Actually using your garage AS a garage.

[Philpug]

I touched on this in the Is garage lust over? thread. I live in an area where every house has a multi car garage, many being three car. Great, love it. But I am ever so shocked that these garages are not being used to keep their $50K cars safe, but to store hundreds of dollars worth of old ****. Many of these people are the same people that are on the Next-door Neighbor site complaining that their cars have been broken into. Well, If you parked your car IN your garage, there would be much less chance it would be violated. I am not condoning the theft, but you know there are thieves, especially in today's unsettled times, why make it easy for them?

 

[MileHighRover]

Is it better to leave your car outside or all your **** piled in the driveway? I know which one your neighbors would prefer.

 

[mike93lx]

Just let people use their homes and garages for whatever they want. Worrying about stuff like that puzzles me.

 

[crewchief888]

around my little neighborhood, almost all houses have a 2 car garage, most of them have basements, most garages are filled with "junk".
multiple vehicles parked in the driveway/street.

my truck is lifted, and doesn't clear the door opening, so it stays in the street, along with my service truck.
wifes car, my Harley and tools are the only stuff that's in the garage. yard related stuff is in a shed

 

[MushCreek]

Where we lived in FL, garages were about the only storage option. No attic, no basement, lots too small for much of an outbuilding. Our two car was always packed full of ****, as was everyone else's in the neighborhood.

When we decided to move out to the country, we had a master plan, and we've stuck to it. The large one-car attached garage is for the wife's car, the only new-ish car we have. The only other thing out there is a small gardening corner, and the grills. We built a big barn, and that's my shop. All of my equipment is out there, all of our stored **** is in the huge loft, and I park my old Miata in the barn to keep it out of the weather. We were able to clean out and finish the basement, too. I also have a small shed for yard equipment.

The last part of the plan is to build a carport up near the house for my truck to keep it out of the weather. 'Someday', we'll tackle all of the **** up in the loft!

 

[carnutdallas]

I agree!! Garages are for car parking! Not junk storage. I get a good chuckle walking around the neighborhood seeing all the cars outside and the absolute disaster that some garages are when the door is open. I have my storage building on the property for bicycles and stuff. I keep my tools in the garage and bench’s hidden behind a curtain wall and we park our cars inside. But alas, not big enough for all my cars. Or the kids cars. So I have serious garage and work shop building envy on this site and country places with multiple buildings. I do have 3 shops but those are income producers and 20-25 miles away from me, so not practical for car storage and a stall is to make money out of.

Of course anyone is free to use their garage as they see fit. But it sure would be nice to actually use them as intended for the most part. And more cars inside than out. But that is the neat freak in me talking. Having a basement would be awesome for some better secure storage. Having a wife that would live in the country even better for my hobby [emoji41]

Cheers!


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[StreetGLi]

Personally I'd rather keep my motorcycles and my tools in my garage. Hard to secure those things on the driveway... Also locked cars are rarely broken into here in central Ontario. If you leave it unlocked, you're at the mercy of the door handle testers.

I have room enough to tuck the bikes and put a car in to work on it, but it's not convenient on a daily basis. If I had a 3 bay, I'd likely still only put the misus' car inside, and likely only in the winter. Having mine on the driveway doesn't bother me at all.

Sidenote, I have cool Cars so who am I to deny the neighbours by hiding them?

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[rok_hunter]

Another input from Florida, I've yet to see an attached 2-car garage here that can actually hold two full size cars and be useful for anything else. Our last fancy house in a nice neighborhood would only fit my full size four door truck if the garage was completely empty, with less than 6" clearance front and back. Since I have a small toolbox and a stand-up freezer it was too short. Rolling my wife's Durango in with the toolbox and freezer gave her less than 6" clearance, front to back. And if per chance we wanted to empty the garage and put both vehicles in, you'd be climbing out the windows because there wasn't space to open the door enough to get out.

All that being said, there's HOA's all throughout this area that would absolutely embrace the "you're going to use your property the way we thing it should be used" mindset. That was one of the many reasons we ditched the fancy neighborhood and bought land!

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[crewchief888]

Another input from Florida, I've yet to see an attached 2-car garage here that can actually hold two full size cars and be useful for anything else. Our last fancy house in a nice neighborhood would only fit my full size four door truck if the garage was completely empty, with less than 6" clearance front and back. Since I have a small toolbox and a stand-up freezer it was too short. Rolling my wife's Durango in with the toolbox and freezer gave her less than 6" clearance, front to back. And if per chance we wanted to empty the garage and put both vehicles in, you'd be climbing out the windows because there wasn't space to open the door enough to get out.

All that being said, there's HOA's all throughout this area that would absolutely embrace the "you're going to use your property the way we thing it should be used" mindset. That was one of the many reasons we ditched the fancy neighborhood and bought land!

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I lived in central fla for 15 years. my house was in an HOA subdivision. I had a lifted truck and a full size van, neither would clear the door, so they stayed outside. kept the Harleys in the garage, had a small set of toolboxes, my reloading bench, lawn mover and weedeater, and not much more. having a shed was not an option.

 

[jkeyser14]

I touched on this in the Is garage lust over? thread. I live in an area where every house has a multi car garage, many being three car. Great, love it. But I am ever so shocked that these garages are not being used to keep their $50K cars safe, but to store hundreds of dollars worth of old ****. Many of these people are the same people that are on the Next-door Neighbor site complaining that their cars have been broken into. Well, If you parked your car IN your garage, there would be much less chance it would be violated. I am not condoning the theft, but you know there are thieves, especially in today's unsettled times, why make it easy for them?

My car is more secure than my garage. It even requires 2 factor authorization to drive (Tesla Model 3). I also have exterior security cameras, but no cameras in my garage. Lastly, it is easy to value and insure my car. Meanwhile, my garage houses tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools that can be easily carried away by hand, and the insurance company would fight tooth and nail over the value of.

I'll keep parking my car outside...

 

[Jinks]

I live in Florida, have for over 50 years. I've never seen an HOA I'd have anything to do with. I constantly see the over stuffed, minimal two car garage, with cars in the drive. I chalk it up to the low level herd mentality...... I don't care what others do with their property, but I live in an area with a lot of multi-million dollar homes. About a year ago we had a rash of car break-in's & a lot of complaint about lost purses & guns. Duh, you left your purse & your gun in your car?!.... Oh yeah, you're rich, so you're immune... Guess what, break in to cars in a well to do neighborhood & you get more purses, money, & guns....

I have 3 car stalls, a shop area, an enclosure area behind the house with a small shed & a couple of storage lockers. I also had an 800 ft. attic added when I put the second story on. I keep my stuff safe at my home! I find it amusing that people won't spend a few thousand for a larger garage & an attic, but will spend hundreds every month for off site storage.

 

[03.]

We often used to look at the neighbours in our area who would have at least 2 late model vehicles in the driveway getting ruined in the blazing Aussie sun at a rough cost of $100,000.
The garages would have up to $5000 dollars worth of **** piled up in them. Never could work it out, more money than brains perhaps?

 

[Innovate1]

I am building a 30 x 40 detached garage as a shop building. Going to do some wood and metal working, some hobby business stuff, etc. It's currently in the attached garage along with some junk. Wife wants to park cars in the garage (what a crazy idea, huh. .
So that's the plan. Move the useful stuff to the shop, get rid of the junk and park cars in the garage. It is a constant effort to not hang on to stuff that is limited value - not completely worthless junk but very limited value, might find a use for it someday type stuff. The only place I can remember parking cars long term under cover was a house with a large 2+ car size carport. That was actually pretty nice as it didn't invite us to put junk there.

What's even more crazy is people paying for storage lockers to store extra junk. I will admit I have used one at times temporarily when moving but it's a huge business and I am guessing most of the stuff is junk or low value. But as others have said they can do what they want with their stuff.

 

[PhantomEB]

It’s a mix around my place. Few of us work on our vehicles and treat the garages as such, there’s quite a few old cars sitting in them doing fk all when they could be cleaned up and driven, Then there’s the few that use it as a family room, especially, when they can watch tv with the big door open and kids playing on the rug, majority use them for one car parking and junk storage. I think my neighbor does monthly junk runs yet the amount of room that’s in his garage that’s gained.....still doesn’t seem to grow.....

 

[SALIV8]

I finally cleared out all my **** a few years ago and I can now fit my car in there with the wife’s. Has been amazing.

Wish I did it sooner.

 

[nadogail]

Both of my 2 car garages are used to park one vehicle in each garage. My service van sits in front of my house right outside the picture window with an alarm and a very conspicuous club lock on the steering wheel.

The other space in both of these garages is cabinets, work bench, Tool Boxes, and workshop.

 

[Philpug]

In the winter it is nice getting into a warm car verses having to wait for the interior to warm up.

 

[andyvh1959]

Right now, the attached garage in my house is a dismal mess of storage and ****, all my fault really. I hope to have my detached shop garage done a fully functional by the end of summer. Then I can clean up the main garage mess and organize it. LOTS to do.

When my wife and I take walks she points out the spotless clean garages than contain two cars, two bicycles, two trash cans, a few shelves with minimal yard tools. maybe a push mower or snowblower. Those garages are simply parking stalls, nothing of substance being done in those spaces any more than storage rental unit. Those are garages for people who do nothing more than mow the lawn (maybe) and wash the car.

I point out the ones that are working garages. obvious projects being done, vehicles being worked on, things being built. These garages may be cluttered, or very busy looking, but they're being used and enjoyed. Now I have to step up and prove that i can prep my new shop as an organized working space, and clean up the "storage" attached garage for the cars, etc.

 

[Kev442]

My next door neighbor has a pool table in his three stall unfinished garage. Car and SUV sit outside all summer, SUV goes in for the winter. He has his priorities straight.

 

[gmwelder86]

Have a three car garage. Two+one. Single car side has all
My tools and such. Two car side fits wife’s suburban, plus shelving for all her holiday decorating ****. Limited to that amount of space for her decorations. Yard stuff is outside in a shed that will get reworked next winter most likely. Growing up garages stored **** that was never used. Didn’t want that in my own home.

 

[LeeG]

I guess I don’t get the thinking that leaving your daily driver outside causes so much more sun damage than putting it in the garage. I don’t know about you all, but for me, about 80% of the daylight hours my truck is either on the road with me driving it, or parked in the lot at my office.

 

[double-d]

Just let people use their homes and garages for whatever they want. Worrying about stuff like that puzzles me.

^ this.......

I don't worry about my neighbors and hoping they aren't bothered by what I do/don't do on my own property.

 

[Bruce 993 SEA]

There is a saying in the mini storage business: "What comes to rest, stays at rest".

I think most folks think they will just stick something in the garage out of the weather until they can get to it. Then, after some time, the stuff seems to multiply until it becomes a giant task that is more easily ignored as time goes on. It is easier to just park in the driveway.

Sometimes it is the "garage sale" pile or the "Goodwill" pile. Or in my buddies case, they have a boomerang kid at home "between" apartments.

We have 4 cars and 3 stalls...the 3 stalls are occupied with cars. Might be selling 2 of the cars but not now. The green truck in my sig and my wifes SL500 roadster. Bad time to try to sell...

We have had times when the garage was full. We downsized from 3500 ft sq to 1400 and were not sure what furniture would work. We also have kept enough furniture to stage the 2 rentals we just sold so there was some ebb and flow of that stuff. A lot of it is going to BIL and SIL to furnish a VRBO unit that they are building...that project is stalled now.

So, we have been ruthless in getting rid of stuff but that is hard for a lot of people to do. Letting go takes a hard heart. Hanging onto grampa's easy chair is a trap for lots of people.

Now, keeping too small clothes that you will NEVER fit into again...that is just plain stupid!!!

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Our ranch home has a 2 car garage underneath the bedrooms. One of the earliest projects we did upon purchase was to install garage door openers on the 2 doors so we could park the cars inside. I ceded the garage as a parking area day #1.

We can fit a Dodge Grand Caravan in the left slot and any of the other cars in the right hand slot. When I am working on a project or during nice weather we leave the cars outside but in the winter the cars are in overnight.

Right now the garage is packed with several projects:

I'm doing a quick cleanup of a tanker desk I grabbed for FREE on FB Marketplace on Thursday.

I'm doing an teardown/rebuild on my Delta bandsaw "1947".

My son is doing a cleanup of an MCM headboard he picked up on FB Marketplace a few weeks ago. He's busy with work/school right now so the project is stalled.

I'm trying to strip the paint off of a steel "clamshell" lawn chair so it can repainted. I have 4 more chairs to do so this fist one is a POC.

With 15 minutes effort we could get a car in the left slot - it would take a bit more to get 2 cars in.

Jim

 

[Slednut]

Our attached garage is 26x56', the vehicles are in one end and the other end is my shop for car and other projects. We have a 20x20 detached that has my table saw and compound miter saw stations and other stuff.

We never have parked our vehicles outside besides future project cars. I would hate to have to get into a hot or cold vehicle and they cost way too much to leave outside. In the winter I'm lucky to have a place to park my truck inside at work.

 

[thepunk]

The same issue is rampant around here. 100K$+ Tesla's in the weather, while a pile of junk occupies the 3 car garage.
Every bay of our garage holds at LEAST 1 car, sometimes more than one! Haha.

 

[DFB]

Ya if I want to use my garage bay as a workshop (lets say like carpentry build something) or to get the SUV in...other stuff has to go out especially during the winter months when a lot of things are parked inside out of the weather like my tractor or just in seasonal storage riding mower, garden machines, motorcycles.

Not so bad in the summer and I leave most equipment out until below freezing temps are steady.

I never just park the SUV in the garage unless i'm working on it...hey the garage IS for motorcycles

Even down at the motorcycle shop its move stuff in and out daily to make room

 

[twistedstang]

My wifes $45k BMW sits outside while my $20k Porsche sits inside. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[topcok88]

Our cars stay in the garage. Often the second largest assets (I guess the Dave Ramsey nuts would call them liabilities) are neglected and people stuff the garage with items that will never add up to the value of the vehicle they drive everyday. To each their own but I find quite the humor on my evening walk with the family when I see they $300k - $500k home/garage filled to the brim and the cars sit outside. Must **** to be too poor to park the cars inside next to the junk they will never do anything with.


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[NUTTSGT]

We park in the house garage as that's what I designed it for when I tore down the old one and built the new one. It was laid out as such so no banging of doors when opened. It has a some storage off to the side, that's where the old riding mower sat.

My garage sometimes houses the Mustang when it's not in it's trailer. I refurbed it as a work space, garage space and sanity relief. Currently the JD is taking up too much space so I need to get another bay built for it to reside in.

None of the wife's stuff is in my garage. I made that very clear in the beginning and she respects it as I have had several home projects going on in there. If it gets cluttered, it's on me to resolve that issue, nobody else.

 

[BillK]

I guess I am one of the weird ones. We have a 2 car garage on our house and we have always parked 2 cars in it since we bought the house in 1978.

I do however have a detached 24x24 that has my Chevelle and all of the "stuff" in

 

[pmiranda]

I totally understand people that want to use their garages for something useful. I don't get some people in my 'hood that have a bunch of unorganized junk in random stacks and $100k+ cars sitting outside in hail, ice, tree sap, and blazing sun.
My garage has nearly 100 feet of shelving. It cost less than a set of tires or the deductible on my auto insurance.

 

[Philpug]

I guess I am one of the weird ones. We have a 2 car garage on our house and we have always parked 2 cars in it since we bought the house in 1978.

Thats just crazy talk.

 

[like2wheel]

Just let people use their homes and garages for whatever they want. Worrying about stuff like that puzzles me.

Agree, maybe he should be in a hoa.

I have a friend had a house in a good neighborhood & near a main drag. House was broken into 3x. They caught the 3rd burglar, asked him why he chose that house. Said because no cars around, he thought no one was home.

He always left a car out after that.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Agree, maybe he should be in a hoa.

I have a friend had a house in a good neighborhood & near a main drag. House was broken into 3x. They caught the 3rd burglar, asked him why he chose that house. Said because no cars around, he thought no one was home.

He always left a car out after that.

Id rather park inside and have a dog bark (not a yip) when someone approaches the house or knocks on the door.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I have 2 bays. One is a wood, stained glass, pottery, and electronics shop. The other is the automotive, welding and metal work shop. I have only parked the cars in there for an extended period when they are up on the lift for major work. The rest of the time, the Dingo and the Burgman have a home, along with whatever is the current victim of that bay. Right now it's the big tiller, in need of a drive belt.

 

[dlwilson]

There is a $1M+ home near me, on the water. Recently they had a garage sale, and we stopped by. There was perhaps $4K of clothes, luggage, and old computers in the garage. Parked outside the garage were a newer Lamborghini, and a newer Bentley. I believe each of those cars is well over $200K new.

 

[DFB]

Said because no cars around, he thought no one was home.

He always left a car out after that.

I believe there is some truth to that under certain circumstances. There was series of rural home daytime burglaries here several years ago.

Perps were non local.

Often for many of the properties no one is around during the day and most everyone is out working during that time and kids were in school. My nearest neighbor got hit for tools and electronics , and so did another home on this same dirt road.

Nothing happened to me but my house is also 300ft back in from the road and my old (non running pickup) is still parked in the yard. IMO that's the major reasoning why they skipped by me was seeing the truck from a distance.


I was certainly freaked as I am often gone for up to 12 hrs a day sometimes.
though often can tell when somebody's driven in on my property while I have been gone...mostly tire tracks sometimes a tossed cigarette ****. Usually I'll know who it is

 

[LeonardY]

I park my car in the 2 car garage and I have usable shop space even when it's in there. I can't fit my truck in the garage. I did once when I first moved in. There was nothing in the garage. The front bumper was an inch away from the back of the garage and a couple of inches from the door. It blocked the door into the house. So it sits on the street or driveway.
I have a neighbor that has a 3 car garage and it's full of stuff. When they first moved in they spent a whole month of every weekend taking everything out and then putting it back in. I never saw them toss anything.

 

[Lassen Forge]

My "garage" was built to "horse" dimesnions, not "car" dimensions, back before there were cars... we do have overhangs that will fit cars, even have canvas sides for when winter hits. But yeah, there's a limit to what I can fit where...

Another input from Florida, I've yet to see an attached 2-car garage here that can actually hold two full size cars and be useful for anything else.

My in-laws place had an actual 2 car garage that would hold both his Eldorado and mom's Lincoln... and had room for tools and a bench. Always envied that...

There's HOA's that would absolutely embrace the "you're going to use your property the way we thing it should be used" mindset.

Lots of HOA threads on the board... Some people absolutely love them... Me? I have no use for a bunch of strangers baing paid to tell me what I HAVE to do (under penalty of fine, and sometimes even law) with property I paid good money for. I lived in an HOA neighborhood one time... for maybe a year... and bailed as soon as practical. Never again...

So, we have been ruthless in getting rid of stuff but that is hard for a lot of people to do. Letting go takes a hard heart. Hanging onto grampa's easy chair is a trap for lots of people.

Especially if it's a comfy old chair... no wonder grampa liked it so much... Yep, I fell into that trap, too. Finally let it go when the recliner mechanism broke, but it was hard to let it go, until I realized... I'm never going to repair or reupholster it, I don't need it. Off it went!