yard sale! The weather is beautiful and it’s a perfect time to have one. In fact, we’ll even tell you how to host the best yard sale!

▢ Dust the ceiling and rafters

We recommend starting high and finishing low when it comes to cleaning the garage. Start by dusting the rafters and cleaning up all of those cobwebs and dusty areas. Someone in your house is going to be very happy that there will be less spiders around!

▢ Sweep

Now that you’ve cleaned the top of the garage, begin sweeping every inch of the garage. This is going to feel great once you see how much dust, dirt and leaves you removed!

Tip: Don’t just sweep everything out of the garage onto the driveway/into the yard. Chances are the wind will blow it right back in! Use a dustpan and throw that filth away.

▢ Scrub

The garage floor is ready for hot water and all purpose cleaner. Scrub, scrub, scrub!

If your garage has some serious gunk built up, try using a pressure washer. If you don’t own one, they are available for rental at many home and hardware stores.

▢ Install shelves or other storage solutions (if needed)

Storage solutions are essential to having a clean and organized garage. Shelves and storage bins are great ways to organize and hide your items. Check your home and hardware stores to find the storage solutions that would best fit your garage.

▢ Reassemble the garage

Now that the garage is looking squeaky clean, it’s time to reassemble. Use all of the new free and clean space to organize your belongings. Looks good doesn’t it?

▢ Enjoy a clean and organized garage

Voila! Take a seat and appreciate how awesome your garage is now.

Pro tip: Stay on top of it! If you give your garage a quick cleaning every month, you shouldn’t have to worry about an extreme cleaning and organization job very often.

Hopefully this checklist inspires you to spend some quality time cleaning and organizing your garage this weekend or over the spring cleaning season. There’s no perfect way to do it, so feel free to use these steps out of order or modify whatever you need. Like we said before: we won’t judge you!