Decluttering The Garage

I hated this space.  It is that one spot in our house that I've always struggled with, especially in the winter.  It becomes a huge catch all and crap just piles up.  By the time spring rolls around I'm ready to light a match to the whole thing.

Filthy floor, what you can see of it

This winter I plotted and planned out all kinds of organizational strategies.  More shelving, a work bench, some cabinets, a new layout.  Yada, yada, yada.  As the ideas came along the price of putting this all together steadily climbed as well.  I have to be honest, I am not willing to put that much money into storing a bunch of crap.  It really didn't make a whole lot of sense.  What did make sense was to grab a trash can and get rid of a bunch of this stuff.  In reality I didn't need to keep hanging onto most of this.  So that is what I did this past Saturday.

Such an embarrassing mess!

I can't believe how much crap had accumulated

Just like when I did our hall closet I hauled everything out onto the driveway grouping like items together.  I swept every square inch, wiped down all of the shelving I already had and then started to put things away.  Only the things I truly wanted to keep and were items we actually used or had a purpose for.

Loads of empties

For some reason I had amassed quite a collection of empty boxes and containers as well as a bunch of packing material.  Why?  Not entirely sure.  My first thought was to get rid of all of it until I remembered my oldest is going off to college soon and will likely need some of these bins and the bubble wrap too.  So I stacked them all up and fit them inside of each other as best as I could to take up as little space as possible.  Once she is all packed up I'll probably purge the rest.

I filled up the recycle bin with a lot of cardboard

I filled up our recycle bin with a bunch of cardboard boxes and packaging.  Our trash can was filled up halfway with garbage and I also had a decent sized pile of stuff to take to the thrift store. 

This is what I decided to keep
Only stuff we use

Amazing transformation

Once everything I wanted to keep was put away I was amazed at how much space we now have in there.  Finally, I rolled out the old rug we used to have in our living room and called it good.  Now when I walk out there I no longer dread it.  I can actually take a breath and feel good about being out there.  You can even go out there in your bare feet and no cold floor or stuff to worry about stepping on, tripping over or stubbing a toe.  And I can easily find what I need too!  So very glad I tackled this mountain last Saturday.

I think I amazed myself with how much I was able to get rid of
That toaster oven & bread machine next to the lawn mower will be donated

This stack of empty bins is temporary

Stella inspected my work and gave me her seal of approval

Do you have a mountain to tackle in your garage?  What is your big decluttering job this year?