Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Project Garage–FINISHED

We finally finished our 29 Days of Organization.  This post maybe a little long due to the rules of this project.  I will be posting before/after pictures of our project.  First off – Let me answer some of the questions that are required.
  • 1.  What space did you decide to organize and why?  We chose our Garage for a couple of reasons.  First was that we could BARELY walk from the front to the back without falling over something.  Second was my Hubby likes to do his own auto repair and he got a new car  (he was in a wreck in December and his truck was totaled).  It was a used car and he wants to fix it up.
  • 2.  What steps did you take to ensure you completed the space within the 29 day timeline?  Hubby and I took a few vacation days so we could have a 3-day weekend for our project.
  • 3.  What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and how did you overcome it?  I would have to say the amount of STUFF that had to be dealt with and the fact that we had rain that came in on our weekend off. 
  • 4.  What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge our of your newly organized space?  A lot of the “Stuff” was for the Pee Wee Football Association that we volunteer so we got a small storage building to hold all of the equipment that we use during the Football season.  (Coolers, tents, chairs, storage tubs with uniforms, t-shirts etc)  I made a lot of trips to Goodwill and 1 trip to a friends house with a dresser and clothes.  We put some items by the curb for “Free” donations and threw out a lot of trash!!!!!  We bought some plastic 55 Gallon drums to dump the MANY detergent containers that were full of oil.
  • 5.  Tell me one of your proudest moments during this challenge?  The fact that Hubby was able to pull in his vehicle to work on it and now he is OBSESSED with keeping it clean.  He keeps saying that he isn’t going to let it get dirty again.
  • 6.  Explain any organizing “tools” you used to help you create additional space and to establish some limits and boundaries?  We bought the plastic drums to hold the extra oil (which will be picked up by the oil recycling company).  We took a shelf unit that I wasn’t able to utilize and moved it by the back door to hold extra kitchen appliances, drinks and misc items. 
  • 7.  What is ONE piece of advice you’d give to someone else to encourage them on their organizational journey?  Take the 1st step – the outcome is such an accomplishment.
Well here we go -
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Here are extra storage bins and the dog crate.  In the opening to under the stairs is now a storage shelf to hold extra kitchen appliances.
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As you can tell from the picture on top, my deep freezer was used as a holding area for old clothes.  We moved the freezer next to the dryer and I hung my ‘FLIP-N-FOLD’ above so that when I take the clothes out of the dryer I can go ahead and fold them.  We moved the hanging clothes rack to where the freezer used to be.  The cans of paint up above will be going to the city wide clean up next month.  We can actually use our recycle bin now!
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You could barely see one side of the garage before we started.  Most of this was for football season and went to a storage building.  The bed frame is going on a bed in our guest room.  The TV went to Goodwill and the washing machine went to the curb (and was picked up quickly)
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As you can see, there are A LOT of containers of oil which were put into the blue drums.  Our son & his best friend were a big help! Hubby had to do some oil clean-up with the kitty litter.  (We only used a few bags, haha) Yes, there was a weight bench there.  The Hibiscus was trimmed down and moved to the front porch.  Now the boys can actually utilize the weight bench.  I’m thinking we may need to change the direction so we can play Darts again.  The blue drums are awaiting to be picked up by the Recycling company.  The lawn equipment is now against the wall.
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I don’t know how he was able to find ANYTHING on his workbench!!!  I didn’t even try to look for anything, I was afraid of what I might find.  Sure enough, Hubby cleaned all his tools and placed in the toolbox, hung up items on the pegboard and put other items in the storage boxes they belong in.
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The FINAL result was that Hubby can now pull into the garage to work on the vehicles.  I have a chair so I can sit out there with him (on the computer) 
He has already changed the oil and was able to put the used oil in the oil drum (what a blessing).
Hubby is soooo happy, he is now always making sure that the garage is picked-up, I can’t even drop a dryer sheet without him saying something (hehe).  He had to show the garage off to the neighbor and has told his friends.  He has said that it was such a Task – he ISN’T going to let it get messed up again.
I know that we  probably didn’t use a lot of items for storage, but we reused what we had to make it work for our needs.  Yes we did rent a storage building, but that was going to be done whether we had done the challenge or not.  There are other coaches that are going to share the space with us.
Thanks for this challenge – I hope you enjoyed our progress
Michelle

10 comments:

  1. Good work! Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Thank you - now it's time for the next project!

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  2. The Great Garage Clean Out - Nice! And room for the car makes it all worth it.

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  3. My goal is to get my car in the garage by next winter. You have truly inspired me. Great Job!

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    1. I'm glad I could help you :) Our next project is my craft room - I'm taking over the guest room. I think it looks just as bad, haha. I wish you luck, my hubby is so happy now.

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  4. I am TOTALLY AMAZED!!! WOW!! Ya'll did a FANTASTIC job! It doesn't even look like the same garage. When will you know you won? :)

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  5. WOW...your garage looks great! I can't wait to see how the craft room turns out.

    One of my goals this year is to get my home organized and decluttered. Things that we no longer need or want have been moved to the basement to wait for the yard sale we are having this summer. As soon as the yard sale is over, I am tackling the basement!

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  6. Congrats on your win! Great job! Your whole family must be loving that space!

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  7. Amazing before and after! Way to get the men involved too! What a difference a team can make!

    ~ Ferly
    Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}

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