46 May Featured Space: Outdoors - Garage Before & Afters!

The suspense has been greatly building all week, as I revealed bits and pieces of my total garage overhaul project.  Each day I have given you a glimpse into the major garage zones, such as auto, toys, tools and pets.  And today, I will wrap it all up in a pretty bow and hand over to you, the complete before and after shots!

First though, you may be wondering, how did it ever get so bad?  Well, I will sadly take blame for that.  You see, I never gave the family a good foundation in the first place, to help them keep the space organized.  There was no specific home given to many of the items that were living in the garage.  Each time something got used, it got put back somewhere new.  And that started to create a downward spiral.  The kid's loved digging in the garage for goodies, and then would just toss things back... but I was the worst.  By far the worst.  Living in frigid Wisconsin is challenging for this gal.  I mean, it's 80 degrees out today and I still have a cardigan sweater within arms reach.  Yes, I am allergic to the cold.  Very allergic.  So when winter comes around, I avoid the garage, because it's just about as cold in there as it is outside.  So, for 8 months out of the year, the garage gets no love from me.  In fact, I am really bad about just opening the door from the kitchen and tossing things into the garage and then shutting the door and running away, without looking at the chaos being created, because if I were to look, I would want to fix it, and I didn't have the strength....

That is until now.  The birds are chirping daily, the sun is shining bright, and I am not wearing twelve layers of clothing just to keep a moderate body temp.  It was time to face the scariest part of our home, and take back control.  It was time to make it a place that would be easy for us to maintain, even without me being around for a larger part of the year.  And that is exactly what I did!

So without further ado, here are the before pictures of our garage:

Now I do have to apologize, the before shots were actually taken a little while back, however, I assure you, not much had changed before I started the project....

Last Saturday rolled around and I had full intentions of cleaning out the garage with my hubs that morning, and then finishing up in the evening while he went to a baseball game with some of his guy pals.  However, starting that Friday evening, large amounts of rain began falling, lasting well into the middle of Saturday.  Not much got accomplished while he was home.  Yes, cleaning out an entire garage in one day may seem a tad ambitious, however, I tend to be a go getter, and when I start something, I don't like to finish until I am done.  Once I stop, motivation flies right out the window... typically anyway.  Luckily, when my husband left for his baseball game, the rain left our town as well.

I started out by putting a large table in the center of the garage, along with a very large garbage can and recycling bin.  I then walked around the whole garage, removing items from every shelf and storage unit, placing "keep" items on the table, and tossing or recycling the rest.  I then filled a big bucket with soapy water, and scrubbed EVERYTHING down.  That place was a major dust zone!

I now had a really blank slate which felt really good!  And at this point, between playing with the kids, feeding the kids, problem solving with the kids.... I had probably already invested about 3 hours just in clearing and cleaning.

While the kiddos ate their dinner, I jotted down some ideas in regards to my overall vision of the space.  How did I want it to function?  How do I ensure I am not scared to go in there again?  How do I help my family know where things belong?  I also used this time to start covering soup cans and an applesauce jar with decorative paper.

I also worked into the night, making labels for clear shoebox bins that held a variety of miscellaneous tools and yard supplies:

{yes, I understand I can't spell.... it is something we giggle about frequently around here!}

And labels for all of the toy storage bins:

I then called it a night, but just knowing that I had a really good start, and a blank slate to work from, kept me motivated to work on it again the next day....

That is until the next day came and went.  Yep, it was a busy busy day.  Birthday party.  Grocery Shopping.  Graduation party.  90 degrees.  Not much really happened on the garage end.  I begged my husband for his help, I pleaded, "Together we could finish this up in an hour or two!"  But he was too hot.. and not as optimistic as I, so I just did a couple of little things here and there... but he promised to help me finish up the next night, and that he did!

My main man B was really there for me that Monday night.  He used his big muscle arms to move a ton of the bigger things, and to do a lot of heavy lifting.  We were a true power team.  And we didn't even start til after the little ones were in bed, and finished in only about two hours.  

And here was the end result:

Oh yeah, we were able to park both cars inside nice and easy now! And everything had a home!  We did some singing.  Some dancing.  Some giggling.  Some jumping.  And as I mentioned, we celebrated with a glass of wine right in front of it, staring in at our new expanded living space, with jaws dropped and eyes wide open.  It was a happy moment.

So, what makes this space so great, and what did we do to make such a dramatic difference?  Well, breaking it into zones was a huge part of it!  And then finding ways to get most things onto the walls vs. the floor was another huge piece of the puzzle.  

We were fortunate enough to have a small cutout in the wall in the front of the garage, which gave us the perfect space to hang some shelves {that our neighbor generously GAVE to us for FREE?!}

With the shelves I was able to get a space for my gardening supplies and our auto supplies!  

And our wagon tucked perfectly under the bottom shelf, nice and out of the way, but easy to get out when needed!  Love the seed packet container?  Check out how that came to be, right here....

Our hose used to be on a floor winding system, but again, trying to maximize floor space and making it easy to get around the cars when parked in the garage, a cheapo wall hose organizer was hung in it's place:

It even came with a little cabinet holder for the hose sprayers!  Love that!

Still on that wall, all of our golf bags were hung by simple screw in hooks. 

And next was the newly created station for our friendly pups:

This area works great for hanging all of their leashes from an old coat hook rack:

And storing all of their supplies and food:

On the opposite side of the door leading into our kitchen, we had placed a large coat wardrobe, to store our winter coats and boots during the summer months.  This helped a ton since we were never blessed with a true coat closet inside the home.

And to really use the space, we installed a broom hanging rail to the side, where I keep our mops, broom and dustpan, right in reach from the kitchen.

The handles just snap in and out, making it a super easy storage solution for me, because again, I don't have a closet inside to hold these items for me.

Around to the back of the garage, we have our outdoor freezer chest and next to that, is where the magic happens for the kids.  A large set of shelves was the perfect place to hold my new green plastic storage baskets {scored on sale from Target for $6 each!}, along with some additional storage I already had on hand.  

With the bins all labeled and ready to go, everything had a home and the kids would never be left wondering where to put their belongings again!

Here is little Parker now, testing things out....

Next in line is my favorite part of the whole space!  The perfect place to do any home improvement project!  No excuses now for not getting things done around here!

The workbench has loads of work space now that nothing needs to be stacked in piles on top of it!  Everything has a place to call it's own, whether inside a mini-labeled drawer, an old plastic shoe box or on the pegboard.  It all works together in harmony!  And now the hubs and I can too!

And right above the workbench is actually a very crucial storage space for our family.  Awhile back, my husband and his handy papa, built an overhead storage shelf, similar to the kind of you find at Home Depot.  They just used scrap wood pieces, and completely expanded our garage storage space!

The upper storage holds two shop vacs, collapsible chairs, strollers, a fan, a snow blower.... all sorts of larger items!    It is a fantastic use of space!

Onto the final wall, where you will find that we placed all of our fire wood into two lidded bins, to ensure it stays nice and dry and ready whenever we are, for a good late night bonfire!

And using more of the awesome screw in wall hooks, hangs a post-hole digger, again, up and off of the floor!!

The hooks are so versatile!  We even used them to hang our bikes from the ceiling!  Is there anything these amazing little beauties can't hold?

And next comes another storage shelf, holding a compressor and parts on top, cleaning supplies to keep the garage in tip top shape moving forward, a tool box filled additional tool pieces, and a dry place to store bags of potting soil and grass seed.

On the far side of the wall, boasts even more storage, this time in the form of a 2 x 4 screwed into the wall, with smaller hooks screwed into the 2 x 4.

It created cheap and perfect yard tool storage!  Up and out of the way, yet at a simple reach when needed!

Last but not least, some stacking bins tuck perfectly in the corner, to hold all sorts of garage goodies from shop vac attachments to life jackets and kid's tackle boxes!

Now you have had the grand garage tour!  

Some final side by side shots?

Not bad what can be done in a matter of a couple of hours with a lot of motivation behind you!  And yes, I know there is a big rectangle mark on the floor of my garage, note to self to use bigger cardboard next time I get the urge to spray paint something!  Oops!  I say it adds character, my husband on the other hand.... 

So now my pledge, to not be afraid of my garage.  To brave it even during the winter months, no matter how cold my toes are.  To enjoy it and use it for many more fun projects around the home!  To keep it two car able until the harsh winter comes, because scraping windows daily is no fun task!

So what do you think?  Any favorite parts?  Any ideas you are going to snag and give a try in your own space?  Any awesome ideas that are working wonders in your garage, that you care to share with us?  Please tell!!