How fast can you lose control of clutter in your garage?

[cabmandone]

The worst part of "decluttering" for me is, I'll look at something, think to myself "I don't even know what that is", I'll pitch it, and then a week later need what I just pitched. Never fails.

[Crowbob]

You might consider a decoy garbage can, Nick. It’s the first place I look. I check mine once in a while just to see what’s in it. I often find nice junk in there.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

You might consider a decoy garbage can, Nick. It’s the first place I look. I check mine once in a while just to see what’s in it. I often find nice junk in there.

Brilliant!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Flat surfaces, regardless of what they are called, are the root cause of clutter for the afflicted.

As proven by us 914 owners......

[BK911]

Never understood why people put some of their biggest investments outside, and mostly worthless junk in the garage.

[Cajundaddy]

I have an expert rating in garage clutter but we can nearly always get 2 cars in the garage. I just did a covid cleanup on the Porsche side and it looks great today. Give me a week to screw it up again...

The wife side of the garage is currently filled with stuff we are sorting after moving her aunt into assisted living. We are making 3 piles: Keep - Sell - toss, and several treasures need to be parted out to family. Hopefully the Lexus will be back in a fully clean garage shortly.

[wildthing]

I have a two car garage with two cars in it and I try not to clutter but my wife has stuff in there she doesn't want to throw away. Plus now that we limit our trips to the grocery store, we have tons of extra stuff on the floor...

[RSBob]

The joys of being OCD. Can’t stand things out of place or messes. I will stay up past midnight to put tools away, rather than having to do it the next day.

Had new garage door openers installed, and one of the installers said, I’ve been in a lot of garages and yours is the cleanest and most organized. I replied, obviously I don’t have a life (or am neurotic, or both). My dad is the same way, so I blame him.

[ckelly78z]

My small 18x18 garage is under my large bedroom 26x18, and has enough room for a 2013 Mustang, and a 2006 Jeep Liberty. There is a row of shelves at the front, but not able to walk all the way around either vehicle.

Where I get into trouble is my 40x60 pole barn with a 10x40 loft. I have cut down on the junk, and am trying to organize a new shop under the loft, but it always seems like my son, and I are trying to complete projects in this space (my 12' jon boat build, and his 22' cabin cruiser build with a 351 Windsor). There is 4 tractors, a dirt bike, a 2 post lift, a 4 Polaris four wheeler, workbenches, and tool boxes, welders, a big air compressor, lots of lumber, and steel, and other raw materials in this barn.

[flatbutt]

Every man needs a space within which he is free to indulge in the time honored tradition of random organization. I prefer to think of my basement shop as a wonderland of free association.

[LWJ]

Add in a very bored 18 year old son...

Great news? I have an 18 year old son that hangs out in the garage!!!

But yeah, it's a DISASTER in there.

[billybek]

One project. That is how long it takes the clutter to become overwhelming...
Try to start another project without a massive cleanup between and I am looking at a disaster.

[Alan A]

Within two minutes of starting any project.
Do I get a prize?

Already have 2 trash cans and a recycling bin - just for the garage, not the regular trash cans - in there, so it's not that.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by BK911

Never understood why people put some of their biggest investments outside, and mostly worthless junk in the garage.

I can answer this one...

Because my wife doesn't shout at me if the car is left in the driveway.

The table saw, scraps of wood, spare parts, tools, fasteners, sawhorses, workmate, spare dog crate, shelving, etc, etc she's less happy to see out there.

That's why.

[ted]

It's a constant process staying organized.
Clutter solutions.

1. Finished 2 car garage just for daily driven cars.


2 thru 5 are places to keep clutter out of sight.

2. Shed behind garage.
For work bench with grinder, table drill, vice, air compressor, golf cart, bicycles.

3. Costco 8x8 garden shed in the backyard.
Get all the landscape stuff in a small shed away from the car stuff.

4. An old 20 foot enclosed trailer for stuff you rarely need.
Leftover House paint and clutter kept out of sight.

5. If fortunate a detached garage with no clutter, hobby stuff, race cars and pick up truck.

6. Loft in garage for all the long storage stuff.
A dozen Body molds for 2 race cars.

[RWebb]

Clutter happens b/c you are too busy to put things away (or make a new special place for new items), and b/c many often organize spatially - like a map. The latter accounts for losing track of things when you "knew right where they were."

Different people organize differently, and scientists have even studied this. Herman-Miller once published a guide to how they designed desks - one thing they did was to make the center drawer so shallow that us idiots couldn't stack things in there - one layer only.

The real problem is not clutter, it is attempting to declutter. Decluttering takes time when you could be working on a project. And decluttering (for some) breaks that mental mapping link, so you no longer know where anything is.

Baron Cuvier was thought to be the world's smartest dude way back when. He also had a massive head, and phrenologists pointed to that as proof of their ideas. He ran a research museum (which was a big deal back then).

And he had hundreds of long tables with all his many projects (bones of animals) laid out on each table or a a section of one. Hundreds of projects all laid out horizontally - and he could just circulate thru them as fancy struck him or as new bones came in. I found out about that and thought it was nirvana.

The best way I know of to avoid the Dangers of Decluttering is to leave everything right where it is, and just build a new garage for each new project.

[kolo]

If this will be a contest or a reality show....

Let's see, a turbocharged corvair, a air conditioned corvair parts car, two yamaha 4 stroke dirt dirt bikes, 4 gravely L's w various attachments, 70 ss454 el camino, reloading equipment, a car trailer....

[GH85Carrera]

We have lived in our house to 22 years. I can pull the El Camino in and open those GIANT doors all the way up and hit nothing. Clutter is not allowed. I do have one shelf in one recessed part of the garage that is 10 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep. It is stacked with stuff, and it could use a complete empty and throw away odd junk day.

I have a storage shed in the back yard. All lawn equipment, gardening stuff and other yard project crap are in there. It is 8x12 and 10 feet tall. It is pretty will full, but I store the mower and edgers against the back wall. I have stuff hanging from the rafters to use all the space.

My workbench is a challenge to keep cleared off. It has a bunch of drawers, and one large cabinet in the middle. I was looking for a tool earlier and dug into the center cabinet. I threw away some crap that I had that I will likely need now that is is gone, but after so many years I had forgotten I had a lot of it. If I had needed more I would have bought new.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by RWebb

The best way I know of to avoid the Dangers of Decluttering is to leave everything right where it is, and just build a new garage for each new project.

See! We're on the same page.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

I can only wish some of my neighbors would use their garages as garages. We (I) keep two cars in ours at all times. Sometimes we have had more than 2 cars, but I think those days are long gone now.

I am the only house on the block with cars that work in the garage. I kinda have to. I have 4 cars.