Well, summer is here.
We all love when the days stretch out a bit longer and you have more time to invest in projects around the house. One of the best payoffs for folks with a garage can be to convert that space from the common storage use to a livable room. Garages aren’t just a space to store your vehicle, tools and that bike you never use. Your garage can be a haven of a space to get away from it all.
Step 1: Evaluating your Space
Depending on the current state of your garage this may become the hardest step of the project you are about to undertake. Stay Strong, think about the payoff of having an extra room in your house.
For this step you are going to want to take some measurements and just a rough inventory (on paper or in your head) of what your going to do with all of the undesirable stuff you have accumulated since either you moved in or you last cleaned out. This is a time to get strict with yourself, if you’ve got a box full of clothes you havn’t worn since high school then mark that as stuff to get rid of (you can keep that old crop top of you must, just not the whole box. If you call
Big Brothers they have
pickup services, which will take this off your hands. Other items
you may be able to sell, if you’ve got enough you may consider holding a
garage sale.You never know, you might be able to cover some of your repurposing costs with the money you get at the garage sale.
Step 2: The Big Clean
Okay, its time to roll up the sleeves and start this project. Start by getting everything that’s not bolted down out. If your car is in there, get it out for the time being because its only going to get in the way! Once you have everything pulled out on the lawn or driveway this is when you can really start to get an idea of the amount of stuff you have and the amount of stuff you have that you don’t want.
Get strict and see what you can eliminate, because the space your planning is going to be as clutter free as possible. Remember if you haven’t used it in the last year, you may be better to sell it on
craigslist. Remember someone
else may be looking for just what you’re trying to get rid of.
Once you’ve pulled it all out give it a good sweep, this may be the first time in a while you’ve seen your garage floor.
By the time you're finished this is what your garage should look like:
Stay tuned for our next post when we'll talk about step 3: Planning your ideal space
