If you have a garage, chances are it is acting as a storage area too. You might start with an organized area, but you’ll soon find that all sorts of things that don’t have a proper home in your house will make their way into the garage.
If this becomes a habit, you might just end up piling so many things in the garage that when it comes time to use them, you can’t even find them. If you need to clean your garage, one of the major things you need to do first is to empty it.
Get everything out, and then separate the items into piles. Up next, we’re going to give you more tips to organize your garage.
Empty the Garage
Remove everything from the garage to the driveway (if the weather is good) or to another room (if the weather is bad). Examine everything properly to determine if they’re worth keeping. You might discover almost new things.
There are other items that you might need to trash like old wires, broken electronics, spare parts, and maybe old toys. There is no reason why these things should take up your space.
Other items you can donate or recycle. If they are still in good shape but don’t spark that joy to use them, give them to someone that might treasure them. The rest, sell-off.
Actual Cleaning
The cleaning of the garage can be divided into three – top, middle, and bottom. Cleaning should be done from the top down. You will want to start with the roof, then walls, windows, doors, and lastly the floor.
Roof
Begin by wearing gloves and perhaps goggles or a face mask to remove cobwebs and any other dirt/dust on the ceiling. Ensure your eyes are protected because you’ll be looking up as you clean.
You don’t want dirt or pieces of cobwebs falling in your eyes. You can then use a wet cloth to clean off the mold and the corners of dust.
Walls
Just like above, wear thick rubber gloves. Using a vacuum, clean all the dust bunnies and spider webs off your wall. Mix oxygen bleach with water and use the mixture to soak and clean off mold.
Let the mixture rest for about 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes have elapsed wear a protective face mask and with the help of a scrubbing brush, scrub off the mold.
Fill a bucket with warm water and using a clean sponge, wipe down the walls clean. If there are some stubborn stains, you can mix one cup of ammonia with a gallon of water and dip a sponge into the mixture to get rid of the stain.
Doors and Windows
You want to first clean debris on your door with a broom or stiff brush. Using a garden hose, wash down the whole door of any lingering dirt.
Now get a bucket of warm water mixed with a detergent and using a sponge, wipe down the door while looking out for stains.
Floor
The floor probably is the dirtiest as it is susceptible to oil stains and grease. Remove these with cat litter or other basic cleaners. Soak cat litter/sawdust/cornmeal to absorb excess liquid.
Now clean up and apply a cleaning detergent to the remaining bits of the stain and scrub it off. For the stubborn floor stains, use muriatic acid to remove them. Mix it with water and soak the stain for about 15 minutes, and then rinse it off.
Organizing
After you have donated some items and trashed others, then there should be room in your garage. Now you need to plan properly for that space. Use the walls and ceiling as much as possible to keep things off the floor.
Also, group similar items together like garden equipment, gym equipment, etc. Label them for easy identification. You want to keep seasonal items furthest so the daily ones can easily be accessed.
Keep heavy gear in the corner and out of your way.
Last Word
It’s as if our garages scream ‘I can take in everything’, given the way we dump in there everything. However, it’s so easy for your stuff to get lost in there when you need it because of overcrowding.
Therefore, you want to clean your garage regularly so you get rid of old things and stay on top of the things you have.
Table of Contents