If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

I'm having a debate with a friend - we both own homes with garages, and he claims garages should be kept clean and tidy (he is gay and happens to be a neat freak). Meanwile DH stores his car in the garage and a bunch of old furniture, tools, and never cleans the garage, if he found a mouse inside it - all he would do is take a broom, sweep it out and go about his daily business.

My friend's garage looks immaculate, like the insde of a patio shed - with tools neatly arranged by size order , stools and an actual sitting area next to a work bench..

So folks - if you own a garage, do you keep it clean and tidy, or are you like me - who views garages as just extra storage spaces that should be kept dry and neat enough just to find things like old tools, patio furniture, etc.????

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Ideally, I want it neat and tidy, everything organized and easy to find. Does it have to be pretty? no. But functional.

.......is it?

ehh.....not really, but that's only because I haven't gotten my hands in there yet. It's on my long to-do list. I didn't want to organize it in the summer because it's so hot, so now that it's fall : no excuse!

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

It's my DHs domain and he keeps it spic and span. His car that he's had for 5 years is immaculate. His closet is immaculate. His bathroom drawer is immaculate. You get the pic.

I just recently put some (a lot of) shitt in the garage and it's a mess. I think he's getting heart palpitations from it. I have to clean it this weekend.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Posted by MrsS1976

Its a freakin' garage, theres no air conditioning or heating unit inside it.., as long as it keeps things dry and safe, it is fine, right?? I didnt think anything of it until my friend made a stink about it - and now I wonder if I should make DH clean it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

our detached garage is so old and rundown that it's tilting. the roof is all mossy from the Maple tree that used to hang over it (neighbor removed it last summer). that said, it's a complete disaster right now

we plan on building a big shed and removing our current garage in the future, so until then we deal with the messy garage.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Here are some pics to illustrate my point..

Example A: A really clean/organized garage (and very close to what my friends garage looks like)


Example B: a Messy garage

Image Attachment(s):

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

It was messy. But we just picked up some shelves and paint and did some organizing about 2 weeks ago.
Put bins on the shelves and painted the floor and walls.Hung some brackets to hang the shovles. Looks so much better.
DH was obsessed with doing this.

These are the best pictures I could get.
Some of the things by the garage door will be going out to the trash this week so it will be even less cluttered in that corner

And this is the other side.

Message edited 11/1/2011 4:28:25 PM.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

We just moved in a little over a week ago and BF spent an entire day organizing and cleaning the garage. It's his space - it has his work bench, tools, bike, etc. He keeps it spotless other than the garbage that we have to throw out until garbage day. everything is arranged and organized in it's place.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

I annoy DH to keep it clean and it sort of is. He says it is his place and I can't annoy him about it but I do. I don't want it to get too cluttered.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

We're in the middle. It's organized, but we don't have a shed so there's a lot in there right now. Patio furniture, sports equipment, tools, yard equipment, snow blower, holiday decorations, etc.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

We keep our cars in the garage so it needs to be relatively organized.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Ours looks like B, but we want it to look like A.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

DH's car is in the garage and nothing else
We don't really have a lot of stuff to load up a garage with

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

DH doesn't keep it clean and it drives me nuts

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

I don't spend a lot of time "cleaning it" per se, but it is not a disaster. We don't do a lot of "dirty" work in there.

It's fairly cluttered, but organized. We have a 2 car attached garage that leads into our den, and we use it to get in and out of the house. We also use it for storage, but we have an extra fridge in there and a pantry for soda, water, paper goods, and other non-food items. So I am in and out of it a lot. It's kind of like an extra storage room in our house - and it's loosely organized by section, but that's it. I wouldn't want it to be gross, but I can't imagine scrubbing down.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

We are CONSTANTLY cleaning out the garage, throwing stuff out, and reorganizing. I HATE when the garage is a complete disaster but we have so much stuff to store (we have no basement) that it's never quite as perfect or neat as I would want.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Its my DH's pride & joy. Neat,clean & organized.. even has AC & heating.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?

The garage is DH's domain. He is in there all the time working on something so he keeps it nicely organized and clean. We don't park our cars in there so its mainly storage and where the garbage cans go.

Re: If you own a garage, do you bother organizing/cleaning it?