Using hooks to get stuff off the garage floor
November 18, 2010
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Awww, you SQUEEZIES. Thanks for your sweet comments this week. :) (If you haven’t seen The Nate Show segment, you can see it below. Ignore the cat.)
So, there’s one thing about blogging – I’m held accountable to finish up certain projects.
Our garage was a MESS.
We are AWESOME.
Here’s the other side:
Chaise lounge waiting to be reupholstered? Check.
Weight machine we haven’t used infive years six months? Check.
No access to my BFF…my SAW…check. (That’s a problem.)
Here’s a closer look:
You can imagine my glee every time I had to get back there to cut something. And my saw sat on this since the day I got it:
It’s about 18 inches off the floor. Talk about comfortable!
So…the decrapifying started. It was fun. It felt GOOD. I think we took four SUV loads to Goodwill?:
I lost count. There were also bins full of trash and recycling.
When I get to this point, I have zero patience for a garage sale or Craigslist. It has to go NOW. The weight machine was on Craigslist for two weeks for a steal, and no bites. So it, and most of the other stuff we didn’t use or need was GONE baby!
Once we got it cleared out, we took a trip to the hardware store for some organization goodies.
My goal was to get anything and everything possible up and off the floor. If I could hang it, it was going up. We got some holders that worked great!:
And a TON of these:
OH MY GOODNESS. So, so, SO worth it.
I used my dollar store bins and tried to organize things by shelf:
Do you see my spray paint shelf and how it sags in the middle?
:) I’m just happy to have it all in one spot. Giddy, actually.
So here’s the before and after goodness – before, the pit of despair:
And after, with everything off the floor:
If I could hang the lawn mower, I would have. :)
Here’s my little workshop corner before:
And here it is now:
We had a light installed in that spot last year so I can see while using the major power tools. A good idea – I recommend it. ;)
I picked up another storage chest at True Value and it turned out to be a perfect spot for my saw!:
No more kneeling down for every cut!
I kept a fair amount of scrap wood and the smaller sections were organized on the wire shelving, the long pieces we placed in an old trash bin:
I cleaned up everything as best I could, including wiping down the black door I painted last year:
A little organization and a whole lotta decrapifying, and we have a garage that’s so much more relaxing:
It makes such a difference when we drive into this clean space every day! As always, the decluttering was FREE! And that is the very best part, in my opinion. :)
Of course, there’s some huge projects we haven’t tackled yet -- someday I’d love to paint the walls, but seriously, I have about 2,949 things I want to do before that. Our plan was to insulate and drywall the exterior walls this year, but we haven’t gotten to it.
Is there a space you want to tackle before the holidays? I know, time is running out -- but everything we did only took about six hours, over two days. It was SO worth it!
Now, if I can just keep the Christmas tree stand out of there this year! That would be a first.
So, there’s one thing about blogging – I’m held accountable to finish up certain projects.
Our garage was a MESS.
Here you go:
Receipts all over the floor? Check.
Sheet hanging from wall? Check.
Christmas tree stand from eleven months ago? Check.
Receipts all over the floor? Check.
Sheet hanging from wall? Check.
Christmas tree stand from eleven months ago? Check.
We are AWESOME.
Here’s the other side:
Chaise lounge waiting to be reupholstered? Check.
Weight machine we haven’t used in
No access to my BFF…my SAW…check. (That’s a problem.)
Here’s a closer look:
You can imagine my glee every time I had to get back there to cut something. And my saw sat on this since the day I got it:
It’s about 18 inches off the floor. Talk about comfortable!
So…the decrapifying started. It was fun. It felt GOOD. I think we took four SUV loads to Goodwill?:
I lost count. There were also bins full of trash and recycling.
When I get to this point, I have zero patience for a garage sale or Craigslist. It has to go NOW. The weight machine was on Craigslist for two weeks for a steal, and no bites. So it, and most of the other stuff we didn’t use or need was GONE baby!
Once we got it cleared out, we took a trip to the hardware store for some organization goodies.
My goal was to get anything and everything possible up and off the floor. If I could hang it, it was going up. We got some holders that worked great!:
I use these a lot just because they’re so easy to install and they hold quite a bit:
And we picked up a packet full of different sizes and shapes of these screw in organizers:
I hung everything:
Last year, I was trying to avoid spending much on the clean up, so I organized the back wall full of wire shelving as best I could:
But I gotta tell you, it was driving me NUTS. And open shelves meant we would stuff things into them wherever we could.
But I gotta tell you, it was driving me NUTS. And open shelves meant we would stuff things into them wherever we could.
So this year, I made the investment and got a few storage pieces from Target:
OH MY GOODNESS. So, so, SO worth it.
I used my dollar store bins and tried to organize things by shelf:
Do you see my spray paint shelf and how it sags in the middle?
:) I’m just happy to have it all in one spot. Giddy, actually.
So here’s the before and after goodness – before, the pit of despair:
And after, with everything off the floor:
If I could hang the lawn mower, I would have. :)
Here’s my little workshop corner before:
And here it is now:
We had a light installed in that spot last year so I can see while using the major power tools. A good idea – I recommend it. ;)
I picked up another storage chest at True Value and it turned out to be a perfect spot for my saw!:
No more kneeling down for every cut!
I kept a fair amount of scrap wood and the smaller sections were organized on the wire shelving, the long pieces we placed in an old trash bin:
A little organization and a whole lotta decrapifying, and we have a garage that’s so much more relaxing:
It makes such a difference when we drive into this clean space every day! As always, the decluttering was FREE! And that is the very best part, in my opinion. :)
Of course, there’s some huge projects we haven’t tackled yet -- someday I’d love to paint the walls, but seriously, I have about 2,949 things I want to do before that. Our plan was to insulate and drywall the exterior walls this year, but we haven’t gotten to it.
And I’d LOVE to do a treatment on the floors, but that requires taking everything out of there for days – and that gives me hives just thinking about it. :)
Is there a space you want to tackle before the holidays? I know, time is running out -- but everything we did only took about six hours, over two days. It was SO worth it!
Now, if I can just keep the Christmas tree stand out of there this year! That would be a first.
One day I would like to pint my garage walls too, but ther is always something more fun to paint! good for you getting things organized!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the organization! Our garage looked like your 'before' pic too....BUT a few weeks ago my hubby cleaned & cleared out the garage, and now I can actually pull my SUV inside ~ all ready for the winter :)
ReplyDeleteCheck out my decor blog and become a follower...thanks ;)
~Jenna, SAS Interiors
www.sasinteriors.blogspot.com
Do you have a Re-Store in your area? I was thinking, if you hate the idea of losing scrap wood/home improvement stuff, you could donate it to the re-store. It profits Habitat For Humanity. That way you do good and you won't be TOO sad to donate all your awesome finds. :)
ReplyDeleteUgh...I'm so so so sooooo jealous of the garage! You did an amazing job!
ReplyDeleteAh, my garage could sooo use some decrapification done to it... fo shur! ;P
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I noticed you called the garage the pit of despair? Please tell me you're a Princess Bride fan? If so you'd be even more cool than you already are!
We plan on trying to do something out in ours this winter. We're in Texas, if we try to do anything in the garage during the summer we could die of heat stoke in a couple seconds. So hoping to get stuff done out there after the holidays!
Can you tell me about the wire ball storage? It looks like a great idea but how do you get them out again? Is it from Ace? thanks!
ReplyDeleteSarah, I love the way you write =) I've been following you for a yr. It's inspired me and motivated me so, I've been working on my house for almost a yr. single handed and on a tight single mom budget... but I think it's going well. Stop on by! I love suggestions, tips and encouragement to keep me going =) Follow me at www.bargaincornerdesigns.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a garage looking like the before...the after is a dream! We are doing ours this weekend...wish us luck!
ReplyDeleteI literally just walked back in the house from working on decrapifying my own garage! I was going to blog about it, but too tired now and it will have to wait!
ReplyDeleteWish mine was gonna look like yours afterwards, but it's still got a ways to go! At least I should hopefully soon have space for projects AND room to get the car in so I don't have to haul baby girl out to the driveway every time we leave the house....in the rain....in the cold....BAD MOMMA for letting projects take over the garage and baby girl's warm protected space! :)
I have the tall grey cabinet that I only had a top shelf in .Ikeep brooms,shovels, rakes in it.I have 4 grey cabinets with the drawers.One goes on each side of my grill, all on back porch.
ReplyDelete2 went into my basement for all my art supplies(IN MY CRAFT ROOM).
I have a small cabinet with doors for sprinklers.bug spray and fertilizer.I was so surprised to see the same ones in your garage.They are very economical..
I have the tall grey cabinet that I only had a top shelf in .Ikeep brooms,shovels, rakes in it.I have 4 grey cabinets with the drawers.One goes on each side of my grill, all on back porch.
ReplyDelete2 went into my basement for all my art supplies(IN MY CRAFT ROOM).
I have a small cabinet with doors for sprinklers.bug spray and fertilizer.I was so surprised to see the same ones in your garage.They are very economical..
I am thrilled to hear that I am not the only one hoarding pieces of wood of all sizes and kinds. I have beadboard, old cottage cabinet doors (who can resist painting a sign on an old door), and since my husband used to buy moulding for a major home improvement store - we have tons of moulding & I can't get rid of it. I am in desperate need of your sister and her red spray paint!!!
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired me so much, I hope everyone will check out my efforts. Thanks again.
ReplyDeletemy goodness you have done an amazing job!
ReplyDeletei feel inspired to do my garage too....well that is until i open the door.....erm, no, i'll leave that for another day. or month. or year. and trust me, in my garage i cant get further than the door! :S lol
Hi Decor Chick,
ReplyDeleteNew follower here! Great, great job with the garage. Decrapification. Love that word. I must use it. It's got a lot more substance than decluttering, lol!
I'm in the process of moving and having to do a lot of decrapifying myself. Isn't it so therapeutic? Purge, purge, purge!
We acquired those great plastic storage units when we bought our new(er) home. They are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteJocelyn
http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/
The garage is looking good! We just put up a shadow board with all the tools hanging on the wall now which is great. When they were in the tool box, nothing got put back and you could never find anything! Plus it was a level surface and for some reason level surfaces get piled up around here!
ReplyDeleteOOPS! I forgot to tell you that I have taped all the Nate shows to watch later. Last night I was trying to catch up and saw the episode with your picture and website plug! Too cool!!!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! I love the storage bins you got!
ReplyDeleteGREAT JOB!! I love the closet thingies!!! I wonder if they would be narrow enough for my garage????
ReplyDeleteKudos on your recycling bin ; )
It looks fabulous!!! A clean garage def makes it easier to find things... and also makes it a liiiiiittle easier to open it when people are passing by. Less shame ;)
ReplyDeleteCleaning my mess of a garage is def on the to do list! <3
xoXOxo
Jenn L @ Peas & Crayons
I love a clean garage! Makes it so much nicer going into your home! Great job!! hugs, Cathy
ReplyDeleteWe really need to do this. And I love the black door with the "You are Home" message!
ReplyDeletePlease tell me the cabinet your saw was sitting on didn't go to goodwill, because I think we live in the same metro area and I'll start hitting up random Goodwills for it.
ReplyDeleteWOW! That looks amazing! Gotta say I love your blog! I've tried the Santa hats and vinyl lettering blocks for Christmas, and they turned out great! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI don't live there, but even I feel more at peace with the place.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like to come decrapify my house, you're welcome to.
ReplyDeleteIt's what a good badger friend would do.
The garage is such a neglected 'room' in the house...but when mine is organized, I have more peace than if any other room were. Love your painted door...I need to do that.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend!
HOw could your sister leave you? I need a sister like that SO MUCH and the spray paint...brilliant. I have an attic that makes your old garage look orderly....must.get.on.it but it's SO hard. This inspires me...I know the possibilities. :)
ReplyDeleteDecrapification is an awesome word. That's all! :-)
ReplyDeletePlease tell me your 'Pit of Despair' comment was a throwback to The Princess Bride :-)
ReplyDeleteAwesome job! You rock!
ReplyDeleteAlso, "decrapification" made me LOL (literally) at work. HEE! I'm stealing your word. :o)
I love your writing style! Seriously! I can't tell you how many times I have just started laughing out loud while reading your blog and my husband always wants to know what is so funny. So I try to tell him, and fail to capture the wittiness and resort to reading it to him! He, of course, never understands it like I do! I feel like if we lived closer, and knew eachother, etc... we would be good friends, and you would let me come and drool over your miter saw, until I get my own! ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove your garage! Mine is FULL of furniture that I have yet to finish! I too get caught up in the simple finishing touches that delay the product completion for MONTHS, so I totally hear you on that!
I love the blogging world! It allows me to know that there are crazy, tool loving, scrap wood hoarding people out there. Just. Like. ME! Love it and love your blog!
I am impressed! and inspired! I have three storages spaces and a barn filled to the rafters with props and set dressing from shows I have worked on. Time to purge that stuff and give it to someone who can use it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, great makeover!
We did a garage mahal makeover when we moved in to our house, because your right, that floor treatment is a pain and it meant our lawnmover was in our foyer for three days - eck!
ReplyDeleteThe garage maid pieces from Target are the best. We installed a bunch and painted the walls with our little makeover. Hubby just hung the drywall this week to finish it up and will be painting it this weekend. It is lots of work but our garage is so much warmer and when you have a real winter, that says something.
Looks fabulous!
mucho mucho better!
ReplyDeletewe got one of those storage things and the only place to get em here is home depot for $120 EACH
Yeah, so my garage is a major mess too, but what I wanna know is where did you get the ball holder??!?
ReplyDeleteI seriously need to know because IT'S AWESOME!!
Thank you!
I'm so envious! I need a garage decrapification too! And I only have a one car garage...half the time you can't even walk through it, much less park my car. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness... I would love to do that to our garage. Some day.... some how.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get the garage organized. We have a 2 car garage with extra room in the front. But the previous owners built in huge plywood shelving units on 2 sides of it, so 2 cars fit in - barely. We are only renting so we can't tear them down for a better solution. My problem has been that since I can't figure out a good way to organize on the shelves, a lot of stuff gets left on the floor trying to find where to put it. Annnnddd... that's when the ability to actually park in the garage disappears, haha.
ReplyDeletePlease, please come and fix my garage! :) Hey, have you ever heard of freecycle? Sort of like craig's list, but everything is free. Great place to get rid of stuff- people will take ANYTHING if it's free!
ReplyDeleteLove the decluttering! The garage looks great! I must ask where you got that holder for all those kickballs and sport balls? We need one of those for our kids.
ReplyDeleteLaaaaa! (That was the angels singing!) We de-cluttered/de-moused our garage a couple of weeks ago. Ahhh! I didn't realize how much it bugged me until the mess was gone!
ReplyDeleteIt looks amazing, great work! This was actually the very first thing my husband tackled when we moved into our new house, he set a zero tolerance policy for junk the garage. Believe me, I'm all about no junk!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteI need a Stink Eye minion of my very own too.... but I have no sisters. Sigh...
I wonder if my cat would spray paint things I need to get rid of. Darn the whole no opposable thumbs... It pretty much makes him useless.
OMG i have no words. Ok i have a few words. I am literally sending my husband a link to this with a message saying -- just get it done. Amazing job.
ReplyDeleteNow that you have everything off the floor, go get 3 boxes of the garage floor epoxy and paint that garage floor. You will not regret it and you will never have a non-painted garage door afterwards. Each time we move, I make sure I get that project done first, before we start filling the garage.
ReplyDeleteWell done. I would agree parting with wood scraps is not for the faint of heart.
ReplyDeleteMy husband just did the exact same thing! For his 40th bday, I bought him a Gladiator garage storage system from Lowes. Our garage is so nice and organized!!! I know you're loving your organized garage cause we're sure loving ours!
ReplyDeleteHanging EVERYTHING POSSIBLE in the garage is how we roll too...... everything but the cars themselves AND the lawnmower.... MAKES LIFE SO MUCH NICER!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGREAT JOB.
Love the new cabinets !!!!!
This post lightened my heart! First of all, Decrapification! What a great word. I'm going to use that. I LOVE your black door and stairs...love it!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where you live, but I'D LOVE to be your "minion!" Seriously, I am looking for a part time job, and that would JUST my thing!! *sighhhhh*
ReplyDeleteHa! That's nothing...in CA, NO ONE parks in their garage because we don't have attics or basements so the garage is the "House for Crap" or "CrapCave" as my husband calls it.
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to decrapify it, but alas, where would I store the holiday tubs, the camping tubs, the clothing tubs, the outdoor toys...etc.
Looks great! Enjoy!
Send your sister.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful job!! I'm totally inspired!! I would love to know where you got your, for lack of a better word, ball thingy. :)
ReplyDeleteI want to do a garage floor treatment too. As you mentioned, I also do not want to empty out the whole garage for a few days. I am considering doing half of the garage at a time. move everything to one side and paint it. wait for it to dry then push everything to the other side. Maybe you will get to it before me and you can tell me how it goes and post pics!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! I did not expect such a great result!! You had me cracking up about making fun of yourselves and saying "we are awesome". Thanks for sharing!- Susan
ReplyDeletegreat results!!! I'm in the process of a garage clean-out... I LOVE purging and organizing!
ReplyDelete