Do you know the one room in your house that you are probably not using for the purpose for which it was intended? Yep, you got it right, the garage. Most Americans are not using their garage for a place to park their car. It has become the place where things go because there is no other place for them to live inside the house.

Organize and reclaim the parking space in your garage

Most people don’t move into a house and say I never want to park my car in the garage.
It just happens slowly. You start storing a couple of boxes you don’t feel like unpacking and soon you have a full garage and your car is in the in the drive. You need to fight the urge to just put stuff in the garage to deal with later. Once the garage becomes a place that collects items of questionable value it became a magnet for other stuff too.

If you want to reclaim your garage for your car you are going to have to make some tough decisions. Decide what does live in the garage. Is it your car, cleaning supplies, outdoor equipment? Like any other space in your house it should have a plan of what lives in that room.

Some items that I typically find in a garage:

  • Cars
  • Tools
  • Cleaning supplies
  • Gardening/Lawn equipment
  • Outdoor toys/Bikes/Sporting equipment
  • Dog crates
  • Auto supplies for maintaining your car (cleaning & oils)

Things that should not live in the garage (because it is not climate controlled):

  • Food – it will attract pests that you don’t want to have
  • Photographs – they might pick up moisture and become stuck together
  • Paper – books – they can pick up moisture and become moldy
  • Vinyl Records – warping can occur

So if you can’t get your car into your garage, take a look around and see what you can clean out so you can use your garage for its intended purpose.