Overwhelmed and under motivated

[rustbucket49]

Once again this morning I stood in the middle of my garage in utter frustration. What a pig trap. Woodworking equipment, bicycles, mechanic tools, sports stuff, handyman stuff, yard equipment, you name it. I am overwhelmed and under motivated. Where do I start, I ask myself.......

I have far too little shelfing, a half way decent workbench (if I could find it under the ****) and too much stuff on the floors. No insulation and only bare studs.

How did you "successful organizers" get it done? I want to move the lawn equipment out to an outside building (that I would have to build), tear down everything and start over. No time though and no place to put the **** while I struggle through it. Any words of inspiration, advice, etc?? I can't seem to figure out where or how to get the machine started after 6 years of looking at this mess......

 

[Dragster Racer]

I might start with some shelves. Floor to ceiling, sturdy. Get as much on the shelves as possible. If you need a shed, do that too. Those will make the biggest dent in what is occupying your floor. You can move everything to the driveway, and start bringing back in the things that really belong there.

 

[Bigpigdave]

What's the saying, "how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Write out a plan and checklist making it as small as possible to allow completing one checkpoint each time you work in the garage. Do you have friends or family that can help? How about renting a storage unit or enclosed trailer (short term) for storing everything out of the garage. It is much easier to dispose of things you don't want as you are emptying the garage and to organize as you are putting things back in. Hopefully cutting the job into completable bites will provide motivation, without it your garage will always be cluttered and mostly unusable.
Good luck, Dave

 

[toytech40]

What's the saying, "how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Write out a plan and checklist making it as small as possible to allow completing one checkpoint each time you work in the garage. Do you have friends or family that can help? How about renting a storage unit or enclosed trailer (short term) for storing everything out of the garage. It is much easier to dispose of things you don't want as you are emptying the garage and to organize as you are putting things back in. Hopefully cutting the job into completable bites will provide motivation, without it your garage will always be cluttered and mostly unusable.
Good luck, Dave

I agree, sit down and make a plan write it out in as little or much detail as you want. Then figure out how to make it happen, research what needs researched(cost of outside shed, cost of temporary storage during redo, cost of materials, how you want the finished product to look, etc). If at all possible build outside shed first to put things that go there as you are emptying the garage. Try to have as much material on hand for redo before starting so to have a fluid flow of production.

Good luck.

 

[DzNuts]

MINIMIZE. Throw away what you haven't used in the last 365 days. *Then* build your shed to hide the garden and yard tools. If you do the shed first you are guaranteed to put stuff in there you shouldn't be keeping around. The rest of the stuff left in the garage can be put on shelves. If you are looking to wire up and insulate your garage yet this year, pile it all in the middle so you can work 'round it. If you have it all on the walls you will again lose your motivation by knowing you have to move it all before starting each project.
Most importantly.. read GJ! Tons of ideas and inspiration here!! It has helped my garage.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

Shelving, Shelving, Shelving,.. if you have more stuff than floor space, start with shelving. Ive been where you are, once the stuff starts to come off the floor, it starts to appear to be organized.

Thats a quick solution to a big problem. Shelving with allot of new boxes that fully cube out the shelving gives the "impression" of organization".


I'm spoiled because I have more space than I need (so my yard equipment is in another building, woodworking tools/equipment another building, toy parking, another building..ect), but I still have around 50 pcs of 24x36x72" industrial shelving, and maybe 25 sections of pallet rack.


Next note, shelving is expensive, so you have to watch ebay and craigslist or whatever venue you might have locally for used stuff, unless your made of money, then buy new. Ive not paid over $15 for on piece of industrial shelving, and most of my pallet rack, which is full size, I don't have more than $50 per section. Those are some really low prices, but I am a cheap SOB, and craftier than a mud duck. You can be too, just takes time, as the others said, one step at a time, its doable. Good luck, you can do it! I have (and I'm impatient, & ADD,)

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

If you are like me, making a plan to redo the entire garage is impossible. I set out one day, cleaned up one corner and decided what I wanted to do with that ONE corner and what I wanted to have there. It took two weeks to make it happen but that corner became my new workbench area.

The next two weeks were spent on storage one wall next to the bench. By working one area at a time, I was able to adjust the "plan" because nothing is perfect and by working and fixing in stages, I was able to go back and make some areas better to suit my storage and working needs. It took a total of 3 months to get it under control and, although full, it is workable and organized now.

After getting everything fixed up, the only problem that I have now is that I need to build a bigger garage.......

 

[cheap bastard]

A shed for garden tools and kids stuff is going to make everything else possible. Yard equipment, bikes, sporting stuff and all the other things that don't belong in a garage/ shop will defeat anyone who doesn't have a big place to start with.
If you can see to the cost, one on those resin sheds can go up in short order at about twice the price of an equivalent wood structure. If you have a level dry area, from purchase to filling with **** is less than a day. You may find much value in the time frame. There are plenty of folks who just hate resin structures, but nothing else comes close when time is a higher priority. You will need to use free standing shelves in one, though, because they don't have much structural ability themselves to support heavy weight.

 

[rustbucket49]

Wow, I really, really love this forum. It is by far the most friendly group of guys of any forum ive visited. Thanks so much for the replies and suggestions. I will peruse the comments but please keep them coming. I have drawn up and priced out a "Jack Olsen" shed design, but I think mine is hurricane proof to any unnecessary degree!!

 

[scott37300]

I was in the exact same situation as you and I am always getting more stuff and starting projects so it seems like once a month or so I have to go back and do a good cleaning of the garage.

I have lawn equipment, wood working(big planer, jointer, table saw, radial arm saw), lots of construction tools(just about any saw, drill, plumbing, electrical, tile saw, roofing equipment, ladders, scaffold, etc.), lots of mechanics tools and many more things including a project truck. I built a shed out back for the lawn mower, snow blower, rototiller, power washer, and all the shovels and rakes and stuff. That is a big help because they are things that take up a lot of floor space. Then as mentioned shelving will be your best friend, can put lots of things in a small footprint since shelves go up.

As far as motivation, I was the same way. Would open the garage and stare at the mess and not have a clue what to do first! My advice and what I did was just to start, once you dig in the motivation will come slowly. And little by little you will start to see things coming together. And once you start seeing a little progress you will get more motivation. And if your like me you will enjoy finding things you forgot you had! And just realise that this isn't going to be a weekend project. Work for a couple hours till you get bored and then take a break and come back later. There were also a couple nights that I would eat supper and grab a case of beer and go out to the garage and close the door and turn the radio on and clean untill midnight or so. Getting started is the hardest part, just like anything else. Once you start it will get easier.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I spent about six years with mine filled to the brim with so much **** I had to climb on top of stuff to get through it.

I would start with the shed. At least for me, the trick was to get absolutely everything out of the garage before I was able to even get a picture in my head of how I was going to lay it out. I'd worry that if I started with shelves, stuff would get put up there and the temporary step would become a long-term state of things.

I had piles sitting under tarps for what felt like a very long time, but it gave me the chance to get the garage fixed before any of it got re-loaded.

 

[saabman]

My garage/shop was overflowing and my solution was to get a Shelter Logic portable garage 12x20x8. Moved a bunch of stuff that could handle the cold into the portable garage. Now I have room to work in the garage/shop this winter. I still have a bunch of clean up to do however.

 

[tdkkart]

MINIMIZE. Throw away what you haven't used in the last 365 days. *Then* build your shed to hide the garden and yard tools. If you do the shed first you are guaranteed to put stuff in there you shouldn't be keeping around. The rest of the stuff left in the garage can be put on shelves. If you are looking to wire up and insulate your garage yet this year, pile it all in the middle so you can work 'round it. If you have it all on the walls you will again lose your motivation by knowing you have to move it all before starting each project.
Most importantly.. read GJ! Tons of ideas and inspiration here!! It has helped my garage.

I'd be wasting my time typing anything more than the above.

Shed, amazing how much stuff you can put in a 10x12ft shed
Shelving
Storage
Minimize as you orgainize

 

[sselander]

I have to start organizing and selling my dad's stuff in his large garage which is the size of a colonial house. Him and I used to fix and dismantle cars 20+ years ago. It is loaded to the brim with musclecar stuff. Funny thing is some of those cars have been sitting there all this time and need restoring. Who has the time? How about an unmolested pair of 67 vettes sitting under all the clutter or the GTO's. It is mind boggling but I have got to start organizing so we can get the clutter down.

 

[istephen]

One guy on here had a great idea. Use a flashlight. The limited beam keeps you focused on a limited, and managable area.

I worked on one wall at a time. I celebrated everytime I uncovered a corner. It took a trip to the dump to get caught up on all the junk I THOUGHT I needed to hang onto. Sure, It might take me an extra trip to the hardware store to finish a project now, but I'm happier. In fact, I'm in my garage right now. Just did floor jack maintenance and I fixed all the leaks on my air compressor. Hasn't been this nice in years in here.

 

[ddawg16]

Stand back.....look at the mess....pick up the first object on the floor....if you have moved it 10 times and still do not have a use for it....put it in the garage sale pile. If it can fit on a shelf....put it on the shelf pile. If it can go in a box...find a box and put it in it.

Like the elephant...one piece at a time....

All the above adivice is good advice.....

For me...rebuilding the garage and hiding those bare studs did wonders for keeping it clean. Once you have them drywalled and painted...you tend to take better care of it.

It's a lot like a car...if you have a POS car....it tends to stay dirty and clutterd.

 

[djd99]

I too that that same problem and wanted to clean my full of **** 30x40. I started by buying a 10x12 shed witch was meant for nothing but home and garden stuff. I then proceeded to take anything home and garden and throw away anything that hasn'r been used in the last year witch was almost 40%. Then I moved all that I couldn't let go into the shed with all lawn and garden. My situation was a little easier because I had bought a pallet of garage door panels for all my building so I had at least 18 24"x12' panels left over.
I then made shelf brackets out of 2x4's and started making my back wall witch is 30' long nothing but shelves from floor to ceiling out of my 24"x 12' long panels. So this ending up giving me a complete wall 4 shelves high and 24' long with nothing but shelves. The top shelf I bought a shitload of rubbermaid shelves and organized everything. There all labeled with a permanent marker so you know what in each tub.
The top shelf is rubbermaid containers, the second shelf is tools you don't use too often, The third shelf is tool you use regularly.
I then took another wall and did the same thing except only 12' long but from floor to ceiling and used these shelves for building supplies.

Now with more room You have more space for more ****. lol

 

[51rider]

I recently had to clear a number of rooms that had been filled with stuff that someone had thought 'might be useful'.
5 days and three 40 cu/yard roll on/off skips later, the job is done

I used the simple principle of:
1. Is it working? No, chuck it.
2. Working but damaged in some way? Yes, chuck it.
3. Working but undamaged? Sold or donated.
4. How long has it been here? Over 12 months and servicable? Sold or donated.
5. Anything else that didn't fit into this criteria was dealt with by 'would I use it?' Yes, retained; No, chucked.
6. Finally, if in doubt-chuck it out!

This was relatively painless for me as it was a task at work, but the same priciples can be applied at home.

As you have found, getting started is the hardest thing; particularly when there are sentiments attached to many of the objects and this is where another pair of eyes without any emotional interest is valuable. This could be a friend or work colleague or even a professional organizer, who will say, do you really need Jonny's 10th grade science fair project? especially now that he is 23!!

You can rent portable containers for about $100 a month for a 16x8x8 unit. That at least gives you the option of clearing the garage, putting up some shelving /cabinets, wall sheeting, a coat of paint perhaps and then, as you bring it out of the container it is sorted there & then into yard sale, donate, dumpster and keep areas. The stuff in the keep area gets put straight into the new cabinets /shelves or hung up. If it won't fit, out it goes!

There are some great ideas already posted here. Hopefully some will have ignited the spark and allowed you to see through the detritus-now go ahead and get your garage back

 

[kursplat]

Wow, I really, really love this forum. It is by far the most friendly group of guys of any forum ive visited. Thanks so much for the replies and suggestions. I will peruse the comments but please keep them coming. I have drawn up and priced out a "Jack Olsen" shed design, but I think mine is hurricane proof to any unnecessary degree!!

i was pretty much in the same place a year ago. just burned out on keeping after the never ending pile that just got moved from one end to the other. this place inspired me to get it whipped into shape.
one thing that i'm almost finished doing is sheeting the walls with 11/32 cdx. even though most of it ends up behind shelving, it makes the whole garage seem more organized all by it's self.
i recommend 6 months of obsession

 

[xcgates]

My number one piece of advice? Don't be afraid to toss something.

My second piece of advice? Plywood and 2X4 shelving with plastic boxes, something I'm in the process of designing casually. I like the self-built idea, because I can customize for places for things like my spare car tires/wheels, m/c tires, reloading press, etc.

Hanging on to things, and being thrifty is one thing, however at some point it is just a huge pile of ****. Ask my parents, who had a large pile of my garbage in their garage that I trashed (well, they are, week by week) as I moved out.

 

[ket-tek]

I am overwhelmed and under motivated.

I feel ya. And wish I had the answer, cause I'm in a similar situation..

I've been slowly doing a little here and there. Seems every time I clean/finish an area other areas have gotten worse.

 

[JC23]

Use just about all of the above ideas but "Pay Yourself First." That is, give yourself something you want and make it happen. It'll pick up your mood, build momemtum and pump you up to continue. If you want that wall of shelving, make that happen. Then take on the more mundane tasks. When you feel like you're trying to dig a hole at the beach, pick another favorite project and do that to start the procedure over.

Repeat as needed.

One more cliche is, 'When you're up to your *** in aligators, it's hard to remember the original idea was to drain the swamp." or something to that effect...

 

[Strouty]

I thought I started this thread for a second. I am currently living your dilemma although my lack of motivation stems from an injury. Here are my pics and it is actually worse now, these are from a few months ago.

 

[Full Size 66]

I had the interesting job of cleaning out lots of stuff from my inlaws garage. They lived there for 40+ years. It gave me the firm position of keeping things to a minimum. I would agree with going to the store one or two more times to complete a project. Many times the **** you by to do something is perishable and wont last a year anyway. Learn to throw away some stuff. I am just about to start my new garage build and I will be throwing a good deal of stuff out as I move to the new building. The new garage will be 896sq.ft. My current garage is 240 +or-.

 

[Busted_Knuckles]

After reading more posts on this thread, it reminded me that about 10 years ago, one day came, where I had decided I had accumulated too much stuff. I had managed to fill 3 53' truck trailers full of big block olds parts. So I'm thinking, what ever will I do with all this ?, Anyhow, I came across a post on a Saab forum, about some site called "eBay" and there was an automotive section to sell in. Next thing you know, 90 days have gone past, I unloaded all the stuff I knew I didn't need (mostly used car parts).

So this was over the summer, the S/O was bitching about all the time I was spending on the computer, and boxing parts up, and trips to UPS. So I go to my account page, with a calculator, and I told here "Here's 18,000 reasons, Ive been busy, as you put it screwing around", in other words, I dumped $18k worth of parts. It was not hard to do, most of it was early 70s 455, and some late 70s 403 parts, and allot of stuff from Mondello. This was also back in the good old days of eBay, when you could sell a dog turd with a good pic and description.

So, that has become my choice of post project cleaning, don't throw it away, sell it. There is some other sick, OCD, yo-yo, looking for your junk. You'd be surprised. So you can clean up your mess, and recoup a little $ on the way.

You also have the option of renting a 10 x 30 storage space, if you cant part with certain items, put them in storage, at least you can have the work space of the garage back.

 

[Ripped]

Yeah, I'm going to repeat what others have said. One step at a time, and don't have any second thoughts about throwing stuff away.

If you've got a semi valueable pile of junk, why not do this; Place an ad, whith the proceeds of your sales, going to a local charity?

That way you don't have to feel any remorse about kissing it all goodbye.

 

[stan.riner]

I look at other guy's garage pictures and just cringe when I see bare wall! I'm freaking obsessed with slat wall. The good thing is, with the great recession, it can be bought second hand rather cheap.

As someone mentioned earlier, I built an 8x8 shed outside for longer term stuff and yard stuff and put slat wall both there as well as all of the walls in my garage. I was able to get everything for less than $500.00, and that's in Hawaii even. I've seen the stuff advertised for $10/sheet on the mainland.

The right wall is all slat wall with 16" and 12" shelves. No pic handy for that one.
Front wall:


Left Wall:

 

[Cobra4B]

For me the first step is the take everything out... get a PODS type unit if needed. If you can't take it outside, then pick a corner of your shop/are you won't use much and pile it all there. Then you can start planning your new space. As you're doing this throw away as much as possible.

Last Christmas I helped my father re-arrange his garage and build a new floating work bench etc. etc. He had car polishes from the 60s and yard chemicals and paints from when I was a young child (I'm 29) now. We used the 365 day rule to throw away a bunch of old stuff.

 

[Flatland Dave]

Every time you go in the garage "gain" on the clean up. It could be a half hour of organizing and cleaning or it could be just put one thing away, but you "gained" Good luck, the GJ has given me unimaginable inspiration.

 

[nate379]

Feel your pain. Between working 2 jobs that often end up as 16-18hr days and also going to school I don't have a ton of desire to work on other stuff.

I just get my *** out of bed, **** it up, tell myself I could be much worse... have no house, job, etc... and that seems to help. Pretty much **** can the "woe is me" attitude.

Oh yeah, and when the boss is freaking the hell out trying to chew my *** over something that isn't my problem... I just nod and smile the whole time and picture a huge ****** talking to me.

 

[fflintstone]

Pick a rain free weekend and pull everything out. Make three piles, one pile is the stuff you want to keep and use in the garage. Pile number two is stuff you want to stay out of the garage. Pile # 3 is **** that you don’t need but is useful enough to freecycle or sell on Craigslist. Any item that is junk put in the trash.
Buy some heavy-duty shelves (consider buying ¾” OSB to replace the particle board **** they come with). Put pile one on the shelves in the garage.
Put pile two under a tarp in the back yard where you want your shed to go. Figure out how big of shed you need
Take pictures of the sellable items in pile #3 put them on CL. cover items with a tarp till gone.

 

[xcgates]

Actually, a couple weekends back, I did go through a small bit of organizing the garage, didn't really throw away much of anything, but I did get most everything that I don't use for vehicle maintenance in the garage out of there. I *may* have just piled a bunch in my living room and spare room, however. Not a good idea, btw, in case you were wondering.

 

[PCO6]

Buy the biggest, cheapest tent you can find and keep the receipt so you can confirm when you bought it. Set it up in our back yard and put everything you can from your garage into it. When you need something, go get it. If you think you'll need it again, make a place for it. After one year, 2 if you want, set fire to the tent.

One thing I did was, after 25 years of restoring one type of car, I switched to another. I realized I had collected vast amounts of "stuff" that I, and NO ONE ELSE I knew, would ever need. I always figured that I would use the best one of what I had. In fact I could have got by with one of anything that I had.

 

[cnc-me]

I'm with fflintstone, get everything out, before making any new improvements.
Its a pain to stop, and move junk, when your hanging board, painting ect.

 

[tcianci]

I can't overstress the throwing it out part! I coined a phrase years ago that states "The most valuable thing you have is the space you're storing stuff in!" Like others have said, move it all to the driveway, then sort from there and follow the 365 rule. Remember that a lot of the stuff we end up with is stuff we got from other guys who had it for quite a while and thought they needed it too!
Be realistic with your assesment of how "valuable" some of your stuff might be on CL, Ebay or a yard sale and remember that each of these activities take time. A lot of the stuff I have is worthless to almost everyone I know and I seldom have use for more than 1 of anything. If you do have stuff that would be useful to others you know, consider brighteneing their day by just giving the stuff away...it's out of your space and you made someone happy at the same time.
Be sure to make a good plan for exaclty what you want to use the garage for, this will help you in keeping on track for what goes back in.
I just filled a good sized trash can in my garage today. It's getting to be the time of year where projects move indoors and I'm getting my soace ready for the cold weather.

 

[santagary]

Ditto to 51Rider's advice. Once you've sorted and thrown away and garaged saled then find the walls and insulate them making sure the proper electric outlets are there and to code, then buy WHITE PEGBOARD and screw it to the walls and start hanging things you want/need to keep and progress around the room...it's amazing how much less cluttered a space looks/feels when things are ALL off the floor. Once everything is off the floor, you can then deal with the floor finish. PS: the money for the insulation and pegboard comes from the garage sale! An obd's 2cents worth.

 

[28HopUp]

All great advice so far. I would also recommend dedicating time to work in the garage. Block out some time in your schedule and don't let other activities get in the way. It could be from 10-midnight after everyone has gone to bed. Or dial back the Saturday night outings so you can rise early on Sunday and spend a few hours in the garage before everyone starts stirring around (getting ready for church!). Once you're in there, just follow the advice you've gotten here.

Good luck!

 

[larry_g]

I am going to disagree with the ones suggesting storage solutions, even temporay. Bite the bullet and start by reducing the volume of stuff you have to a manageable volume. This stuffis like a ball and chain on your ankle. You've probably spent more time angushing over this than it would have taken to dispose of it. You can have my saying " When it doubt, throw it out"

Then start to come up with storage solutions for what you have left.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[jay50]

maybe all you need for motivation is a #10 boot on your backside...

 

[Jack Olsen]

The flipside of the boot to the behind is to accept that there are stretches of your life where spare time is going to be a very rare commodity. Don't beat yourself up if you're genuinely busy. And don't assume that you'll always be this overwhelmed by work/family/whatever and that nothing is ever going to change. Everything changes.

Then again, if you've currently got time for other fun projects, then you definitely got time to tackle the garage. It's one of those things that becomes pretty easy once you've gotten ahead of it. Catching up is the hard part.