Everyday, I would walk through our garage and think, “hmm, I really should clean this up sometime.” And I’ve been thinking that for, oh, maybe a year.
There’s never a good time to clean the garage. Summer’s too hot and winter’s too cold. Plus, you know, not exactly a fun task. So as soon as the temperature dropped from this summer’s crazy heat wave, I put the garage on my short list.
From a distance, it may not look super disorganized. But close up, another story.
Junk and dirt from old projects. Trash. Stuff we don’t need anymore. Stuff that I didn’t even know was in here. It was so so much dirtier than I thought. Lots of dust and spiderwebs.
I needed motivation, so I challenged myself to get it done while Elise was at preschool one morning. I set the stopwatch and hoped I could get it all done before pick up time.
I started by making piles of stuff that didn’t need to be in the garage anymore, whether it needed to be moved or moved to the trash. I went to throw out this can of roofing tar (which hasn’t been touched in probably three years) and found that it had rusted through the bottom of the can. Nice!
Also trashed (well, recycled): glass shards dug up from the backyard.
These lovely vintage tile installation guides that I found with some leftover tile for our upstairs bathroom. (Still have to decide if the extra tile is worth keeping.)
Oh and that leaky tar can? It left a small puddle for me to deal with.
I covered it up with an old car floor mat. I was going to throw that out too, but this was the most logical solution for dealing with that sticky tar.
I also removed a few things added by a prior owner of the house like this paper towel holder (never going to use it) and some random screws (subbing for hooks, I presume).
And this homemade pencil cup. I guess it’s fine if you’re working a lot in the garage with pencils, but in recent years, it was just serving as a haven for spiders. Bye bye!
After about an hour and a half, I was a sweaty mess. It was time to get cleaned up and pick up Elise from preschool. (I swear, preschool time goes about twice as fast as normal time. Is this a documented phenomenon?) I wasn’t completely finished, but I was so close! Challenge fail. Sort of.
Later that afternoon, I spent another 20 minutes taking out the trash and sweeping the floor. And finally, my work here was done. Look! Clear surfaces!
