One day as I dumped newspapers into the recycle bin I looked around the garage and sighed. If I keep the inside of the house clean, why can’t my husband do his part and shape up the garage?

The garage was turning into the second "front door" of our house. The neighbors came over to chat while we washed cars. People walking by eyeballed the contents. Overnight guests walked into the house - through the garage. My husband was fine with it, but it just didn’t meet my standards.

According to my friend, Cathy, "Outside work in the yard and garage is his work, and inside work is mine." My husband said the same thing, but his time schedule (as was true of a lot of men around us) obviously didn’t reflect the same love of garage or outside work. I decided it was time to stop nagging and do something. Besides that he was traveling and it was now my job. I (and you) need a good plan to successfully tackle it.

How Do You Actually Clean Out a Garage?
You begin by mentally dividing the garage into four parts: the floor and the three walls (without the garage doors).

The best way to organize a garage is by following these three steps:

Step 1: Clear away any "stuff" on the center of the garage floor and get the cars back into the garage. Someone asked, "Why do we house $500 worth of junk in the garage each night and $20,000 worth of cars out in the driveway?" Though your car value may be different, you get the point. Driveway and curbside clutter (and cars) should be placed inside.

Step 2: Set regular recycle containers close to the door to the house for garbage, bottles, newspapers, etc. Fill them up and empty them weekly.

Step 3: Place items in categories around the garage walls:

* Tools and Yard Equipment: Hang larger items and place smaller ones in a cabinet.

* Toys and Sports Equipment: Use ceiling hooks and bins. Giveaway outgrown items.

* Storage "Stuff:" Use closed shelving or rebox items in labeled containers.

As I sorted categories with one client, we found four of the same saws owned by a doctor who never cut wood. His wife kept one and gave the others away. However, when we collected his treasured four sets of golf clubs, we kept them in a prime location knowing he needed time to decide whether to part with any of them.

Personally our garage already met the above three-step criteria, but I upgraded the look of the garage by replacing a set of open shelving with a white closed cabinet. Together we purchased wind-up reels for cords and hoses. I made space in my new cabinet for my husband to put his bench items. As we worked alone and we worked together, things began to improve.

We are getting the garage shaped up one wall at a time. In a couple weekends we should be finished, just in time for the sightseeing walkers to say, "Wow, would you look at that garage!"