our garage acts like an extra playroom during the cold winter months. our kids have all of their ride-on toys out there. and in the winter, i set up a little art studio with our melissa & doug easel and paints/chalk (which otherwise live in the playroom during the spring and summer). we just bundle up the kids and let them play out there when they need to “get out of the house”, but we can’t actually leave the house.

the weather in this area has been interesting lately….in the 50s and windy/rainy some days, and then 70s the next few days. this usually happens with the change of seasons. but we know very, very soon the cold weather will be here to stay for a loooooong while. today? it’s in the 60s and sunny! add in the fact that 2 little boys are at school and staying for lunch….so i figured today was a good day to get out in the garage to do some clean-up.

here is what i started with….(by the way, this is free-standing Inter-Metro shelving from the Container Store. we purchased it for our old home and brought it along with us when we moved.)….

*eeeeeekkk* is correct….those boxes stacked up top = cringe-worthy. such a safety hazard.

and frankly, those Bekins boxes….the probability of the items inside getting donated is high. we moved into our house 4 years ago. if i haven’t gone through them in 4 years, good chance i don’t need anything that is inside those boxes. ha!

my garage goals today were to….

1. sort through all of the boxes/bins – i wanted to understand exactly what was inside.

2. pull out seasonal items that need to be moved under the house.

3. figure out new/additional projects – like finding out exactly how many tools we own so we can create a *real* toolbox.

4. throw away/donate anything we don’t need or use.

and 5. dust all of the shelves and sweep under the shelves – the warm weather brings gnarly bugs!

this project took a bit longer than expected because i had a “helper”….who also quickly figured out a great way to use those summer pool toys….as a tu-tu!….

anyway, off to work i went pulling boxes and bins down, taking a look inside, putting items in the trash or donation pile, dusting, placing things back on the shelves….and so on.

ooooh, guess what is inside of this little box? which has also been out in the garage since we moved in…..can you guess?….

stay tuned – in my next entry i’ll reveal just exactly what is inside.

after a good 45 minutes of sorting, here was my stack of seasonal items to move under the house….

yes, you do see Easter decorations there. haha! soooooo, clearly it’s been a while since i’ve given our garage some love. also, found quite a few pool toys and a random string of purple Halloween lights.

out you go!

additionally, i decided our coolers, sand box cover, and wreath boxes could be moved….

and our snow gear could be moved….

after some much needed sweeping….here is the after!….

once again – here is the before….

and the after….

wow! soooooo much better! and i can’t wait for my husband to pull into the garage after work today – surprise, honey!

turns out all of those boxes that were stacked along the top – looks like i have some new and exciting projects to work on in the coming year. i found several of my husband’s childhood photo albums that need to be re-booked along with all of his grandparent’s movie reels. we’ve talked for years about finding a service to transfer those to dvd. how awesome would that be for our children to watch? or how awesome would it be to give those dvd’s to my mother-in-law for Christmas next year? wow! i can’t wait to work on that project! i absolutely LOVE cherished family memories and you can guarantee there are some great memories to be shared on those movie reels.

and i found a few other fun little projects to keep me busy – as always, i’ll share them here as they are tackled!

but most importantly, the garage is now clean and updated with relevant items for the coming winter months.

are you doing any garage organization projects? share them here!