Are You a Garage Organizer?

Are you a garage organizer? I mean are you the type of person who likes to live in a house where things have a specific place to live? Sports equipment on racks, fishing gear stored away properly so it doesn't get ruined, holiday items and boxes neatly stacked on shelves, bikes hung up out of the way? If so then you are likely a garage organizer. You like order. You like systems. And you don't like clutter and mystery piles. I don't either! In fact, I learned the hard way over way too many years just how frustrating and annoying a disorganized garage can be.

For many years I had myself convinced that a garage was not even really for vehicles. Instead, I came to believe that a garage was really nothing more than a glorified storage unit / dump-all where the kids, the wife and I could just pile stuff up, rummage through it from time to time when we needed something, but otherwise just ignore it. Out of sight, out of mind. Once, I made it back into the house from the garage and I remember feeling both guilty and safe. Guilty that I hadn't done anything about the mess, and safe that I made it back in without getting trapped into really doing anything to fix the problem "out there." I was not always a garage organizer. You might say I was the anti-garage organizer. I just didn't do anything about the problem. I don't know if I even really thought about it

But here is what I have come to discover. Living with a junky garage is not something we are doomed to do. In fact, it turns out that there is a garage organizer in every one of us. Yep, I really believe that. I think if people just stop what they are doing for a minute and think about it that they can experience the same life-changing metamorphosis that I have. What did it for me was a simple fishing rack I saw for sale in a sporting goods store. When it clicked in my head that I could actually make sense of my fishing rods and gear by using the wall space, it was like a light went on in my head. It wasn't long after that that I noticed some garage organizer racks designed for keeping sport balls up off the floor. Really just some fancy bins, but nevertheless, something I hadn't even considered. Of course, I bought them, attached them to the wall and put the soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs in them right away. Pretty proud of myself too.

Now I am a fully fledged and fully functional garage organizer . I have the bikes up out of the way on racks built just for that purpose. It's great too because now the bikes aren't down where the car is supposed to be. Now they are up out of the way but are still easily accessed.

My biggest garage organizer a-ha moment was when I discovered overhead storage platforms built for getting boxes and other miscellaneous items up out of the way. These are great! They use a pulley system to make raising and lowering them simple and convenient. I store Christmas and keepsake boxes up high out of the way, and only lower them occasionally throughout the year.

So if you are a garage organizer, congratulations! If you aren't, then hopefully you will be soon. When you discover the joys of garage organization you'll wonder what took you so long. Don't procrastinate. Buy some racks, cabinets or shelves asap. Do yourself a favor. You'll be glad you did.