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

I think I could wipe out a 3-car garage. I really try to manage the stuff, but damn it can get out of control in a hurry.

In a few weekends I’m gonna pull everything out on the driveway and organize. Throw some stuff out!

Mtn bike, kayak, motorcycle, tools, “Chingaderos”, etc. it gets to be a bit much. I’m not gonna post a pic since it feels wrong to do so.

I am mandated to keep a big spot open for my wife’s car. Not easy. I need more space or less stuff. FAACK!

Wife will not allow me to push bicycles into a spare room. :)

You should try keeping two cars in the garage.

Needless to say, I don't have a lot of 'toys' like most of you guys do.

Sounds a lot like my situation. Problem is at my age I remember where everything is, even though it's chaos. If I cleaned and organized things, I'd probably never find anything again.

You have those rafter racks that hang from the ceiling? They take zero ground space and offer a lot of storage. I highly recommend them!

I can fill it up quick. My wife has been a great help making sure to go through every 6 months with me and clear the floor completely. I do throw things out on a regular basis. Sometimes it is painful, but my rule is that if I don't use it and it is cheap to buy new, I give it away and get it again if the need may arise. It feels better when you are done cleaning.

My biggest clean out effort was the KTM recently and I also sold my track fixie. The KTM was also tough to give up but I just didn't have time to ride it the way I had planned. Was able to move the bicycles back in the garage from the shed. (Total of 7 bicycles for all of us! :eek:) Only the 993 is in the garage.

G

$#@.........clutter!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1594337230.jpg


3000 sq foot, and it's full of clutter!!!!!!!!!




dump run dump run, gotta make some dump runs.

I have a two car garage and I can park two cars in it, always. I can also walk around them with no trouble at all and I can get to everything in my garage with no trouble or hassle. So I guess it's never been a problem.
But I have friends and neighbors who use their garages as public storage lockers instead of what they are supposed to be for, drives me nuts.


PS I usually have tools and stuff left on the work bench that needs to be put away, so I guess that's my clutter.

My brother is moving into a new shop(s). This is what he's starting with.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1594337441.jpg

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.

For years my work bench was the repository of every unwanted, unknown piece of crap that came on the property.
Then I set up a shelf in the shop with the label "Throw stuff here," and I had a much clearer work bench (I didn't use the word "Stuff", but you get my drift).
I put a lot of effort into making a place for everything and taking the time to put everything back in it's place. I can't describe how much time it has saved to be able to go look for something and find in it's labeled box.

This is not me. My personality is totally chaotic and squirrel oriented, but I just could not continue wasting so much time looking for shi .. stuff.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1012570-finally-getting-organized-here.html

I wish I had the wall space to put up a shelf like that. Then I could tell my wife to put it there every time she wants to 'add' something to the garage.

Having shelves and actual storage helps... you run out of space quickly when you can only pile things on the floor.

The floor is the clearest space in the garage.

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

You want to see clutter?
This shot is taken from about the same spot as the one I posted above.
See the two plywood doors in the first pic?
We took those out and put a big roll up door in.
It is the bright white space you see behind the black Porsche in this picture:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1594340685.JPG

You should try moving from a two car garage to a one car.

With a wood-working hobby...

I've been considering adding a 25x20 addition onto my shop. I figure I can work in there, leave my tools and other stuff scattered and never make a mess in the 30x50 existing shop! Just keep adding on when things get too bad.

I just dropped $500 on three four shelf metal shelving units. I'm tired of everything laying on the floor. My new mantra is everything has to get the hell off the floor! It's crazy that I have 3000 square feet of space and can't find room to store everything.

I have a 3' deep shelf that runs the 3 sides of the garage away from the main door. It's 8' off the floor. Very handy. We keep culling, but it seems to stay constant. We cut way back on all the holiday stuff, donating a lot to Salvo. Room for 2 cars at all times.

To the OP question:

As long as it takes to turn the light on.

I’ve got klutter except where the empty shelves are. Seriously. If I move anything I’ll never find it again.

Do they sell 10-packs in 10mm.?

To the OP...

Take your wife's advice on the bicycles in the house.
The rubber tires emit gasses and will make the spare room smell like rubber for a long time.It took me a year, washing all the bedding, carpet shampoo, drapes washed, etc.
I stored a mountain bike (Wider tires means more rubber) for about a year. Never again.

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.

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!

As proven by us 914 owners......:D

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

1. Finished 2 car garage just for daily driven cars.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1594390398.jpg

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.

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.

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....

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.

See! We're on the same page.

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