Don't Look

Ack!  You looked!!!  I warned you!  I told you not to look!  This...is my life right now.  No really...it's kinda the room in the house that epitomizes what our life is right now.  Pretty much a hot mess.

In all the work/life/child related drama that's been going on...things have kinda gotten put on hold, and our poor garage has taken the brunt of the issues.  Things kinda just get thrown in here, discarded, and generally DUMPED.  When we can't find a place for something... "Just put it in the garage."  Then we never see it again.  So Sonny and I decided that this is the place that we are going to focus much of our spring cleaning efforts.  Not only to have a home for our things, but also to create more storage so that the things we use most often can be more easily accessible (like extra toilet paper), and to create a nice work space for me to redo all of my treasures that I'm finding.  For example, check out this kitchen table I scored on Craigslist for $25!

This is just another attempt to free up some space in the kitchen (see how I started doing that here).  It's a smaller table that will seat just the 4 of our little family.  I just have to get some screws to hold it together and give it a nice coat of paint.  But I can't do that in this messy, messy garage!

And you can barely see it...but this is a GORGEOUS old lingerie chest that I got in NOVEMBER off Craigslist for $20!  I'm telling you....I'm a junkie.  But again, I need space to move so that I can refinish these items!

I think our first task it to definitely create some vertical storage.  I'm thinking of just simple Closetmaid shelves to line the long walls with on the upper half of the garage.  This way...I can free up valuable floor space and store the things up high that we only bust out once a year (like summer toys in those bins).  The Closetmaid system is also what is used in the rest of the house...so I'm thinking I can steal racks and shelves from various rooms (aka our master bedroom closet) and that saves money in the garage and then I can get new, more functional closet storage for my clothes.  Double bonus points woooooot!

Then I definitely want to get some kind of simple workbench/potting bench type thing with the pegboard behind it to store my tools and garden supplies.  I'd like to put this on the back wall where the lingerie chest is currently sitting.  I also have a hose reel that I bought 2 years ago that we have to mount on the wall.  HA!

And one of the things I'd really like is a nice sturdy shelf like this to hold all my extras: Diapers, wipes, canned foods, TP, paper towels.  This way I have easy access in the garage and it's all nice and neat and organized.

If we have extra time and money, I wouldn't mine getting a sporting rack to hold our golf clubs and miscellaneous balls (yup...I said misc. balls), and perhaps a locking Rubbermaid cabinet to hold all my painting and "work" supplies for my projects!  That way little hands can't get into the toxic stuff.  I'm really excited to get this started....and April is for sure going to be our garage spring cleanup!  It's going to be crazy and fun...and I guess it makes us crazy that we find cleaning up the garage fun!  And I've already found some more things to sell on Craigslist or at my garage sale...like a BIKE!  I didn't even know we had a bike....huh.  Can't wait to see what else I can find in those piles!!