9 Reasons You Shouldn’t Organize Your Garage this Spring and 7 Reasons You Should

Spring has almost sprung in Central Ohio (maybe only one or two evil snow days left). Your spouse is cranking up the spring honey-do list. There may be no space of your house which needs to be freshened up after a waaaaaay-too-long winter than your garage. It’s gritty, grimy, nasty, bug-infested mess from the salt and dirt which are the winter seasons oh-so-lovely remnants (does it sound like I’m not a Winter fan?).

While sweeping, cleaning and organizing the garage is NOBODIES idea of a good time, you can’t ignore this space. You’re driving your SUV into it at least two times a day.

You know your current garage gives you anxiety. Your kids sporting equipment in a jumbled mess on the floor. Tools haphazardly thrown on tilting and bent open metal shelves. Yard tools propped up against the walls which you’re praying don’t topple onto your new car.

You may be debating. Do I:

• Do a quick sweep and clean out like every year or ….
  
  
• Invest in a garage cabinetry, workbench, overhead storage or organizational slat wall system and finally gain control over this messy garage.

In this article I’d like to help you figure out which approach is best for you.

Maybe you’d rather just sweep it out and call it a day. Not deal with figuring out a better organization system like your spouse is begging you to do – or spend the money on it. Kick the problem to the curb for another day. I get it. For you, I’ve offered up 9 (hopefully…. humorous) reasons you shouldn’t organize your garage.

Others are sick and tired of the annual Spring sweep out routine. You want more storage space. You want to eliminate the anxiety of the visual clutter. I’m offering up 7 reasons your should use a professional garage organizing (cabinets, storage walls, workbenches, overhead bins) system.

At the end of this article I’d love to hear your comments and additional reasons – funny or not (although I have to say I love the funny ones more) – you should, or shouldn’t organize your garage.

9 Reasons You Shouldn’t Organize Your Garage This Spring

Reason #1 – You loved hide and seek as a kid  

I remember when I was 10 years old in my ‘rough and tumble hood.’ OK – if I’m coming clean I grew up in a typical suburban middle-class Cleveland Ohio neighborhood. I loved playing hide and seek with my brother, sister and friends. I’d look in their favorite hiding places (behind the bushes, behind my Mom’s massive boat of a car – the Lincoln Mark IV) so I could tag them and then they would be ‘it.’

If you love still hide and seek – don’t organize your tools, toys and sporting goods in your garage. It will give you the chance to relive your youth.

Reason #2 – Picking up your son’s smelly football pads and daughter’s field hockey sticks keeps you grounded – besides you know how busy they are  

Kids are SO busy these days with homework and extra curriculars. It takes a lot of effort to put things away. Besides you have no storage cabinets in the garage for these ‘tasty morsels’ from their sports team d’jour. You’re OK cleaning up after them. Isn’t that what loves all about?

Reason #3 – You love how your garage reminds you of reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies

Yes – the inside of your Dublin, New Albany or Upper Arlington home is almost drool-worthy enough to be in an issue of Architectural Digest. Your garage, on the other hand, keeps you down-to-earth. It brings out the inner Beverly Hillbillies Jed Clampett in you (for those of you old enough to remember this show – and yes, I’m old enough to remember!).

Off The Grid

Reason #4 – You like being a human ‘economic growth engine.’ Buying 2 of everything spurs the economy.  

After you spent 20 minutes looking, and not finding your tool set you started accusing everyone in the family of using taking it – AS IF any of them really want to touch it – let alone use it. Frustrated you say, ‘screw it’ and go buy another one. A week later your wife uncovers the allegedly lost tool set under a tub of Christmas decorations in the garage. Sure – this is a bummer – but at least you’re helping keep the economy humming. 

Reason #5 – Scraping snow and ice off your car parked outside in the Winter (because there is no room inside) builds up your biceps

Scraping off your car off early on a cold, dark, dreary Central Ohio morning (because you have so much clutter in the garage you can’t park inside) is invigorating. It builds your muscles and gives you the mental fortitude of an Ultimate Warrior.

Reason #6 – You feel a deeper connection to the animal kingdom sharing your dog and cat’s food with random critters. They enjoy a ‘buffet’ in the middle of the night  

You’re late for work. You open the man-door to your garage. You see a chewed up bag of dog or cat food (and plastic trash bags ripped open) which were a neighborhood critters late night feast. You think – why didn’t my son remember to shut the garage door. You have more than a few choices swear words swirling inside your mind. It would have been nice if these open cat and dog food bags were behind closed cabinetry doors.

Reason #7 – You find it mentally stimulating to guess how many species of bugs you can ID when you sweep out the garage floor

Why fill the cracks with a new garage floor and get rid of all the fun you had in 7^th grade Science class figuring out the bug types you uncover from sweeping your garage floor. Some of these creepy crawly things have as many legs as all the dancers in the Rockettes put together!

Reason #8 – Your wife loves the smell of wood and metal shavings on the basement floor when you’re knee-deep in your Tim “The Tool Man Taylor” Home Improvement projects  

Why deny your wife her remembrance of watching the boys in Junior High shop class (back then I’m not sure you’d finally many girls in shop). Seeing and smelling the sawdust on the basement floor (because you don’t have a workbench in the garage) keeps her memories alive.  

Reason #9 – The smell of mud on the new kitchen floor brings the outdoors in

Sure – there are benefits of having a shoe storage cabinet in the garage, but then you wouldn’t have the opportunity of smelling and cleaning up the fresh clay (AKA dirt) off the kitchen floor with your brand-new Dyson vacuum.

7 Reasons you Should Organize Your Garage This Spring

Reason #1 – You’ll save time and frustration finding things

According to the Lost and Found Survey the average American spends 2.5 days each year looking for missing things. While finding the remote is the biggest lost and found time-eater-upper – locating hand tools, yard tools, extension is also a major pain. Garage cabinetry, slat walls and workbenches will keep your tools, tubs and garage storage in one place for you.

Reason #2 – You’ll create storage opportunities you never even knew existed

If I asked you what’s the tallest room in your house – what would you guess? Most only think inside the house and say the family room. However, in most homes the tallest ‘room’ (although you may not think of it as a room) is the garage. It has 10’, 11’ and even 12’ high ceilings. Are you using this volume to your storage advantage? Tall garage cabinets, overhead storage units can double and even quadruple your home’s overall storage.

Reason #3 – Visual clutter and open shelving makes you nervous

I can relate to this reason for garage cabinetry because I live with it. My wife Rose HATES visual clutter. On the kitchen counter I have a designated bin for my books, cell phone, and miscellaneous papers. Her counters will stay clean – or I might be sleeping in the basement.

In the garage it’s IMPOSSIBLE for your storage to look neat with open shelving. With durable laminate garage cabinets doors your stuff (‘er mess) is at least hidden from view. Yeh, you!

Reason #4 – You can sweep and hose underneath your storage units

The small space below standard metal or plastic garage shelves is ‘party central’ for ugly bugs and dirt. Cleaning this area out is tough. You try desperately to put the broom in sideways to get the dirt, leaves and bugs out.

New garage cabinet lines are hung to the wall (6” to 12” off the garage floor) so you can easily sweep or hose underneath.

Reason #5 – Keep the kids safe and the grandkids safer

The most dangerous chemicals are stored in the garage – for good reason. Gas cans. Paint cans. Bug spray. Round up. The garage can be a chemist dream room – but your worst hospital nightmare is if your kids or grandkids get into harmful substances. Putting a lock on garage cabinetry eliminates this nightmare. There is NOBODY (at least most of the time) you don’t love as much as the kids.

Reason #6 – You can keep the outside, outside 

Spring exterior home improvement projects can get your mojo running. Countless trips up and down the basement steps to get tools, drop clothes, hardware etc. You swear you’re getting more exercise than you’ve had all year on your Elliptical (and your wife is sure of it!).

Having tools and your workbench in the basement isn’t great when you’re doing outside project like painting, adding new trim, installing new boards on the deck or caulking windows and doors. A garage workbench cuts down this back and forth. You’ll get the job done faster. You’ll be on the golf course quicker.

Reason #7 – The dirt will stay where it belongs – NOT inside the house!

Planting perennials and spreading mulch in the Spring are dirty jobs. Racking leaves in your backyard on a gloomy November day is a sloppy mess. The old tennis shoes and boots you use for these projects are a disaster when you’re done. You can keep the dirt outside the home with a shoe storage cabinet in your garage. You’ll love keeping the smell and mud out of your entryway and kitchen floors.

Conclusion

There is no way to sugar-coat it. Organizing your Columbus (or anywhere for that matter) garage is not a tasty task. However – there are ways to make this space easier to use – and quicker to clean – with garage cabinetry systems. You’ll enjoy the benefits of ‘creating’ new storage space, eliminating countless trips up and down the basement stairs and keeping the mud where it belongs – outside.

Do you have a funny (or serious) reason to do – or not to do – a garage organization project? Please share below – or give us a call. I love to laugh, so I’ll give you bonus points for the funny reasons to not organize your garage.

How can I (and my team) help you?

If you’re not sure how to organize your garage, we would love to help you. Call Innovate Home Org in Columbus for a Free 3D garage design. Give us a call at 614-545-5888 in Columbus or 216-658-1290 in Cleveland.

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Follow me on Twitter @Mike_Foti or my companies’ @InnovateBuild and @InnovateHomeOrg.