Tips to Declutter Your Garage

Posted on July 26th, 2022

Every year, it’s the same. Spring cleaning has your garage looking pristine, but come end of the summer, you’re likely back to having a large pile of garage clutter, making it difficult to park your car.

Whether it’s old clothes, holiday decorations, kids’ sports equipment, or garden tools, you do not want it in your garage, living room, or laundry room any longer! While some things may be obvious junk, there are going to be things that you will either want to donate, sell, or discard. This is actually harder than one would think, and can be a somewhat difficult task for even professional organizers.

Here are experts’ best declutter your garage tips.

Sell

To create more open floor space, you need to remove items completely. Creating storage solutions and renting a storage unit may help, but sometimes it’s best to get rid of your old possessions by selling them.

In a perfect world, you would be able to resell everything at a decent price. However, this is not always the case. Some things will sell at a garage sale or an online marketplace such as ebay, Poshmark, ThredUp, and others.

Earning money to help pay bills or take a family trip is a great motivator to help declutter your home and garage.

Donate

If you don’t have the time or will to sell items at a garage sale or online, you can donate your old possessions. Through organizations such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and Humane Societies, you can do good for others while also working to better organize your home.

If you’re unsure of whether you can donate your items, do some online research or call local charitable organizations to see if they would be willing to accept your things.

If you are donating clothes, don’t donate anything that is too tattered or discolored, and give everything a good wash before sending it away. For board games, puzzles, coloring sets, and more, check to ensure that there are all the pieces. No kid wants to start a 100-piece puzzle only to get to the end and realize one piece is missing.

If it isn’t in good enough shape to sell or donate, you will want to put it in the toss pile.

Throw It Away

Sometimes the best way to declutter is to just toss it. Even if you think you may be able to sell an item, if you are someone that keeps everything or has a LOT of clutter to get through, just tossing it can be a huge sigh of relief. More than just a decluttering tip or home organizing effort, discarding old items will save you mental energy.

In the average home, there are over 300,000 items sitting in kitchen cabinets, stuffed in boxes up in the attic or crawlspace, and sprawled out in the garage. Many of the items in your home do not provide any value and can easily be discarded. Start with garage organization and throw out anything that you don’t remember using in the past year or so.

Once the decluttering has been completed, your stress levels will decrease, and your home and garage will feel so much better.