Creating and maintaining an organized space is crucial to the functionality of a family. A disorganized home leads to lost items and extra work in the long-run. Misplaced items make your family late to school, work and other outings. In addition, decluttering a space multiple times is a nuisance and waste of time. The garage is notorious for creating this frustration with piles of miscellaneous stuff.

Preserving a clean garage allows you to focus on things that really matter, such as living a healthy, stress-free and fulfilled life. Like Benjamin Franklin said, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” Below we’ve included some tips to get and stay organized in the garage:

Organizing The Garage

Plan: It’s time to organize. Set aside a full day to dedicate to the project.

Family Project: Get the family involved so they understand the organization method and where items go. With the extra help, the process is efficient and timely.

Consolidate: You know the drill. Pull every item in the garage out. Separate your belongings into 4 piles: keep, sell, donate and trash/recycle. Schedule a garage sale, make a trip to GoodWill and take items to the dump or recycling center promptly. The longer the piles stay, the more likely they collect dust.

Products: Decide on a storage solution for the keep pile. Products like garage shelving and garage cabinets hang your items neatly on the wall and out of the way. This provides ample space for walking and parking. Also, consider an easy to clean garage flooring alternative to give your space a modern, clean look.

Sustainable Organization

Now that you’re organized it’s time to maintain.

Routine: Perhaps the most important factor in staying organized is creating a routine. Decide tasks that you do daily, monthly and yearly to keep your space clean. By doing a little bit systematically, you avoid starting from square one a year from now.

Strategy: Make sure all your belongings have a designated storage space. Categorize your items. Group similar items and house them in the same general area. This will help you find and store things easily. Also, store things you use often at eye level on hooks and seasonal items up high on overhead storage.

Mini Mudroom: Create a mini mudroom in the garage to prevent bringing clutter into your home. Include a space to hang keys and coats and a rack to store shoes and boots. Consider including a trash can to discard papers and wrappers before entering the house.

Label: Mark and label storage bins so you don’t have to merely guess the contents of a bin before opening it.

Room to Grow: Allow for extra space in storage bins and on shelving for additional items you’ll add in time. Also, it’s easier to find items in emptier bins and shelving.

Spend a little time planning now to save yourself more time later. Use that time to do what you love, with your family.

For more information and help getting started with garage organization visit: GarageSolutionsDesMoines.com

Thanks to our guest blogger. Kenady Ghent

Kenady works for Monkey Bar Storage, a garage storage and organization company that provides homeowners with efficient products to organize and simplify their lives. Kenady is a recent graduate from BYU-Idaho in Public Relations and Visual Communications. When she’s not working, she enjoys outdoor activities, taking pictures, trying new recipes and giving old things a new purpose.