Garage Overhaul!

People who discover we are a military family often say to me..."wow it must be so hard moving every few years!" and the answer to that is.. "sh-yeah! moving sucks. BUT!!!" There is this blissful thing about moving... it's called going through your crap lol. You see its true that the military will pay for movers to come into your home, box up your stuff and move all of it to your next duty station (aka where the military sends your family next). So it's great cause you really don't have to do much right?.....not! You want to make sure you know what the packers are moving and you want to take some basic things with you. Sometimes you have to wait a while for your household items to get to you, even if you have been at your new duty station for a while. I've heard some people wait up to two weeks or more.

Funny story about that....the first time we PCSed (permanent change of station) we didn't realize how it all worked. We were very "green" as the Army folk would say. So the Hubby moved down first and I stayed behind in New England waiting for the movers to come and pick up our things. All Hubby had brought with him, for living purposes, a sleeping bag, TV and DVD player, DVDs, paper plates, plastic silverware and I think one pan.. we figured it would be long before I was there and our things arrived. Needless to say he signed on our lease and then realized he was living in an empty house for at least the next 2 weeks and he couldn't even cook pasta and strain it lol...So he had to go out and buy some stuff. I guess we learned to make sure you have some basics with you when you move lol. Any way I digress!
 
The whole point of all this is that ever few years you get to really go through everything you own and clean it out! Whether it's before the packers come or once you have moved and are unpacking. Its so great to make sure there is no real clutter or build up of useless stuff.

But you see the problem is we haven't moved in the last few years and our garage is our only place for storage. Well needless to say recently I have been feeling very overwhelmed with our garage!



This was about an hour into organizing... it was already starting to look better! The bed cap had been sold the week before and most of the other stuff was out on the lawn.



Ahhhhh our garage threw up on our lawn!

I could hardly walk through it (that was mostly due to the huge bed cap of our old truck that we finally sold on craigslist) but there were plastic totes of Christmas decor, regular decor, Army training gear and deployment totes up the wazoo! We also seem to own a large amount of tools, outdoor games and equipment, go figure. So a few weekends ago Hubby and I buckled down and did a "pre-moving clean out!" We went through every tote and chucked stuff, we made a garage sale pile (which we had one last weekend and made almost 100 bucks! SCORE!) and we re-arranged and re-organized. We hung shelves and hooks and really made it a true working garage. Now he has a place to fix the cars and the bike is displayed properly and I have a place to do some projects! Oh and we can play darts again! yes!

 A place for everything, everything in its place :) Just how I like it!



Lots of organization just how I like it. That shovel holder was a steal from Lowes at only 14 bucks! The shelves we made and hung ourselves. They are made with simple L brackets and white shelving board cut to size.  



Even the totes have a little nook that they are organized in now! Rearranging was a huge part of this project!

Now I have a place to work, The Hubby has a place to fix the cars and The Harley has a place to sleep. Now its time to do the office!  

Well I hope you guys are inspired because let me tell you cleaning up and clearing out feels really good! Not to mention it can put some extra cash in your pockets and who doesn't like that :)

Creatively Yours,
Christina Marie