Garages may have started out as a place to store cars, but gradually they’ve become a place to store almost everything else, from sports equipment to dog food to holiday decorations.
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 organizer 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.