Is your garage messy, grungy and in need of a facelift? Well, if you get busy this weekend, you can turn it into a showroom for your car or use it as a workshop, game room or “man cave.” It’s really not difficult. All it takes is a weekend and a bit of elbow grease.
Many homeowners see the garage as an extension of the house, not just a place to store the lawn mower. A clean, well-organized garage can provide further living space and add tremendous value to a home. In fact, cleaning and organizing it may be a fun weekend project that families can do together. Here’s how to get started:
Step 1
Get rid of clutter. Purge! Remove garden furniture, sports equipment, lawn mowers and clear out the floor space of the garage. Bag up the obvious trash, donate bicycles and other small items you no longer need and decide what you’re left with in the garage after this work is done. If you’re like most homeowners, you can reclaim a lot of space just by eliminating clutter.
Step 2
Paint the walls. Most homeowners don’t think about painting the walls of the garage. However, a coat of ordinary latex paint can go a long way to deliver the impression of space and light, giving it a finished look. If the garage has not been painted before or painted with a darker paint, make sure that you first put on a coat of primer. This will make the overall paint job look better and you will use less paint.
Step 3
Clean the floor. Sweep up any surface dirt. Next, remove ground-in grime, oil spots or grease stains with a cleaner/degreaser and a stiff brush. Then rinse thoroughly. To give your garage a showroom quality that could make you the talk of the neighborhood, finish with a specially formulated protective coating for garage floors like Armorclad or Rust-Oleum. They protect the floor against dirt, gasoline, antifreeze, motor oil, rock salt and hot tire pick-up. They also make garage floors easy to clean.
Step 4
Organize your belongings and reclaim the space. After the de-cluttering, cleaning and painting is done, you can reclaim your garage space and use it for anything you want. You’ll be surprised how much a weekend of organizing can maximize your garage space. If you’re worried about it getting junked up again, be sure to get some storage containers and shelving systems to help you stay organized. Seeing how good everything looks when you’re finished will keep you motivated to maintain cleanliness and order in your garage.