Step Five: Clean, Organize, and Celebrate!

Wow, doesn't it feel great to get that stuff out of your garage?

Now that you've cleared it out, it's time to organize and clean. A Shop Vac will be your friend at this stage, particularly if it has lots of attachments to get into the crevices and suck out the dust and dirt. 

As tempting as it is to start organizing before you're done decluttering, it's always best to get rid of the extra, unwanted stuff first. I used to buy totes reflexively every time I went to the hardware store. I ended up storing a lot of clutter. I was amazed at the number of empty totes I gave away after the big decluttering before we moved. 

When it comes to storage, there are a lot of systems out there. You can end up spending a lot of money on fancy matching bins. If that's your thing, cool. Personally, I prefer to own less, store less, and use containers I already own, matching or not. Remember, the purpose of storage is easy retrieval. If you're doubtful you'll ever use an item again, you can probably let it go.

Here's a before picture of the garage hobby room. Yikes. I still had stuff in there from my daughter's graduation open house ... last June. And there's Tim's time-trial bike leaning against the freezer. (How convenient. NOT.)

Here are some after pictures. Much better. 

Here's a shot of the main part of the garage. We installed a Gladiator wall system for hanging tools, and I love it. As you can see above, I keep most of my gardening tools right next to my potting table in a standing rack. I'm lazy about my tools, so I have to make it super-easy to put things away.

The final step is to celebrate a clean garage! How will you commemorate all your effort? 

Thanks for visiting. I hope this has been a helpful series. Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought!

Leanne Senter is the winner of my ebook giveaway! Thanks for your comment, Leanne, and enjoy the new Kindle!

Step Four: Deliver Your Stuff

Step four should be the easy step, right?

That's what I used to think. But often my plans to rid myself of clutter broke down when I procrastinated about actually dropping off the goods. 

Here's the thing: it actually hurts to get rid of clutter, according to brain researchers. Skeptical? Check out this article from Life Hacker. We do get attached to the things in our lives, even if they stress us out, and when we drop them off at a donation site, the brain registers that as pain (minor pain, but still). 

So what do we do about it?

Here's today's tip: as soon as you put that garage clutter into boxes, move the boxes to the trunk of the car, the sidewalk, the curb--whatever. Take the stuff to the donation site that day or as soon as possible. 

The longer it sits around, the more people will want to rifle through it, looking to retrieve their own stuff, and the more you will be tempted to retrieve things as well. The longer it sits around, the more energy and initiative it will require for you to drop it off. 

Don't just declutter! Deliver! Today!

Today is the last day for you to register for a free Kindle (plus some free decluttering books, including mine!). Make a comment on this blog post and you'll be entered to win. I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow!

Step Three: Declutter Your Stuff

Welcome back!

Are you ready for Step Three?

You've moved out the stuff that doesn't belong in your garage, and you've sorted the stuff that's left over into groups. Now let's take a hard look at what's in those piles so that we can move it out permanently! 

What's Worth Keeping

A perfectly useful object becomes clutter when it no longer serves a purpose in your life, whether that's a practical purpose or an aesthetic one. For some people, a little clutter is fine--even comfortable. For others (like me, for example), having things around that I don't need or want can be stressful. I'm a lot happier when I can keep clutter to a minimum. 

Today, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I use this object enough to justify owning it?
• Do I use this object for a special purpose or keep it because it means something special to me?
• Do I have more than one of these objects? Do I really need extras?
• Do I have a convenient way to store this object?
• Do I have the time, energy, and knowledge to maintain this object?

Creepy lifelike plastic rabbit = clutter.

Pack It Up, Move It Out

When you've decided what you no longer want to keep, sort that stuff into containers for delivery (that's our next step). Here are some possible destinations for garage clutter:

Tools and Materials Related to Construction or Landscaping

Habitat for Humanity ReStores
School building and construction trade programs
4-H programs
Community or school gardens


Recreational Equipment, Games, Toys, Hobbies
Scouting programs

Day cares, schools, after-school programs
YMCAs/YWCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other nonprofit community outreach programs

Appliances (Like that old beer fridge, maybe?)

Local utility collection programs

Recycling centers

Charities or nonprofits

For more ideas on resources, visit my resources page. 

How about you? What objects in your garage are going to stay, and what are going to go? Do you have stuff that reflects your aspirations rather than your reality? What charities or organizations will benefit from your donations? Leave your comments below and you'll be automatically registered to win a free Kindle! I look forward to hearing from you!

Step Two: Sort Your Stuff

Turn your attention now to the things that you want to keep in your garage. Give yourself plenty of room for this step--leave the vehicles outside temporarily. Start putting like things in groups. At this stage, don't make it too micro! The important thing is to see what you have. So, for instance, here are some possible categories. Which ones apply to your situation?

• landscaping and gardening
• home maintenance and repair
• sports equipment
• toys 
• hobbies
• hazardous materials
• food storage 
• grilling
• camping and recreation
• crap belonging to _________ (fill in name of family member)

If you can, assign every item in your garage to a group. You might start to notice that you have some duplicates or some items you haven't used in a long time. Maybe there are some things that represent activities you've left behind. One of my personal goals in decluttering is to live by Victorian designer William Morris' adage: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." There may not be much that's beautiful in your garage (unless you love your lawn mower), but there are plenty of things that are useful. Identifying what's truly useful is tomorrow's step ... so stay tuned!

Junk I removed from my garage that needs a new
home. Preferably not my home.

How many trowels does one gardener need? Hmm.
And why is that bicycle pump sitting there?

How have you grouped things in your garage? Any unusual categories? One of my unusual categories is Ironman triathlon (cross-referenced with crap belonging to). And how did you do with Step One? 

Leave a comment and you'll be registered for my Kindle giveaway on Friday!

Step One: Remove the Odds and Ends

Thanks for visiting today on Day One of my ebook launch! I'm excited to share some ideas with you this week. Feel free to share some of your own garage-cleaning ideas as well. 

Before You Begin: Inventory

Look around your space and consider your goals. Take just a few minutes to do this--much longer than that, and you could end up procrastinating. Not this week! 

Ask these questions:

• Can you currently fit your vehicle(s) into your garage?
• If your garage is for storage as well as parking, what exactly do you want or need to store there? Do you want to have room for your hobbies or recreation, as well as other equipment for lawn care and home maintenance? 

We built our garage last year--the original garage (around 80 years old) was leaning southwest on a crumbling foundation. Since my husband is a triathlete and I'm a gardener, we designed a room to accommodate those activities. One of my goals is organizing my Ironman!

Don't judge me. It's a work in progress. I've got a week, right?

Remove the Odds and Ends

Time to get to work. Keeping your goals in mind, scoop up the odds and ends that clearly belong somewhere else. This could include shoes, outerwear, toys, household cleaners or chemicals you've used for projects, or hobby and craft materials. You may not have a place for them and that's why they've ended up in the garage. That's okay -- that could be your next project. Let's focus on the garage first.Use a laundry basket or bin to contain this stuff temporarily for transport elsewhere.

While you're at it, get rid of any trash you see and fill up your recycling bin, too. Be ruthless. If it truly is something broken, dangerous, disgusting, incomplete, or generally useless, it's time for it to go. If you need help figuring out how to dispose of an item, check out Earth 911's helpful resources or my own blog post on the topic. 

How do you declutter your garage? Leave me a comment and you'll be registered for a free Kindle and a bundle of great decluttering books (including mine)!

Good luck! See you tomorrow for Step Two!

You need a new Kindle, right? Register to win one this week!

My new ebook, Declutter for Good: Share Your Stuff and Reclaim Your Life, is now available for $7.99 on Amazon and other digital platforms.

Your Brain on Clutter--Any Questions?

I'm participating in this purge in October, thanks to the bloggers over at A Bowl Full of Lemons. Their blog is a fun resource for people like me who need help getting organized sometimes. I'm a true creative - lots of ideas, not a natural love of order, though I'm learning. The more order I introduce into my life, the more creative freedom I feel, and less stress, too.

I don't know about you, but I am constantly amazed by the amount of things I no longer need. Maybe it's a function of age or wisdom, but every week I seem to find possessions I can willingly part with. And then there are the things I've kept for years that I could never give away--a shabby jean jacket older than my youngest child (who is fourteen), for instance. There's no rhyme or reason to the things that touch our hearts.

In preparation for a class I'm teaching next week on decluttering (in conjunction with my book launch--more on that later), I've been reading about brain research and our relationship to our stuff. Turns out that when we give away something that belongs to us--even if we no longer need it--our brain reacts in a way similar to a paper cut. It hurts. That explains why a trip to Goodwill leaves me feeling so ambivalent--relieved, but sad.

How do you feel about getting or staying organized? How much clutter can you handle in your everyday surroundings? What tools do you use to stay on top of your responsibilities? I'd love to hear your thoughts.