When the Cat is away...

You know what they say!  When the cat is away, the mice will play.  Well, Drew was out of town last week before his parents came and I got crazy, in a good way that is.  Sometimes when he is gone I don't sleep as much and I like to do a big project to surprise Drew when he gets back.  All week I didn't mention anything.  I acted like I wasn't getting anything done, just a usual week at home with Alaire.  Little did he know I checked a ton of things off my list.  Not all of them are Done DONE, but done, moving in the right direction, Phase 1 if you will.
The first thing I did was clean out the garage.  There was crown moulding, lumber, tools in boxes, toys, clothes to donate, pieces to the stroller, saw dust and a bunch of other crap laying EVERYWHERE.  We were keeping nails and tools and painting supplies in about 6 cardboard boxes.  Every time we get ready to do a project it takes 30 minutes to track down the right tools and by that time we are frustrated.  It was ridiculous to say the least.  A simple hammering of a nail in the wall took 45 minutes and should have taken one.  Waste. Of. Time.
This project definitely falls into the Phase 1 category.  It was a disaster, and now it isn't.  It has some organization, but nothing pretty.  We know where the tools are.  The deep freezer is out of the box and dangerous items are out of reach.  All of the lumber is off the floor and there is space for toys to be moved around.  It is no longer embarrassing to open the door during daylight.

All of the before pictures:  (some stuff had already been moved out of the way)

I am sure you are wondering why there are sponge painted walls, me too.  We didn't do it but we do hope to paint over it some day.  It is a little busy and just plain ugly.  It's not the only room in the house that had sponge paint either, but that's for another day.

Here is after the first day:

These are all of the boxes full of tools, paint supplies, paint swatches, and other random items.
This shelf was in the laundry room, but I moved it out to eventually hold extra toilet paper and paper towels and paint.

The garbage cans all have a place along with the lawn mower and all of the tools are put back on the rack in the left corner.

All of Alaire's toys are accessible, FINALLY  All of the lumber and moulding scraps are in blue bins and the deep freezer is out of the box and plugged in.  The box on the floor is for spray painting furniture and other things, so that I don't make marks all over the driveway.

I moved a shoe rack and the mini fridge out to the garage from the laundry/mud room too.  On top of the mini fridge is a huge basket that contains all of our reusable grocery bags and soft coolers.  They are accessible, but not in the way.  All of the boxes on the right are getting recycled.  There were a lot of empty boxes lying around.

And the After (Phase 1) of the Garage Clean Up:

Everything has a place and that feels awesome.  Drew was SOOOO shocked.  I told him to come to the garage real quick.  (I pretty much attacked him the second he came in the house from his trip)  He was SOOOOO surprised and happy.  He randomly mentioned it the rest of the weekend.  We both kept saying "I cannot believe the garage is clean and organized"

I love the lumber bars on the side wall.  It prevents everything from being in the way and getting pushed around the garage floor.  

There is room for all of our extra items we buy in bulk on the metal shelf, along with beach towels and "clean up/dirty old towels"  A few appliances ended up there too, such as the crock pot and dehydrator.

Right now I have a large folding table for a work bench, someday to be replaced with a wooden one.  This works for now though.  Under it is the nail gun and compressor, a garbage can and then a box of extra tiles and other supplies from updates in our house, which the previous owners left.

Alaires toys are right inside the door, so they can be pulled out with ease. All of the bins are holding scrap pieces of wood, moulding and then there are a few with sports equipment too.  There are a few lamps that I am fixing/painting sitting amongst the lumber too.

And THIS is probably one of the best parts of the whole garage.  Simple Peg Board.  All of the toys are visible and within reach.  NO MORE digging through bottomless boxes of junk!  YAY!  The shelves that are sitting on the workbench are in progress for Alaire's room!  I'll post those when they are finished and hung!

 
That was a lot of pictures, but I love a good before and after.  Again there is still a lot to work on, but at least we can see the floor and what is actually in that garage.  It feels good!  I am hoping we can keep it this way to make all of our other projects move a lot faster and less stressful.