The 8-Bit Garage

[vlpronj]

Okay, it still isn't much, but I finally have enough room cleared to get a car in. I've been junking stuff, scrapping metal, and moving lawn equipment into a couple sheds. I've still got a lot to go through, especially with my dad's stuff coming in.

 

[DirtRoad]

You swallowed the red pill didnt ya?

All i see is red head, brunette, blonde....

 

[vlpronj]

All i see is red head, brunette, blonde....

I definitely didn't mean to post /those/ pictures!

One of the things I thought I would get rid of is the wooden loft bed/desk. But when I put it together to get ready for sale, I realized it might give me the "mezzanine" I wanted, to make getting things up into the rafters easier. I still have the extension ladder, but I can use the ladder on the end of the bed to go up to the top of the bed, and I have plywood on top of the bed rails for storage, and to put things while I climb up.

I've got a ton of filing cabinets for large tools, a long table that came out of my F-I-Ls biology classroom for a workbench This has been refinished and is in basement for folding laundry!, a mix of lift-top toolboxes (but no rolling chests), and an old metal storage drawer/bin unit that just came in from my parent's house. Other than that, I'm using plastic "shoeboxes", plastic tubs, and cheap buckets (Home Depot and Dollar Tree) for most of my storage.

I'm a packrat, I shop at dollar stores whenever possible, and I love video games and cars from the 70s and 80s. I figured "8 bit Garage" worked in a couple ways.

 

[DirtRoad]

You need to have a garage sale asap.

If you havent used it in a year and you dont see yourself using it anytime soon, sell it.

 

[vlpronj]

Thanks for the thought, but I stopped doing garage sales because I have no longer have any desire to make any money from them. Stuff has just been thrown out. The junk that's in the mismatched buckets and coffee cans came from my parents' house. My father passed away less than a year ago, and mother is trying to clear out the house, but has these assortments of mixed items she can't bring herself to throw out. I go down, bring some up, and throw out the vast majority.

There's 2 CRT TVs somewhere in the mess you see, both are in front of the garage for trash now. I just got rid of a giant 32" CRT TV that was on top of the 4 drawer filing cabinet. TVs are gone!

The "banker's boxes" are a set of books that I'm not going to bring in the house until I have shelving to put them on. I'd rather have it keeping the garage messy than messing up the house.Books are in the house on decent shelves!

Behind the shelving with the grey buckets is my Bosch table saw; that will go back out to it's permanent home in one of the sheds. Moved to the shed!
The mops and such in the black plastic rack will be trashed.Gone!

I admit, there are some things I just need to make the hard decisions on.

There's a 400w blacklight from when we did big Halloween haunts - I thought I had someone who wanted it, but he lost interest.Gone!

There's a huge ancient Milwaukee drill, metal case, that I had in a repair shop for a year without any repair made. I cut the somewhat frayed cord off awhile ago, so I wouldn't tempted to keep using it. But I'm unsure if I'll be able to do it properly myself if I open it up, so I wanted to find someone reliable to work on it. Anybody who knows a good tool repair place, somewhere in NJ, please feel free to let me know.

There's a pressure washer I got cheap somewhere that I have to hook up and determine whether or not to keep it. Gone!

My intent is to continue posting my progress. We'll see how that goes. My ultimate goal is to have a place in the garage for the 40+ yr. old Craftsman bandsaw and drill press that I have in the basement.Two steps back - these are both in the garage now! The immediate concern is to replace the garage door, which I think is approaching the realm of possibility with the clearing out I've done recently.

 

[AboveTheBest]

This might help

 

[vlpronj]

I feel I should mention that it was looking at pix of other garages that inspired me. That includes the spotless operating rooms, the "works in progress" (not to single one guy out), and even forum posts like Bill's Grunge Garage.

 

[HSpencer]

My first thought is "Don't worry too much about it". The key is having the want to and jump on it. I have been working on mine for years. Now that I am retired, it has become a priority to get it "just right" and by the time the Black Suburban from the Funeral Home backs up to my house to get me, I might be a long way down the road to success on the garage and shop.

The only way I got much immediate progress a couple years ago, was to build an 8X16 shed and put it along side my garage. You can see it in my thread. This one event probably helped me more than anything I did. Once the "junk but keepers" are out in the shed, you can actually move on. I think my fellows here will agree that first you gotta get all you can out of your way, or it just seems to get worse.

We will be looking forward to your progress, and remember it CAN be done if you really want it to be done. We have all been there--done that, and a lot of us like me are still digging out.
Cheers!!!!!!

 

[vlpronj]

The only way I got much immediate progress a couple years ago, was to build an 8X16 shed and put it along side my garage. <SNIP> This one event probably helped me more than anything I did.

Yeah, not last summer but the one before, I ended up with two "demo" model 8x8 sheds. One is filled with working lawn equip - riding mower, push mower, rototiller, etc. The other has shelves with rakes, shovels, lawn chemicals - you can actually stand and work inside it.

We got a metal yard shed when we moved in about 15 years ago, but the floor ended up rotting, and the plastic guides for the doors had cracked. So everything had come into the garage for a few years. Now, the lawn and garden stuff has a permanent home in the two 8x8 sheds, sitting back to back down by our garden, and I'm clearing out the stuff I couldn't get to before. The sheds also give me a spot for materials I won't use often, like plywood and 2x4 scraps. I'm not talking a junkpile - this is a few halfsheet or smaller pieces of plywood and similar sheet goods, and half a dozen or so 2x4s.

After helping to clear out my dad's basement, I'm trying to label and organize everything. If it doesn't have a bin or bucket assigned to it, and its smaller than a breadbox, out it goes. Items bigger than a breadbox should be used once a year (if it's seasonal) or more often.

I also liked the idea someone had to keep everything that touches the floor either a bench, or on wheels, so it can be moved for cleaning. That helps fight the idea of things as permanent fixtures. I'm not there yet, as is obvious.

I don't mind the (constructive) criticism. Threads like this help the OP more than those who read it, I think. In fact, I'm going to subscribe, so I get daily emails. Seeing comments on the mess should only make me more determined to get it straight.

 

[vlpronj]

This might help

note: link was to a thread on hoarders

Actually, the most helpful thing for my wife and I is to put on the show, "Hoarders" while we're getting dinner ready, eating, or sitting afterwards. Often we miss the end of the show because we're so driven not to be those people, and go work on something that's come to mind.

I do think that hoarding is familial, whether through nature or nurture. My father was one, but not the piles of clutter kind. He had bins and coffee cans and those plastic parts drawer sets and... you get the idea. My MIL is a hoarder, who for various reasons had not given in fully to her compulsion. She's the type who can't pass up a deal. She worked at a store, and would buy things w/ employee discount when they were already marked down. So she had a dozen sink strainers, multiple picnic sets, etc - all brand new. That's been disposed of in the yard sales. And when we had yard sales, it wasn't about making money - we really were just about giving things away. Wheelchair went for $5 - just about new.

Not to excuse our issues, but to explain... we moved in with our stuff from a 2 bedroom apartment. We cleared out grandmom's 2 bedroom apartment, brought the stuff in. Brother in law got divorced, brought his stuff in. He moved out, his son moved in for 4 years. Then he went to college, left most of his stuff. Then we both changed jobs, and brought all our classroom stuff from 10+ years of teaching home.

We're finally rid of almost everybody else's stuff - we're now able to go through the things we've had under or behind other things for 15 years, and haven't touched. We are clearing things out, and just outright trashing stuff. I have a little more to clear out from my mom's house, but not anything I expect to keep.

 

[vlpronj]

I've made some progress -the biology table/workbench is just about clear NOTE: This is now MOVED to the basement, as a laundry folding table. I stripped, sanded, and refinished the top in the garage. You can also see my jury-rigged "loft" - that's the wooden loft bed with the extension ladder up against it. I needed a place to store the ladder, and it makes getting stuff up into the rafters easier than just lugging it up the extension ladder.

I moved the folding tables near the garage door away from the old fridge. I'm undecided on keeping them, since they can be handy for projects. NOTE: These are gone! The old fridge was working for years at my parents', but from what I've researched should have a new design burner assembly to reduce the risk of CO poisoning. Yes, it's gas, and I'd love to have it during power outages. It probably will go to the basement, since we already have an "open flame" type hazard down there (furnace, water heater), and I wouldn't want to add one in the garage.

Red tote in the middle of workbench holds the remainder of my dad's tools, to be offered to my brother.
Sorry for large panoramic pix!

 

[vlpronj]

I've edited some of my earlier posts to reflect the few changes I've made. I got stalled again in October because I agreed to help somebody out of a "short-term" bind, and 6 months later things haven't gotten back to normal. Now I've had to start getting unfriendly, in order to get things right.

On the positive side, I've got two dumpster bags coming from Waste Management, and I'll post new photos when they've been filled and carted off.

 

[vlpronj]

It's been just a little bit since I last posted on this thread - I've had a lot of changes in my life since then, and downsized to a one car garage. Pics coming soon, but it looks a lot better than the old one did!

 

[vlpronj]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cZHMWC4euFurU3HM7

I haven't posted images from Google Photos on a forum very often, so I hope these show OK. I cleaned up a bit more since I took these shots. One of my goals is to have anything that isn't on a shelf, be up off the floor. Another, since it is a fairly small one car garage, is to have as much space on the sides as possible. That's why I went from lateral filing cabinets to plastic shoe storage on the left wall.

I have room to park either vehicle inside, and keep the snowblower in out of the weather overnight if a storm is coming. I still have a ton of stuff from the old house, but it's in an enclosed trailer and won't come back inside. I have some yard sales to do til the weather gets cold, then it all goes to Goodwill or the trash.