April 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Hey friends!
What if I told you your garage could actually be an organized, functional space? In this episode, I'm giving you practical, actionable tips to declutter and organize your garage. We talk about the biggest reasons garages get out of control, how to create zones that work for you, and what to do when decision fatigue hits.
And if you're ready to roll up your sleeves and want a little extra help, don't miss our next LIVE Clutter Clinic: Garages. It's the perfect way to get guidance and accountability to finally tackle that space.
Key Takeaways:
Whether your garage is a total disaster or needs a little fine-tuning, I promise you something in this episode.
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
LIVE CLUTTER CLINIC WORKSHOP
COLOR GURU (use code TOL for 10% off your purchase)
START ANYTIME MENTORING BUNDLE
What if I told you your garage could actually be an organized, functional space? In this episode, I'm giving you practical, actionable tips to declutter and organize your garage. We talk about the biggest reasons garages get out of control, how to create zones that work for you, and what to do when decision fatigue hits.
And if you're ready to roll up your sleeves and want a little extra help, don't miss our next LIVE Clutter Clinic: Garages. It's the perfect way to get guidance and accountability to finally tackle that space.
Key Takeaways:
- Garages get cluttered for a reason. Understanding why helps you fix it long-term.
- Zones are your best friend. Define clear areas for tools, sports gear, seasonal items, etc.
- Decision fatigue is real. Learn how to work around it and still make progress.
- Respect your garage. It deserves the same attention as your kitchen or bedroom—because it impacts your daily life just as much.
- You don't have to do it alone. Join our Clutter Clinic Garage workshop and get your support to make it happen.
Whether your garage is a total disaster or needs a little fine-tuning, I promise you something in this episode.
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
LIVE CLUTTER CLINIC WORKSHOP
COLOR GURU (use code TOL for 10% off your purchase)
START ANYTIME MENTORING BUNDLE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, friends, if you're tired of stepping over piles of
stuff in your garage just to get through the house,
or digging through bins to find what you need, then
you have to join me for our next clutter clinic.
And this time, guys, we're talking all about garages. It's
happening live on Friday, May second, at twelve o'clock Eastern Time.
And the best part is, if you can't make it live,
(00:22):
no worries. We're going to be sending out a replay
to anybody who registers. During this one hour workshop, I'm
going to walk you through the practical strategies that I
use in my home to turn your garage into a
space that actually works for you. Whether that means that
you want to park your car in there, you just
want your kids to be able to access their toys
and put them away. We're going to cover all of
it now. Spots are limited, so please don't wait. Head
(00:44):
on over to simply be Organized dot com slash workshop,
or click on the link below wherever you're listening or
watching to grab your spot. Let's clear that clutter together.
Hi everybody, and welcome to today's episode of This Organized Life.
I'm your host so happy that you're here. This is
your first time tuning in. I know we've recently got
a lot of new listeners. Let me tell you a
(01:07):
little bit about our show. We are an weekly show
that gives practical advice and suggestions about how to navigate
clutter and live a more organized life in the most
simplest of terms. And what does that even mean. It
means we're not just going to focus in on what
(01:27):
products are good. We're going to talk about why your
clutter gets here and what can we do about it.
We look at clutter from basically the inside out. And
if you're somebody that is interested in the psychology of clutter,
you're in the right place. If you are interested in
maybe starting your own professional organizing business, or you have
(01:48):
an organizing business and you want to learn how some
other people do it, or some how to address some
issues that you might be seeing with your own clients,
you're in the right spot. If you are looking for
way to better help communicate and empower the people in
your life, be that your spouse or your kids, or
(02:09):
your aging parents, you are in the right place. And
if you're just looking for some entertainment, hopefully we have
a couple of funny anecdotes that come along the way
to entertain you and just lighten the heaviness that comes
with the topic of decluttering and organization, which again in
(02:29):
and of itself, is a little bit dry, a little
bit boring. But today I want to talk about some
overlooked spaces in your home and why those overlook spaces
cost you time, money, and most importantly, your sanity. And
we have an event. The emthetis for me doing this
(02:52):
episode in the spirit of transparency is we have this
clutter Clinic series that we are running. It is a
live workshop. It's live over Zoom, but it is live,
interactive with you and me add each clutter clinic. We're
running them over a span of six months and you
can drop in and choose the topics that resonate with
(03:13):
you most We're going to be doing a deep dive
into multiple clutter pockets in our homes and what to
do about them, and I'll be doing live Q and A.
And we just did one on closets in the beginning
of April, and now we're going to be We're gearing
up for our May clutter Clinic, which is all about
garages and for so many people. They don't often give
(03:38):
the same attention to their garages because they are almost
like an ancillary space, and you can fill in the
blank with sheds, sometimes even atticts or unfinished basements. But
specifically where we live in the Northeast, the majority of people,
if they live in a house where I am, a
(03:59):
lot of people have garage, and the thought of even
parking one car in there can seem like a foreign concept,
and the floor wants are becoming a dumping ground and
they can't find what they need, and all of these
feelings of frustration add up. And the interesting part is
(04:20):
the garage is often the entryway point for a lot
of people. The kids come in through the garage, you
go in and out the garage to go to work.
But yet we use this space as a pass through
in our home, but we don't treat it with the
same respect and give it the same proper attention when
(04:44):
it comes to organization that we would say our kitchen
or some other rooms in the house. And I want
to use this opportunity to change your mindset on this.
I'm going to talk about five different kind of reasons
why this garage space often becomes the afterthought, and of course,
(05:09):
because I'm all about practical solutions, what can we do
about it? Like we know that this is the problem,
I think identifying the problem as the first step. But
then the second step is okay, now that we knew this,
what do we do about it? So let's get right
into it all right. Number one is the old out
(05:30):
of sight, out of mind. I don't know about you,
but oftentimes when you don't know what to do with something,
you say, I'm just going to put it out of here,
and you want to get it out of sight. And
that's a very ennygram three tactic for all my Enneagram people.
They don't like to see clutter. And so if you
don't have a proper home for something, of where something's
(05:52):
going to live, let's just put in the garage. And
what happens is we then don't always put it way systematically,
and so it just accumulates. And if you don't know
where you're putting stuff, or you're just putting it away mindlessly,
when you go to retrieve it, you don't know that
you even have it, or you forgot about it. Why
because we have so many other things on our minds,
(06:13):
We have so many other things going on that like
we forget, oh we put that, you know, extra roll
of paper towels out there, or I put the I
bought extra packing tape for all my Amazon returns, and
I just shoved it on the shelf as opposed to
defining a proper space for it. And I'm not seeing
this with any judgment or shame. I'm just saying the
reality of this is what I see when I go
(06:35):
into people's homes and I see these recurring patterns of
I bought it, I was busy, I was doing a
thousand other different things, and so I just shoved it
on the shelf, I shoved in a drawer, I shoved
it in a cabinet, and all of a sudden, when
I go to need it, I don't know where it is.
So what do I do? I buy it again. And
so that's what happens a lot of times with the
(06:57):
out of site, out of mind. And so we talk
about our clutter costing us money and time and sanity.
That checks all the boxes, because even though a lot
of times the stuff that we're rebuying isn't a large
monetary sum in and of itself, it wants it becoming
death by a thousand cuts. I think if we were
(07:18):
to sit down and add up all of the extra
things that we bought, and you could fill this in
for the grocery store or clothing that you forget that
you have, or again, household items are the most common,
and you're like, oh, I didn't check our backstock area
or I don't even have a backstock area, and so
(07:41):
you buy this stuff only to find out that you
have it again and not just money that you could
have applied to something else or better get saved it.
And then the time factor is like who has time
to waste on these things? So how do we avoid
this out of sight out of mind again? The most
common ant, sir is, let's just define the space and
(08:03):
put the time in upfront to put it away intentionally
as opposed to mindlessly, because when we go to retrieve it,
we go to look for it. We need to know
where it is, and that is really the crux of it, right.
We don't want to just put things away mindlessly because
then notworiously, we don't know where it is. Let try
(08:24):
to avoid number one, the out of sight, out of mind,
And so I'm going to ask you to do right now,
is think about some of the things that you wind
up repeatedly putting away mindlessly, and maybe it's your kid's toys,
or maybe it is the mail, or maybe it is
when the Amazon purchases come in and you just leave
(08:46):
them in the garage or whatever that is. Start to
unnotice your own patterns. Start to look at what are
the things that gets shoved inadvertently? What's going on in
my life when that happens, Why do I keep doing it?
What are the reasons? And not from a shame and
judgment standpoint, but more curiosity. I want you to look
(09:07):
at all of these different things from a curiosity standpoint,
because when we can start, you'll take an objective view
without feeling like we're being attacked or judged. We put
our defenses down, and that's really what I want you
to do, is just put your defenses down and say,
let's look at this from an objective point of view.
Why do I fall into this pattern? Okay? The next
(09:30):
thing is what I call that the clutter tax of time.
And the clutter tax of time is you throw all
of your stuff into the big bin and then you
have an idea it's here, So it's not that you
don't know where it is, but you have to waste
all this time digging through this. And I see this
(09:51):
a lot with kids stuff, with kids toys, and I
remember when my girls were younger, I would and I
would have a plate to my friends and they would
have these big, ginormous like toy bins and they would go,
I don't understand why the kids have to dump everything
out and then they never put it away. And I
(10:12):
would say, they're looking for whatever they want to play
with at the time. And if everything is in this
one big vat this big dumping ground in order for
them to find it, the path of least resistance for
a tunnel, it is, I'm gonna dump it out. I'm
going to find what I'm looking for. But then we
wanted up having to take that extra step of now
putting it all back. And I see that pattern happen
(10:36):
with adults too, and it happens in multiple areas. But
garages are big a big common area for that to
happen because we oftentimes have space. It's a bigger space,
so you can have a big bin, you can have
a big basket, you can have these larger scale areas
in order for you to put stuff in, and so
(10:59):
then when you go to look for it, you wind
up digging through all this other stuff. And that is frustrating.
It's time consuming, and it adds to that visual stress
because now you have to take it out, you have
to put it away. And I'm all about, let's have
a simple system for putting things away. I don't want
(11:21):
it to be complex. I don't want you to have
to be like, Okay, we're color coding every little thing
so that because that's not realistic for the everyday person, right,
no one's gonna be doing that. But I think we
have to find that middle ground from we're just gonna
dump every toy or every household cleaning product in this
(11:44):
one bin to Okay, let's separate it and we're gonna
we're gonna zone it and we're gonna put our car
stuff here, and our gardening stuff here, and our backstop
household stuff over here. That way, when I go to
look for it, I can find what i'm looking for.
I know, for us, like here's a perfect example. So
we have Christmas lights, and I store my seasonal stuff
(12:07):
in the garage. Just because of the way our house
is laid out, I don't store it in our basement.
We don't have enough room. So I have shelving up
in our garage, and I have instead of just doing
all Christmas lights together, I have indoor Christmas lights and
I have outdoor Christmas lights. And that in and of
itself allows me to simplify when I'm Okay, Josh, you're
(12:31):
gonna go do the outside stuff. Here's our outdoor decor,
here's our inside stuff, and those little things. You could
argue a case and say we have all out we
have all light bulbs, and we put all light bulbs
in one thing. But wouldn't it be easier if you're like, oh,
here are a specific type. So try to think about
(12:54):
when does it make sense for you to get really
niched in and finding that sweet spot between nicheing in
and getting like micromanaging is often that that's that delicate balance.
But I want you to just again come back to
where do we have conflict? Where do we find that
(13:16):
we're wasting time? Where do we have Where are there
times that the kids are asking me for things that
they know should that I know were out there and
they should know where they are. Look at those situations
and then you can reverse engineer it. So don't create
a problem that isn't there, but look at the common
areas that are sucking up unnecessary time in your life. Hey, friends,
(13:41):
LORI here and I want to share a little personal
story with you. A couple of years ago, I had
this come to Jesus moment where I realized that I
was spending way too much time and money on clothes
that didn't really work for me. The ones that look
amazing on the hangar or maybe on somebody else, but
when I would put them on, something felt just off.
(14:01):
I don't know if you can relate to that. And
then I was introduced to my friend Genie over at
your Color Guru, and let me tell you, it was
a game changer. Genie and her team of experts help
me discover my own personal color palette. Shout out to
the warm autumns out there. So now I only buy
(14:21):
and keep clothes that make me look and feel my best.
It stopped me from impuls buying or buying things that
sit in my closet that I wound up never wearing.
I can't tell you the amount of time and money
that I saved from just knowing what works for me
and here's the best part. If you are ready to
find your perfect colors, stop wasting money and time. You
(14:43):
can use my code TOL to get ten percent off
of your first color analysis. Trust me, this is one
decision that you will not regret and it makes for
a great gift too. Like I'm thinking Mother's Day birthdays.
These are a fun, great gift and you can even
grab a bu to friends together and do it together.
So head on over to your color guru and start
(15:06):
loving what's in your closet today, and don't forget use
code t L at checkout for ten percent off. The
third thing is using the garage floor as a drop zone.
Now this is probably I would say, if I had
to speculate, one of the most common struggles that I
(15:29):
see clients with the garage is using the floor as
a drop zone. And oftentimes we have the opportunity to
maximize space differently in our garage. We can have shelving,
we can have hooks, you can do diy stuff and
go to a big box store and just get your
(15:51):
own stuff. You can build it, or you can have
a custom garage system. Right, there's such a vast spectrum
of how you use your space. How much of money
you want to invest in it, the purpose all the things,
So there's not a one size fits all. And I've
seen some of the most organized garages be stuff that
(16:12):
people just put together on their own, right, they went
to a hardware store, they got some hooks, and they
got built some shelving and called it a day. And
the difference is that they aren't. One of the biggest differences,
I should say, is getting stuff off the floor and
putting them up on the walls right. Getting them up Now,
(16:35):
there are certain things that are likely going to live
on a floor that for whatever reason, are either too
heavy or just doesn't make sense. If you've got in
a garage, you've got a snowblower or a lawnmower or
things like that that maybe don't aren't maybe you don't
have a shed, and so that stuff lives there a generator.
(16:57):
Those things aren't heavy and bulky, and they're going to
life on the floor. But aside from that, what are
the items that are currently on your floor that could
be elevated, that could be up Because when you can
keep your floor clean, it makes it so much It
(17:18):
is so much easier to navigate in and out of
the space. It allows you to walk to your car easier,
It allows people to come in and out easier. It
allows you to access you don't have to keep bending
down to get what you need, even for kids. The
more stuff that you can have at eye level, the
(17:40):
more the less clutter you're going to have, because you
can see it. Clutter that kind of floats below the
surface tends to just hang their ocean sludge. I don't
know how else to say. That's the image that I'm
conjuring up. It's like the stuff that floats blow the
surface that we know is there, but we don't see it.
We just feel it, and it's like it grazes us
(18:03):
and it's annoying and we try to ignore it, but
we know it's there. I want you to have your
garage be like clear ocean water. I want you to
be able to walk in there with this sense of
calm and a sense of peace and not going what
what am I going to step on? What is lurking
beneath the surface. And for so many people, the garage
(18:26):
floor wants it becoming that, And so that is it's
your first impression. And when you can come in there,
think about your main home if you just came in
and just had stuff all over the floor all the time,
that would drive you insane. And so treat your garage
floor the way that you would treat your entryway floor
if you're not gonna have stuff. And if somebody does
(18:47):
use the entryway, I tell them all the time, if
that's where your kids come in, we want to have
hooks by the front door for their backpacks or a
bin for their shoes, because you don't want things just
laying on the floor in purpose, So your garage should
not be treated any different. Okay, the next thing is
(19:09):
the fact that garage, and this kind of touches on
the same topic of number one, is really about the
notion of the decision fatigue of I don't have a
home for this. I don't know what to do. I'm
going to put it there, but it's the out of sight,
out of mind because I'm just exhausted. I am just
(19:30):
mentally exhausted from having to make ten thousand decisions. I
have ten thousand decisions that I have to make at
the house. I have ten thousand decisions I have to
make at work. And the last thing that I want
to do is sit there and look at this big space, right,
whether you have a one car garage, two car garage,
three car garage, whatever it is, I'm looking at this
(19:52):
big space, and if you take it for what it is,
it's a big empty room with opportunity. It is a
big empty room with potential, but without a clear plan
of how to utilize that space, it easily can become
a big dumping ground for everything. And so I want
(20:15):
you to look at this as the extension of the house,
not just the abyss of where we throw things. And
I've had this conversation with people about addicts and basements
as well, so a lot of this, a lot of
these themes will cross over. So if you are somebody
that doesn't have a garage, but maybe you have an
(20:37):
attic or basement, you can relate to this because again,
the strategies are going to still apply. Right, So maybe
you're not going to park your car in your attic,
but you want to be able to find this stuff.
You want to be able to have a system, you
want to be able to zone it. And that is
one of the things that you're going to want to
look in, which goes to number five, which is it's
one space with many purposes. Most of the other spaces
(21:01):
in your house have a single purpose, right, Occasionally they'll
have a multiple like a kitchen kind of doubles. It's
like an entertaining space, maybe a homework space, but it's
also like where we cook and prep food and eat.
The home office is where we do work. Our bedroom
is where we sleep. So all of the other spaces
(21:21):
in our home have a very defined function. Now, the
garage is multipurpose. It could be the place where I
store backsuck supplies. Is this place where I store seasonal decor.
Is a space where I do start store gardening and
automotive and tools. So you have all of these multi
(21:41):
function places under one roof in this space, and so
I like to approach it. And this is what we're
going to dive deeper into in Clutter Clinic Garage. Just
as a little teaser for you. We're going to talk
about how do you identify creating these mini zone owns,
almost like many rooms within the hub of your garage.
(22:05):
Right If whether it is we're gonna have sports and
we're gonna have a play area, we're gonna have outdoor
games maybe, or somebody has beach chairs or stuff for
the lake or camping at. Each one of those spots
needs its own designated area. And a lot of times
(22:25):
people will give me the eye roll of I don't
have the time, and this is where the money factor
comes in. But I will come back and say, you
can't afford not to. And if we're going to take
on all of these hobbies and interests and have all
of these all this different stuff, we owe it to
ourselves and the people in our homes to treat this
(22:49):
stuff with respect, treat our time with the respect that
it deserves, and give our space the story and the
layout that it needs in order for you to be
able to find what you're looking for. And again that
doesn't mean it has to cost a fortune, but I
(23:10):
guarantee you, if you are someone who's garage is a
disaster and it takes you ten times as long to
find something because you have to dig through and you
don't even know where it is and you're frustrated, the
price that you are paying for that is way more
(23:30):
than the time it would take you to either carve
out time in your schedule to get it organized or
outsource it and pay somebody else to get it organized.
And so if that is you again. I'm not coming
at this from a place of shame or a place
of judgment, but you and your space deserve it to
(23:51):
be organized. And the garage is oftentimes the most overlooked
space in the house, and it's also overla because there
are so many different options out there, and decision fatigue
winds up playing a huge role in I don't know where,
I don't know where to even begin. I don't even
know what the right system is for how we use
(24:13):
this space, and the system is always going to look different, right,
So for most people, I'm gonna always recommend going vertical,
but how and what products we use and what capacity
is going to vary based on your own interests and lifestyle.
And so for some people that's gonna be built in.
For other people, it's gonna be a modular thing. For
(24:33):
some people it's gonna be hooks. Other people it's gonna
be shelves. There's so many nuances that can cause people
that feeling of overwhelm that they just say, forget it.
I am just not even gonna be touching it. And
so if that's you, I would love for you to
come to our clinic clinic garage it's again. If this,
(24:54):
any of this episode resonated with you, We're gonna dive deeper.
We're gonna be talking about specific strategies. I'm gonna talking
about specific products what I think are like, the pros
and cons about each one, the advantages and disadvantages. How
an organized garage. I'm not a realtor, but I work
with a lot of realtors and how having an organized
(25:14):
garage can help add value to your home, and especially
if you are in the market of looking to sell
your home, how that can increase the attraction to a
potential buyer. There's so many advantages for investing your time, money,
and resources into decluttering and organizing this oftentimes overlook space
(25:37):
known as the garage. So I hope this has been
helpful and useful. If you know somebody and you're sitting
there thinking, oh, I know somebody that could really benefit
from listening to this, share this episode with them, right.
This is how people learn strategies as other people share
them with them. And I know if that were me,
I would appreciate it. So just do your friends of
(26:00):
favor and click the share button, and I hope that
you're if you are interested in clutter Clinic garage. There's
going to be a link below in our show notes.
You can also visit our website which is simply be
that Just the letterborganized dot com slash workshop and if
you'll see there's a tab right on there and you
can go and register for our event. So I'm LORI
(26:22):
plow until next week. I will see you then, have
an awesome one. Take care, peace out. Thanks for tuning in.
If you'd like this episode, please spread the love and
share it with your friends. And if this is your
first time joining us, make sure to click the subscribe
button wherever you are listening so you never miss an episode.
And while you're there, please leave us a review so
other people know that our show is worth to listen.
(26:43):
You can also find us on YouTube and Instagram at
this Organized Life podcast, and if you'd like to connect
with us, you can head on over to our website
at simply the Letter b like boyorganized dot com, which
is filled with tons of resources, including free downloads, checklists,
links to our amazing organizing partners, and all of our
digital offerings. I'll see you next week for another episode
(27:05):
of This Organized Life
Hey, friends, if you're tired of stepping over piles of
stuff in your garage just to get through the house,
or digging through bins to find what you need, then
you have to join me for our next clutter clinic.
And this time, guys, we're talking all about garages. It's
happening live on Friday, May second, at twelve o'clock Eastern Time.
And the best part is, if you can't make it live,
(00:22):
no worries. We're going to be sending out a replay
to anybody who registers. During this one hour workshop, I'm
going to walk you through the practical strategies that I
use in my home to turn your garage into a
space that actually works for you. Whether that means that
you want to park your car in there, you just
want your kids to be able to access their toys
and put them away. We're going to cover all of
it now. Spots are limited, so please don't wait. Head
(00:44):
on over to simply be Organized dot com slash workshop,
or click on the link below wherever you're listening or
watching to grab your spot. Let's clear that clutter together.
Hi everybody, and welcome to today's episode of This Organized Life.
I'm your host so happy that you're here. This is
your first time tuning in. I know we've recently got
a lot of new listeners. Let me tell you a
(01:07):
little bit about our show. We are an weekly show
that gives practical advice and suggestions about how to navigate
clutter and live a more organized life in the most
simplest of terms. And what does that even mean. It
means we're not just going to focus in on what
(01:27):
products are good. We're going to talk about why your
clutter gets here and what can we do about it.
We look at clutter from basically the inside out. And
if you're somebody that is interested in the psychology of clutter,
you're in the right place. If you are interested in
maybe starting your own professional organizing business, or you have
(01:48):
an organizing business and you want to learn how some
other people do it, or some how to address some
issues that you might be seeing with your own clients,
you're in the right spot. If you are looking for
way to better help communicate and empower the people in
your life, be that your spouse or your kids, or
(02:09):
your aging parents, you are in the right place. And
if you're just looking for some entertainment, hopefully we have
a couple of funny anecdotes that come along the way
to entertain you and just lighten the heaviness that comes
with the topic of decluttering and organization, which again in
(02:29):
and of itself, is a little bit dry, a little
bit boring. But today I want to talk about some
overlooked spaces in your home and why those overlook spaces
cost you time, money, and most importantly, your sanity. And
we have an event. The emthetis for me doing this
(02:52):
episode in the spirit of transparency is we have this
clutter Clinic series that we are running. It is a
live workshop. It's live over Zoom, but it is live,
interactive with you and me add each clutter clinic. We're
running them over a span of six months and you
can drop in and choose the topics that resonate with
(03:13):
you most We're going to be doing a deep dive
into multiple clutter pockets in our homes and what to
do about them, and I'll be doing live Q and A.
And we just did one on closets in the beginning
of April, and now we're going to be We're gearing
up for our May clutter Clinic, which is all about
garages and for so many people. They don't often give
(03:38):
the same attention to their garages because they are almost
like an ancillary space, and you can fill in the
blank with sheds, sometimes even atticts or unfinished basements. But
specifically where we live in the Northeast, the majority of people,
if they live in a house where I am, a
(03:59):
lot of people have garage, and the thought of even
parking one car in there can seem like a foreign concept,
and the floor wants are becoming a dumping ground and
they can't find what they need, and all of these
feelings of frustration add up. And the interesting part is
(04:20):
the garage is often the entryway point for a lot
of people. The kids come in through the garage, you
go in and out the garage to go to work.
But yet we use this space as a pass through
in our home, but we don't treat it with the
same respect and give it the same proper attention when
(04:44):
it comes to organization that we would say our kitchen
or some other rooms in the house. And I want
to use this opportunity to change your mindset on this.
I'm going to talk about five different kind of reasons
why this garage space often becomes the afterthought, and of course,
(05:09):
because I'm all about practical solutions, what can we do
about it? Like we know that this is the problem,
I think identifying the problem as the first step. But
then the second step is okay, now that we knew this,
what do we do about it? So let's get right
into it all right. Number one is the old out
(05:30):
of sight, out of mind. I don't know about you,
but oftentimes when you don't know what to do with something,
you say, I'm just going to put it out of here,
and you want to get it out of sight. And
that's a very ennygram three tactic for all my Enneagram people.
They don't like to see clutter. And so if you
don't have a proper home for something, of where something's
(05:52):
going to live, let's just put in the garage. And
what happens is we then don't always put it way systematically,
and so it just accumulates. And if you don't know
where you're putting stuff, or you're just putting it away mindlessly,
when you go to retrieve it, you don't know that
you even have it, or you forgot about it. Why
because we have so many other things on our minds,
(06:13):
We have so many other things going on that like
we forget, oh we put that, you know, extra roll
of paper towels out there, or I put the I
bought extra packing tape for all my Amazon returns, and
I just shoved it on the shelf as opposed to
defining a proper space for it. And I'm not seeing
this with any judgment or shame. I'm just saying the
reality of this is what I see when I go
(06:35):
into people's homes and I see these recurring patterns of
I bought it, I was busy, I was doing a
thousand other different things, and so I just shoved it
on the shelf, I shoved in a drawer, I shoved
it in a cabinet, and all of a sudden, when
I go to need it, I don't know where it is.
So what do I do? I buy it again. And
so that's what happens a lot of times with the
(06:57):
out of site, out of mind. And so we talk
about our clutter costing us money and time and sanity.
That checks all the boxes, because even though a lot
of times the stuff that we're rebuying isn't a large
monetary sum in and of itself, it wants it becoming
death by a thousand cuts. I think if we were
(07:18):
to sit down and add up all of the extra
things that we bought, and you could fill this in
for the grocery store or clothing that you forget that
you have, or again, household items are the most common,
and you're like, oh, I didn't check our backstock area
or I don't even have a backstock area, and so
(07:41):
you buy this stuff only to find out that you
have it again and not just money that you could
have applied to something else or better get saved it.
And then the time factor is like who has time
to waste on these things? So how do we avoid
this out of sight out of mind again? The most
common ant, sir is, let's just define the space and
(08:03):
put the time in upfront to put it away intentionally
as opposed to mindlessly, because when we go to retrieve it,
we go to look for it. We need to know
where it is, and that is really the crux of it, right.
We don't want to just put things away mindlessly because
then notworiously, we don't know where it is. Let try
(08:24):
to avoid number one, the out of sight, out of mind,
And so I'm going to ask you to do right now,
is think about some of the things that you wind
up repeatedly putting away mindlessly, and maybe it's your kid's toys,
or maybe it is the mail, or maybe it is
when the Amazon purchases come in and you just leave
(08:46):
them in the garage or whatever that is. Start to
unnotice your own patterns. Start to look at what are
the things that gets shoved inadvertently? What's going on in
my life when that happens, Why do I keep doing it?
What are the reasons? And not from a shame and
judgment standpoint, but more curiosity. I want you to look
(09:07):
at all of these different things from a curiosity standpoint,
because when we can start, you'll take an objective view
without feeling like we're being attacked or judged. We put
our defenses down, and that's really what I want you
to do, is just put your defenses down and say,
let's look at this from an objective point of view.
Why do I fall into this pattern? Okay? The next
(09:30):
thing is what I call that the clutter tax of time.
And the clutter tax of time is you throw all
of your stuff into the big bin and then you
have an idea it's here, So it's not that you
don't know where it is, but you have to waste
all this time digging through this. And I see this
(09:51):
a lot with kids stuff, with kids toys, and I
remember when my girls were younger, I would and I
would have a plate to my friends and they would
have these big, ginormous like toy bins and they would go,
I don't understand why the kids have to dump everything
out and then they never put it away. And I
(10:12):
would say, they're looking for whatever they want to play
with at the time. And if everything is in this
one big vat this big dumping ground in order for
them to find it, the path of least resistance for
a tunnel, it is, I'm gonna dump it out. I'm
going to find what I'm looking for. But then we
wanted up having to take that extra step of now
putting it all back. And I see that pattern happen
(10:36):
with adults too, and it happens in multiple areas. But
garages are big a big common area for that to
happen because we oftentimes have space. It's a bigger space,
so you can have a big bin, you can have
a big basket, you can have these larger scale areas
in order for you to put stuff in, and so
(10:59):
then when you go to look for it, you wind
up digging through all this other stuff. And that is frustrating.
It's time consuming, and it adds to that visual stress
because now you have to take it out, you have
to put it away. And I'm all about, let's have
a simple system for putting things away. I don't want
(11:21):
it to be complex. I don't want you to have
to be like, Okay, we're color coding every little thing
so that because that's not realistic for the everyday person, right,
no one's gonna be doing that. But I think we
have to find that middle ground from we're just gonna
dump every toy or every household cleaning product in this
(11:44):
one bin to Okay, let's separate it and we're gonna
we're gonna zone it and we're gonna put our car
stuff here, and our gardening stuff here, and our backstop
household stuff over here. That way, when I go to
look for it, I can find what i'm looking for.
I know, for us, like here's a perfect example. So
we have Christmas lights, and I store my seasonal stuff
(12:07):
in the garage. Just because of the way our house
is laid out, I don't store it in our basement.
We don't have enough room. So I have shelving up
in our garage, and I have instead of just doing
all Christmas lights together, I have indoor Christmas lights and
I have outdoor Christmas lights. And that in and of
itself allows me to simplify when I'm Okay, Josh, you're
(12:31):
gonna go do the outside stuff. Here's our outdoor decor,
here's our inside stuff, and those little things. You could
argue a case and say we have all out we
have all light bulbs, and we put all light bulbs
in one thing. But wouldn't it be easier if you're like, oh,
here are a specific type. So try to think about
(12:54):
when does it make sense for you to get really
niched in and finding that sweet spot between nicheing in
and getting like micromanaging is often that that's that delicate balance.
But I want you to just again come back to
where do we have conflict? Where do we find that
(13:16):
we're wasting time? Where do we have Where are there
times that the kids are asking me for things that
they know should that I know were out there and
they should know where they are. Look at those situations
and then you can reverse engineer it. So don't create
a problem that isn't there, but look at the common
areas that are sucking up unnecessary time in your life. Hey, friends,
(13:41):
LORI here and I want to share a little personal
story with you. A couple of years ago, I had
this come to Jesus moment where I realized that I
was spending way too much time and money on clothes
that didn't really work for me. The ones that look
amazing on the hangar or maybe on somebody else, but
when I would put them on, something felt just off.
(14:01):
I don't know if you can relate to that. And
then I was introduced to my friend Genie over at
your Color Guru, and let me tell you, it was
a game changer. Genie and her team of experts help
me discover my own personal color palette. Shout out to
the warm autumns out there. So now I only buy
(14:21):
and keep clothes that make me look and feel my best.
It stopped me from impuls buying or buying things that
sit in my closet that I wound up never wearing.
I can't tell you the amount of time and money
that I saved from just knowing what works for me
and here's the best part. If you are ready to
find your perfect colors, stop wasting money and time. You
(14:43):
can use my code TOL to get ten percent off
of your first color analysis. Trust me, this is one
decision that you will not regret and it makes for
a great gift too. Like I'm thinking Mother's Day birthdays.
These are a fun, great gift and you can even
grab a bu to friends together and do it together.
So head on over to your color guru and start
(15:06):
loving what's in your closet today, and don't forget use
code t L at checkout for ten percent off. The
third thing is using the garage floor as a drop zone.
Now this is probably I would say, if I had
to speculate, one of the most common struggles that I
(15:29):
see clients with the garage is using the floor as
a drop zone. And oftentimes we have the opportunity to
maximize space differently in our garage. We can have shelving,
we can have hooks, you can do diy stuff and
go to a big box store and just get your
(15:51):
own stuff. You can build it, or you can have
a custom garage system. Right, there's such a vast spectrum
of how you use your space. How much of money
you want to invest in it, the purpose all the things,
So there's not a one size fits all. And I've
seen some of the most organized garages be stuff that
(16:12):
people just put together on their own, right, they went
to a hardware store, they got some hooks, and they
got built some shelving and called it a day. And
the difference is that they aren't. One of the biggest differences,
I should say, is getting stuff off the floor and
putting them up on the walls right. Getting them up Now,
(16:35):
there are certain things that are likely going to live
on a floor that for whatever reason, are either too
heavy or just doesn't make sense. If you've got in
a garage, you've got a snowblower or a lawnmower or
things like that that maybe don't aren't maybe you don't
have a shed, and so that stuff lives there a generator.
(16:57):
Those things aren't heavy and bulky, and they're going to
life on the floor. But aside from that, what are
the items that are currently on your floor that could
be elevated, that could be up Because when you can
keep your floor clean, it makes it so much It
(17:18):
is so much easier to navigate in and out of
the space. It allows you to walk to your car easier,
It allows people to come in and out easier. It
allows you to access you don't have to keep bending
down to get what you need, even for kids. The
more stuff that you can have at eye level, the
(17:40):
more the less clutter you're going to have, because you
can see it. Clutter that kind of floats below the
surface tends to just hang their ocean sludge. I don't
know how else to say. That's the image that I'm
conjuring up. It's like the stuff that floats blow the
surface that we know is there, but we don't see it.
We just feel it, and it's like it grazes us
(18:03):
and it's annoying and we try to ignore it, but
we know it's there. I want you to have your
garage be like clear ocean water. I want you to
be able to walk in there with this sense of
calm and a sense of peace and not going what
what am I going to step on? What is lurking
beneath the surface. And for so many people, the garage
(18:26):
floor wants it becoming that, And so that is it's
your first impression. And when you can come in there,
think about your main home if you just came in
and just had stuff all over the floor all the time,
that would drive you insane. And so treat your garage
floor the way that you would treat your entryway floor
if you're not gonna have stuff. And if somebody does
(18:47):
use the entryway, I tell them all the time, if
that's where your kids come in, we want to have
hooks by the front door for their backpacks or a
bin for their shoes, because you don't want things just
laying on the floor in purpose, So your garage should
not be treated any different. Okay, the next thing is
(19:09):
the fact that garage, and this kind of touches on
the same topic of number one, is really about the
notion of the decision fatigue of I don't have a
home for this. I don't know what to do. I'm
going to put it there, but it's the out of sight,
out of mind because I'm just exhausted. I am just
(19:30):
mentally exhausted from having to make ten thousand decisions. I
have ten thousand decisions that I have to make at
the house. I have ten thousand decisions I have to
make at work. And the last thing that I want
to do is sit there and look at this big space, right,
whether you have a one car garage, two car garage,
three car garage, whatever it is, I'm looking at this
(19:52):
big space, and if you take it for what it is,
it's a big empty room with opportunity. It is a
big empty room with potential, but without a clear plan
of how to utilize that space, it easily can become
a big dumping ground for everything. And so I want
(20:15):
you to look at this as the extension of the house,
not just the abyss of where we throw things. And
I've had this conversation with people about addicts and basements
as well, so a lot of this, a lot of
these themes will cross over. So if you are somebody
that doesn't have a garage, but maybe you have an
(20:37):
attic or basement, you can relate to this because again,
the strategies are going to still apply. Right, So maybe
you're not going to park your car in your attic,
but you want to be able to find this stuff.
You want to be able to have a system, you
want to be able to zone it. And that is
one of the things that you're going to want to
look in, which goes to number five, which is it's
one space with many purposes. Most of the other spaces
(21:01):
in your house have a single purpose, right, Occasionally they'll
have a multiple like a kitchen kind of doubles. It's
like an entertaining space, maybe a homework space, but it's
also like where we cook and prep food and eat.
The home office is where we do work. Our bedroom
is where we sleep. So all of the other spaces
(21:21):
in our home have a very defined function. Now, the
garage is multipurpose. It could be the place where I
store backsuck supplies. Is this place where I store seasonal decor.
Is a space where I do start store gardening and
automotive and tools. So you have all of these multi
(21:41):
function places under one roof in this space, and so
I like to approach it. And this is what we're
going to dive deeper into in Clutter Clinic Garage. Just
as a little teaser for you. We're going to talk
about how do you identify creating these mini zone owns,
almost like many rooms within the hub of your garage.
(22:05):
Right If whether it is we're gonna have sports and
we're gonna have a play area, we're gonna have outdoor
games maybe, or somebody has beach chairs or stuff for
the lake or camping at. Each one of those spots
needs its own designated area. And a lot of times
(22:25):
people will give me the eye roll of I don't
have the time, and this is where the money factor
comes in. But I will come back and say, you
can't afford not to. And if we're going to take
on all of these hobbies and interests and have all
of these all this different stuff, we owe it to
ourselves and the people in our homes to treat this
(22:49):
stuff with respect, treat our time with the respect that
it deserves, and give our space the story and the
layout that it needs in order for you to be
able to find what you're looking for. And again that
doesn't mean it has to cost a fortune, but I
(23:10):
guarantee you, if you are someone who's garage is a
disaster and it takes you ten times as long to
find something because you have to dig through and you
don't even know where it is and you're frustrated, the
price that you are paying for that is way more
(23:30):
than the time it would take you to either carve
out time in your schedule to get it organized or
outsource it and pay somebody else to get it organized.
And so if that is you again. I'm not coming
at this from a place of shame or a place
of judgment, but you and your space deserve it to
(23:51):
be organized. And the garage is oftentimes the most overlooked
space in the house, and it's also overla because there
are so many different options out there, and decision fatigue
winds up playing a huge role in I don't know where,
I don't know where to even begin. I don't even
know what the right system is for how we use
(24:13):
this space, and the system is always going to look different, right,
So for most people, I'm gonna always recommend going vertical,
but how and what products we use and what capacity
is going to vary based on your own interests and lifestyle.
And so for some people that's gonna be built in.
For other people, it's gonna be a modular thing. For
(24:33):
some people it's gonna be hooks. Other people it's gonna
be shelves. There's so many nuances that can cause people
that feeling of overwhelm that they just say, forget it.
I am just not even gonna be touching it. And
so if that's you, I would love for you to
come to our clinic clinic garage it's again. If this,
(24:54):
any of this episode resonated with you, We're gonna dive deeper.
We're gonna be talking about specific strategies. I'm gonna talking
about specific products what I think are like, the pros
and cons about each one, the advantages and disadvantages. How
an organized garage. I'm not a realtor, but I work
with a lot of realtors and how having an organized
(25:14):
garage can help add value to your home, and especially
if you are in the market of looking to sell
your home, how that can increase the attraction to a
potential buyer. There's so many advantages for investing your time, money,
and resources into decluttering and organizing this oftentimes overlook space
(25:37):
known as the garage. So I hope this has been
helpful and useful. If you know somebody and you're sitting
there thinking, oh, I know somebody that could really benefit
from listening to this, share this episode with them, right.
This is how people learn strategies as other people share
them with them. And I know if that were me,
I would appreciate it. So just do your friends of
(26:00):
favor and click the share button, and I hope that
you're if you are interested in clutter Clinic garage. There's
going to be a link below in our show notes.
You can also visit our website which is simply be
that Just the letterborganized dot com slash workshop and if
you'll see there's a tab right on there and you
can go and register for our event. So I'm LORI
(26:22):
plow until next week. I will see you then, have
an awesome one. Take care, peace out. Thanks for tuning in.
If you'd like this episode, please spread the love and
share it with your friends. And if this is your
first time joining us, make sure to click the subscribe
button wherever you are listening so you never miss an episode.
And while you're there, please leave us a review so
other people know that our show is worth to listen.
(26:43):
You can also find us on YouTube and Instagram at
this Organized Life podcast, and if you'd like to connect
with us, you can head on over to our website
at simply the Letter b like boyorganized dot com, which
is filled with tons of resources, including free downloads, checklists,
links to our amazing organizing partners, and all of our
digital offerings. I'll see you next week for another episode
(27:05):
of This Organized Life
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