Why the Garage is the Best Place to Start Organizing

garage organizing

Click this image to watch us organize this garage

It is very common for me to meet with a potential client who can’t decide if she wants to begin with organizing the cluttered bedroom, the cluttered kitchen, or the cluttered home office. For me, it’s always a clear choice: the garage.

Why the garage?

In the first place, a cluttered garage tends to hold the greatest number of quick wins. These are postponed decisions. You know the ones.

“I’ll repair that when I get a chance.”

“I just have to transfer the data first.”

“Just stick it in the garage.”

Over time, these items become the easiest ones in the house to part ways with. You stand the best odds of making the fastest space gains in the garage. The faster you can declutter, the more motivated you will be, to take on additional decluttering projects inside the house.

Secondly, by clearing up space in the garage, you can clear up storage space and exit zones for the all the items inside your house. Now, the donate-able clothes from your bed room, the seasonal kitchenware from you kitchen, and archive files from your home office all have a place to go.

Exit zones are not only important to establish, in the process of getting organized, but in setting up a space that will stay organized. I think of the garage as the exit room for the whole house. It is already common to have trash cans and recycling bins in a garage, for things headed out. I also like to dedicate permanent exit zones for items to donate and items to return. It makes sense to have these zones as close to your car a possible, so that when you realize you are passing by a Goodwill, a friends house, or a store, you have the items you need to donate or return right there.

Don’t have a garage? Then, look to the area in your home that best meets the criteria for why a garage works best. Where do you tend to collect the most quick wins and where would be the best spot to collect exit items?

If you find it hard to make decisions and declutter your garage, fortunately there are professionals that are great at it. The team at Matt Baier Organizing is waiting to hear from you, at 203.428.6294. Save this month with The Garage Massage Special.