Welcome to a new year! Research shows us that 80% of New Year’s resolutions are broken by the second week in February….so if one of your resolutions is to get your home cleaned & organized,we’d like to help you beat those odds. 

We hope this handy checklist will help. Let’s start with something we know a little bit about – the GARAGE.

Garage Declutter & Organizing 

❑ Determine the specific functions that the garage will serve in your home – do you want to use it JUST for parking your cars or do you want to use some of the space for household storage?

❑ Think you’ll have a large volume of trash and/or donations to dispose of? Arrange for a dumpster or a donation pick-up prior to beginning the declutter process 

❑ Set up your driveway/front lawn as a staging area for the decluttering process;  set up bins/areas for: Trash, Relocate, Donate, Sell, & Keep piles 

❑ Empty the garage out completely, sorting items into the appropriate bin/area 

❑ Put items in the Relocate pile away, put Trash in the trash receptacle, and haul Donation items away (& make a plan for getting items in the Sell pile sold asap) 

❑ Sort items in the Keep pile into categories 

❑ Thoroughly clean the garage 

❑ Explore options for maximizing storage space in your garage, including: * Shelving * Wall storage systems/hooks * Ceiling storage systems 

❑ Put items that you’re keeping back in the garage using basic organizing principles (create zones, store categories of items together in labeled containers, store seldom-used items up high) 

❑ Schedule a spring and fall garage maintenance ‘check up’ to keep yourself on track. Here’s to a clutter free 2017!