Decluttering your garage can seem like a huge task. It’s often a dumping ground for many of us and can end up filled with lots of junk and clutter. This post is going to look at some simple steps you can take to take to declutter your garage.
How To Declutter Your Garage In 5 Steps
Preparing To Declutter Your Garage
As decluttering your garage can be such an enormous task, it might be worth setting aside an entire weekend to get the job done. You may also want to ask a partner, friend or family member to help you declutter your garage.
As well as the actual decluttering you’ll need time to deal with the things you’re getting rid of which could involve trips to local recycling centres or charity shops. If you have a huge amount to get rid of you may want to consider skip hire.
Another thing to consider is whether you’ll need to buy more storage to keep things tidy and organized. I’d recommend leaving this until you know what you’ll be keeping so you don’t end up spending out on storage you don’t need.
This is also why it’s a good idea to declutter over two days.
Day 1 – Deciding what needs to go and what’s work keeping
Day 2 – Adding storage, tidying, and organizing.
How To Declutter Your Garage
1. Take Everything Out of The Garage.
The first step is to remove everything from your garage if you have the space to do so. You might find if you don’t do this you spend a lot of time moving things around and not really getting anywhere.
Even if you remove things in batches, deal with that batch and the start with another area of the garage, just make sure nothing goes back in until you’ve emptied it completely.
This helps you stop keeping duplicate items and allows you to see everything you want to keep all together in one go.
2. Split into Four Piles
The next step is to discard anything that is broken and can’t be used. This could be into small skips that you’ve hired or into black bags ready to take to the tip.
Then split everything else into three boxes or piles.
DONATIONS
KEEP
SELL
GET RID / RECYCLE
While selling your old stuff is a great way to make extra cash, it can be time-consuming and means you may end up keeping things for longer than you’d like. That said, garden items and bikes etc do seem to sell quite quickly on Facebook if they’re reasonably priced.
Do I Need To Pay Tax When Selling My Old Homeware?
3. Get Rid of What You Can
The next step is to get rid of everything you can. Check electrical items are in good working order.
Take items to the tip or charity shop.
Put items up for free or for sale on Facebook marketplace (I often find it has a much quicker turnaround than say eBay and it’s better for bigger items as people are happy to collect).
Bear in mind that you may need to pay to get rid of some items at your local recycling center.
4. Clean Your Garage
While your garage is empty is the perfect time to give it a clean! Sweep the floors, wipe down shelves and generally give it a bit of a spruce up.
5. Put Everything Away
Finally, put everything back inside your garage. This should help you assess whether you need more storage.
Consider using shelving that keeps floor space clear and labelling smaller boxes so you know what they contain. It’s also worth grouping similar items together and making a list or plan of where everything is stored so you can find it more easily in the future.
This post is part of my #DeclutteringChallenge – read the other posts here:
