Don’t fall into the familiar pattern of piling summer gardening tools and sporting equipment on top of the snow blower in your garage – you’ll only end up frustrated as you continually battle to find what you need through the winter months.

As summer ends, it’s the perfect time to tackle the war zone in your garage with some simple cleaning and organizing tactics that make all the difference! Here’s how:

Organization 101

Categorize everything, from baseball bats, rollerblades, foam cups, tools, old shoes and the plastic golf trophy you won at work, to chairs, shovels, etc. Pull everything in your garage out onto your driveway then proceed to separate and group everything into categories such as sports equipment, tools, clothing, edibles, and so forth. Then once in the garage, reorganize the items into their specific groups and spots. This keeps everything related, close to each other, resulting in easier access and many hours saved from searching endlessly for items such as your lucky baseball cap.

A Clean Start

Your garage floor may be stained with tar, grease, and oil, which may have you thinking, “permanent” - think again! We’ll show you some easy steps to remove all those unwanted dark patches on your garage floor. First, put on a pair of Painting and Stripping Gloves to protect your hands, and a Dynamic Dust Mask and Safety Goggles to protect your face. Using a Dynamic putty knife, scrape up as much of the stain as you can. Then, wet it down with some water and a sponge. Sprinkle some Dynamic Tri Sodium Phosphate (TSP) on the stain. As the crystals dissolve use a 6 ½“ Knuckle Saver Stainless Steel Wire Brush and scrub away the stain. You may have to repeat this step a couple of times to get the stains out entirely. Finish by pouring boiling water over the entire floor to give it a good wash. Make sure the garage floor dries entirely and check for any new crack formations. Close larger cracks with cold-patch compound.

Clearing the Clutter

Simply put, storing things on the floor takes up a lot of space. Free up more space in your garage by adding a storage cabinet and/or racks and hooks. Use the storage cabinet for smaller items such as tools, nuts, bolts, gloves, shoes, etc. Hanging is a great way to take large items like shovels, hockey sticks, leaf blowers, rakes and so forth off the ground and out of your way. You can even add a shelving unit right above your work bench (if you have one) and hang your tools accordingly.

Just Do It

As big a job as cleaning out your garage may seem to be, its well worth the time and effort. You’ll appreciate being able to find what you need - when you need it!