There are plenty of good reasons for finally cleaning up your garage. But with those good reasons come plenty of excuses, too. One thing’s for sure: you won’t be able to get your business running without a functional workspace.
If your garage/basement/attic has gone from being a storage room to a dumping ground of forgotten things, it is time to get to the tedious process of organization. Remember: an organized room makes for the best kind of work area.
What to Avoid
Many people go about cleaning their garages without a system. The problem with this is that it costs you precious time. Prevent these mistakes from happening in your garage transformation process.
Mistake #1: Not knowing what the space is allotted for.
When starting, you need to have a vision for what the finished product of the garage will look like. This will be your primary motivation when cleaning up. Without an idea, it’s easy to become haphazard and careless.
In this case, the goal is to turn it into a business space. A t-shirt printing business is one such venture that may see good growth this year. These, of course, require space for equipment.
Look at your garage and envision where you will be placing the automatic heat press machine, cutters, and other large equipment. See also where you will place your desk and computers. And get excited about it! This space will be the home of your new business, after all.
Mistake #2: Not Decluttering
There is always the temptation to shove the clutter to one side of the room and then call the now-empty side a “workspace.” This makes for an office that doesn’t lend itself to good health and productivity. It will only be a matter of time before the mess makes you restless.
Decluttering not only cleans up your garage. It’s also much easier on the eyes, allowing you a bright and calm space to accomplish work in.
Mistake #3: Buying Organizers Before Clearing out Space
Looking for organizers and storage bins is arguably the most exciting part of cleaning up any space. The danger of doing this is not accurately assessing the needed storage and ending up with too few or too many bins. Worse, you may even purchase organizers that won’t quite fit your organizational plan.
Before buying organizers, make sure you have sorted your items first. Despite the excitement, you should know what needs organizing before planning how to organize.
Mistake #4: Not Maximizing Vertical Space
Your garage may be able to hold more storage than you think it can. That means it can conveniently be both a workspace and a storage room. All you need is the help of a trusty ladder to make use of the vertical space in your garage.
Ensure that the places that are hard to reach are where you store items that aren’t heavy and won’t be regularly used. Seasonal items such as Christmas or Halloween decor can be stowed away in little boxes on the higher shelves.
If you will be storing heavier items such as books and clothes, place them on your shelves’ lower sections. For your workspace, on the other hand, store documents and items you regularly need in the areas that are within arm’s reach.
Mistake #5: Not Defining Your Areas
When you’ve put your things into bins and containers, you can easily go back into disorganization if you don’t designate the purpose of each portion of your garage. Dedicate one side and one whole set of shelves for your business needs to make them easily accessible. Label these areas, too, to remember them.
Having clearly defined areas also limits the number of things you will store pertaining to that category. This will keep clutter from building up in your garage and allow you to stay organized.
Mistake #6: Trying to Finish the Job in One Day
Often what keeps people from taking the time to clean out their garage is thinking there’s not enough time to do it. That’s a matter of perspective. When you’re transforming your garage into a workspace-slash-storage, it will definitely need more than one day to work on.
You don’t need to interrupt your daily routine to get it done. Clear out at least two hours from your schedule daily to sort through your keep and discard piles first, and then slowly work towards the next steps. That way, it will not be too overwhelming.
Turning your garage into a productive workspace requires a good amount of decluttering and reorganizing. As you work your way to the final product, keep your vision in mind. Soon enough, you will be able to jumpstart your business from home.
