It is another sunny, summer Saturday here in Los Angeles, California. I texted a friend to see if he wanted to watch the Kings game later. Much to my dismay I received back, “Can’t. Cleaning out the garage.” So sad. 

And it is totally unnecessary. There is no need to spend a weekend cleaning out a garage, year after year. This dismal doom can be mostly avoided by taking control of your garage. Here are five ways to show your garage who is boss. 

1. Keep Your Cars in Your Garage

This is a piece of advice that is so obvious it sounds counterintuitive. One of the best ways to keep your garage clean and organized is to use your garage for your cars. You can’t fill a garage with junk when your car is in the way. Right?

Right.

Not to mention storing your car in a garage spares your car’s paint job a pounding from the weather and will lower your car insurance premiums. 

2. Hang Your Tools on a Peg Board 

When of your dining room chairs has a loose screw that is threatening to collapse the entire chair. You say to yourself, Hey, I can fix that! I just need to grab a screwdriver from the garage! Two hours later you’ve located four stuffed animals, a pair of pliers, some loose bolts, and a hammer. But no screwdriver.

There is an easy and cool solution. Hang your tools on the wall. You can either arrange your tools on a peg board, a rack, or specialized hangers. This also gives you an excuse to bring that work bench you’ve always wanted. What else compliments a showroom of tools better than a work bench? 

When you are finished organizing your tools grab a couple of empty coffee tins and start organizing your screws, nails, bolts, nuts, etc. One coffee tin for screws, one coffee tin for nails, and so on. Depending on the type of Do-It-Yourself jobs you do you may want to get even more granular — a coffee can for wood screws and another coffee can for machine screws. 

You can also use store bought organizers to store fasteners and screws, but I tend to like coffee cans. There is something deeply nostalgic about fishing a screw out of an repurpose Folger’s tin.

3. Install Shelving 

There are a ton of shelving solutions that are aimed squarely at getting your boxes off the floor. You can buy free standing shelving or shelves that screws (or bolts) directly to the wall. You can even find garage shelving that is designed to hang down from your garage’s rafters (this is an ideal way to store infrequently used stuff like ladders.

Another way you can get boxes off the floor is to install quarter inch plywood boards running across the rafters of your garage. This can serve as an “garage attic” where you can store seasonal items like Christmas decorations.

If you’ve made an effort to carefully install shelving do yourself another favor and buy some sealable plastic boxes. Plastic boxes will last a lot longer (possibly forever) than cardboard boxes and do a better job of protecting the stuff you are trying to store. 

4. Label Everything

Either buy a label maker or a couple rolls of masking tape and a marker. Now label everything. Even if you know what is in a box today, label it. Why? This will prevent you from the, “Well I know the Christmas decorations are in THERE!” syndrome. Labeling keeps you from guessing and prevents you from making a mess when you guess wrong. 

If you want to get really serious, after packing a box for storage, write out an inventory list of what’s in the box (1 Xmas wreaths, 4 boxes Christmas bulbs). This technique is particularly effective if you have multiple boxes filled with similar items (.i.e. Christmas decorations).

5. Don’t Store Used Chemicals

Paint, household cleaners, and automotive fluids are all considered household hazardous waste and you can’t put them in your normal curbside side trash. So many people store used chemicals in their garage. This is a bad idea on multiple levels of bad.

Firstly, an excess number of poorly store chemicals creates a fire hazard that can damage or destroy your home. Secondly, chemicals laying around your garage pose a hazard to small kids and pets. Instead of storing household hazardous chemicals drop them off at a city approved drop off center. Or call a hauling service like Green Clean Junk Removal Services to haul away old paints, cleaners, etc.

Getting control over your garage takes a little time, a little effort, and a lot of planning. But the results can be amazing. You not only reduce clutter but you turn your garage into another show piece inside your home. 

1. Organize and Install Shelving

You can clean out your garage a lot of times without ever throwing anything out. Organize first. Install some shelving solutions to get boxes and crates of stuff off the floor. Label each box so you know where everything is and where to find it. If you have tools stored in your garage consider installing a pegboard to arrange your tools. Also tools neatly hung on a wall above a workbench makes for an excellent little show piece for your garage.

2. Don’t Store Hazardous Materials in Your Garage

People often store paint, automotive fluids, and cleaners in your garage. While its tempting to store all the chemicals, fluids, and paints you aren’t using in your garage we strongly advise against this. Instead take unused and unwanted hazardous chemicals to a drop-off center that handles household hazardous materials. Most cities have them.

3. Donate, Recycle, and Throw Away

Many of the things in your garage are things you’ll never use again. It is doubtful that your Thirty year old son will ever need or want his rocking horse. But that same rocking horse could make a child’s day when donated to charity. So when you are cleaning out your garage make donation to charities and thrift shop your first avenue of disposal.

Recycle as much as you can. You’d be surprised at what can be recycled. From boxes to yard waste most everything can be recycled. 

For items that are simply trash that can’t be recycle, well, throw them away. If you’ve got a fairly full garage or a large garage you may want to consider renting a dumpster for a weekend so you can get rid of all the trash stored in your garage in one fell swoop.

These are some Power Garage clean out tips. The biggest thing when it comes to garage cleans out is to just do it and once you’ve done it keep your garage clean so you won’t have to do it again.

1. I made a plan and stuck to it

Eventually. Like everyone else I procrastinated cleaning out my garage for about six months. I didn’t want to think about it. I avoided doing anything about it. Until I needed to find my set of golf clubs for a business trip to Las Vegas. After four hours I found my golf clubs, lost my mind, and said I’ve got to clean out my garage. So a couple of weeks later I took my two week summer vacation and said, “On Saturday I am doing a garage clean out…” and did it.

2. I rented a dumpster

I knew I had a lot of trash — particular old, empty moving boxes — stacked up in the garage. Instead of hauling them to a landfill (which is problematic in Los Angeles because most landfills are in places like Calabasas) I rented a dumpster and had it dropped in my driveway. So when I started my garage clean out I could just toss trash straight into the dumpster. When I was finished I just called the dumpster company and had it hauled away.

3. I sorted my chemicals and took them to a disposal facility

I couldn’t put the paint I had stored in my garage in the dumpster or the regular trash. So I collected all my paint, boxed it up, and took it to a collection facility in the San Fernando Valley. The city of Los Angeles runs these collection centers and generally has them open every Saturday.

4. I donated a lot of stuff and did it immediately

As I got deeper into the garage clean out I started to really pile up a lot of stuff I wanted to donate to Goodwill. So instead of waiting I made periodic runs to the local Goodwill collection point in my neighborhood in Los Angeles. This minimized the risk of the stuff going back into the garage.

5. I bought shelves to organize my remaining stuff

I bought shelves and pegboards for my tools to organize my garage and keep boxes off the ground. 

Ultimately my garage clean took a weekend but it was totally worth it. Now I have more space and I can put my car in my garage. Yeehaw!

Top Five Clean Out Services in Northridge:

1. Garage Clean Out Services

No one likes cleaning out a garage. It is one task everyone puts off until the last minute, or puts off indefinitely. That is why junk removal companies off garage clean out services. A junk removal company in Northridge comes to your garage, pulls everything out, gets rid of all your junk, and leaves you with a cleaned out garage.

2. Backyard Clean Out Services

Backyards just seem to accumulate junk. You always end up storing scrape lumber, old toys, bicycles, and on and on. What should be a great little gathering area turns into a holding area for junk. Junk removal companies in Northridge come to your house and haul away debris and junk that has been haunting your backyard.

3. Storage Unit Clean Out Services

Storage Units are notoriously hard to clean out once they’ve been packed with stuff. Storage Unit Facilities often charge hefty fees for the use of their own dumpster. Junk removal services in Northridge provide a alternate method of cleaning out storage units. A junk removal company brings  a truck and empties out a storage unit, then hauls away the contents.

4. Office Clean Out Services

When a company moves from office to office they’ll need to get rid of old office equipment and furniture. They may need to completely breakdown an office and remove shelving and lighting as well. Junk removal services in Northridge provide office clean out services to help companies clean out offices and move from location to location.

5. Foreclosure Clean Out

This is sometimes referred to as a foreclosure trash out. This service basically removes any left behind junk and trash from a foreclosed home or building, and gets a home ready to show. Many junk removal companies in Northridge, California do a brisk business in foreclosure trash outs and clean outs.