A graphic of a car in the garage with ladders, tools and tyres in a chaotic mess
Episode 31 – Decluttering a garage

In the podcast, Lesley and Ingrid talk about decluttering a garage. How do you declutter, sort and organise your garage so it works as a space again.
Garages were originally build to hold cars but people have so much stuff these days that garages have become dumping grounds for items that no longer fit in your home and cars end up outside because they can't fit in anymore.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:29  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 31 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley  0:35  
And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:37  
If you have collateral and want this sorted out, this is the show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about how you sort and organise your garage. Garages were originally built to hold cars. But people have so much stuff these days, that garages have become dumping grounds for items that don't fit into home. And cars end up being outside because they don't fit in the garage anymore. So Lesley, this is a big podcast, I think, talking about we were preparing this and we were like, Oh my gosh, there's so much involved in doing a garage Declutter.

Lesley  1:10  
I know. And we sometimes when we're doing this podcast, we get very, very excited. Don't wait because I almost feel myself sat in someone's garage ready to get started? You know? We're like, Yeah, we love the garage. We want to be out because it's a beautiful sunny day, like a perfect day to day, isn't it to do a garage?

Ingrid  1:28  
I know. It's a really, it's nice and crisp. She's not too hot. It's dry. The sun's out. There's some blue skies. It's a perfect day for it.

Lesley  1:36  
I know, where's the garage? So first things first. I don't have a garage. Oh, thank God, no, can I just say I'm from the north, I don't say garage. I say garage. Because there's no other way to say you're saying garage. And now I'm saying go. Um, so I'm just gonna flip time between saying garage and garage throughout this whole podcast. Okay.

Ingrid  1:59  
It's fine. It's fine. All good. So how come you don't have a garage?

Lesley  2:03  
Well, I mean, as you probably know, as I've mentioned on this podcast before, we can have bought a house that was derelict when we first did it up. And we wanted to space really for the, for the for the garden and didn't want to put a garage in the middle of it. And so I sort of incorporated a storage area. So I've got like, almost the equivalent of a garage in my basement. So I've got two areas. I've got one that's bad, a sort of a bike room. Yeah, excuse me, and one that is like a sort of catchable, what you would? It's a kind of combination, utility room and garage, really, I suppose storage area. So but yeah, I've never really felt a need for a garage. And I'm fine without one.

Ingrid  2:44  
Yeah, well, I actually do have a garage. And I'm lucky enough, I don't have a shed. But I do have a garage. And it's a double one at the end of my garden. So I'm very, very lucky. But it's a lot of work to make sure it keeps ticking over nicely. And it doesn't become like a dump of stuff. So I'm really glad we're doing this podcast, because I can completely understand that it gets out of control really quickly.

Lesley  3:07  
Yeah, I think it does. You know, there are a lot of people out there who may have their full house in control. But the garage or the shed is just completely out of control. And everything just gets dumped in there. So if there ever were a dumping ground, the garbage is definitely it. How do we actually sort out Gary's what sort of things do we need to think out? It's a little bit different, isn't it than a normal room in a house?

Ingrid  3:28  
Yeah, I think especially with a garage, you need a lot more preparation and planning. I mean, like we talked about an undischarged cupboard in another podcast, you know, it's inside the the creative bit of space, you can do it, you need an afternoon or a morning and you're kind of sorted and Bob's your uncle. But with a garage, it's a whole different ballgame, you really need to put in some thinking time and some prep ahead of time.

Lesley  3:54  
Yeah, so I think the most important thing for me with a garage is don't make it too hard for yourself. So look at the weather forecast. And make like we said, Today is an ideal day for a garage. But it does have an impact. You know, if it's pouring with rain, it's gonna have an impact on the logistics of what you're trying to do. It's going to be freezing, it's going to be miserable, like garage door is going to be open most of the day. And so you know, it does have an impact on whether or not you're going to feel ready to take action and do it really. So think about the weather and plan if it's going to be a nice weekend. That's the weekend to do it. And it probably will take a whole weekend for some people depending on on the amount of stuff in the garage.

Ingrid  4:33  
Yeah, definitely true. And I agree with you. I mean sometimes because with everybody's busy schedules, you might have to plan a weekend ahead a couple of weeks ahead of time, but if you already know at the beginning of that week, that weather forecast is like looking atrocious. Just rescheduled because it's too big of a job to be miserable in

Lesley  4:58  
I don't think also I think I think it In order for it to be successful, logistically, you have to use your driveway or whatever is in front of your garage. And so the stuff needs to go outside, you know, to create space, doesn't it? Yeah, therefore you need it not to be raining.

Ingrid  5:11  
Yeah. Yeah, very, very true. So yes, you want to pull stuff out and maybe even put some tarpaulin on the floor, so and so you can kind of work with it with a clean kind of piece of flooring. But you also want to think about what kind of clothes you're going to wear yourself, because you're going to be outside a whole day or whole weekend. So you want to make sure you're not wearing such a thick jumper, you're sweating after five minutes. But you don't want to either wear a t shirt either because even though it looks maybe dry and sunny, it can be quite so think about what you're going to wear that you'd love, maybe have a hoodie or a jacket that you can take off if you get a bit warm, but it's easy to put back on. If it gets a bit nippy or the wind kind of comes up a little bit that day.

Lesley  5:59  
Definitely. And good shoes as well. You know, good strong shoes. Really? Yeah. So you don't because you might well drop things, drop things while you're doing your Gorazde. Yeah,

Ingrid  6:07  
very much Shut

Lesley  6:07  
up. Right, that preparation is really important just to think about it before you embark on it. And I think it also probably needs to be this is probably the big amount of preparation is if there are two of you in the house, if you can enlist some help with that. It needs to be when both of you are around. And sometimes you know, if you've got a busy family weekend with kids stuff scheduled or weekend, it can be difficult to get a time when both of you were there. Because oftentimes one person's taking care of the kids stuff and et cetera. So you know, that needs to be plugged in as well.

Ingrid  6:39  
Yeah, true. And also, my advice would be to start as early in the day as possible. So you don't want to wait until you've had a lie in and had breakfast and, and then start because an almost kind of half days, you've kind of lost half a day, you want to make sure that you have breakfast early. And maybe at nine or 930, you're out there ready to go. So you've got a whole day because it's always much more work than you think it's going to be.

Lesley  7:05  
Yeah, I might just might just have to have a little lion.

Ingrid  7:11  
Saturday, come on, get out of bed. A little lion.

Lesley  7:16  
Okay. Not too well. You can't start at midday, but you know, maybe 10 is fine as well. Okay. All right.

Ingrid  7:23  
And also but plan your breaks, you know, if you know you like it's a long day, you know, it's going to be hard work, you're going to use up a lot of energy, have some proper foods, you know, don't make sure that you've got your fridge with some food ready for lunch, and for dinner. So you don't have to then again, nip out to the shops, it's all time you're going to lose. So have that stuff ready, have your coffee, have your snacks heavy. So you when you take a break, you can just eat and you don't have to run out and get food and get organised for that.

Lesley  7:52  
Yeah, perfect. And so that that's all wrapped up within the preparation, I think as well, we've got to really think about the logistics of things as well. So the most difficult thing really with a garage is how you're going to actually do it. Because most people's garages are a little bit upside down the very full. And you need to get stuff out before you can put it back in. If that makes sense. You've got to think about where's it going to go? Can I use my driveway, some people have got a kind of depends on where your garage is really, some people have got a back door, some people have got a front door, you know, some people got both. So think about that. But more importantly, think about where's all the stuff gonna go as you declutter it, because the volumes of stuff that you take out from a garage garage, and the decisions that you make, can be quite substantial. So it might well be 234 car loads, or it may even need a skip if you if you look at that garage and know that most of it is going to go in the bin. And then a skip may be the answer. There's also things I'm not mega familiar with them. Because I've either I tend to take things to charity, or my clients take things to the tip. But there's also something called hippo bags. And I'm not sure whether anybody has used those or not. But it's almost like creating your own Skippy by them. I think from sort of like home base being cue that kind of place. And you can fill them and somebody comes and picks them up in the same way that they would escape but it's not an actual skip on your drive. So a lot of people talk about having huge success with hippo bags as well. I think it's certainly cheaper than a skip. Yeah. So yeah, the logistics is really important, isn't it to think about where's this stuff gonna go? With any declutter, it's important to factor that into planning, but with a garage even more so because it's probably going to involve interim trips to the tip during the course of the day. So yeah, the person involved to do the tip runs brilliant, so it doesn't slow you down. Yeah, true.

Ingrid  9:43  
And also, you know, if you know that your charity is only open on the Saturday until two o'clock for example, you might want to schedule your charity run in the morning. And if you know that your tip is open till four o'clock or five o'clock. So think about look at the opening times of your charities in your tip. So you You know, to what time can I drive down so you don't have ways to trip. And if, if you don't have a car, or if you don't have a place to put escape, which is very, that can happen as well, then you might want to book a man with a van. Because that's what I did once with a client. We couldn't get the skip over it. And so we booked a man with a van. And they just came and took everything. And we just took the stuff at a charity shop to decide but everything else that had to go to the tip went with a man with a van. Yeah,

Lesley  10:31  
so I think I think we can, these are the kinds of things that we see all the times that Ingrid that this sort of, it's not really a mistake, because as we said before, anybody who embarks on a declutter and tries to take action, it's brilliant. But there are things that you can do to facilitate that. And to make it easier, and a lot of people get stuck straight in, and then don't think about what's going to happen at the end. And so it's really important if we can, you know, impress anything upon you, during this part. Really, really think about the logistics of where is that stuff gonna go? So when I'm doing a garage declutter, as soon as I talk to a client is like, right, how we're gonna get rid of the stuff, where's it gonna go? Who's gonna take it, and so on. And I think you need when you I'm sorry, well, the last thing that you need when you're doing a garage is to not to is to not see the fruits of your labour. So you do this beautiful garage and you prepare it, you organise it, you declutter it. And then you've got all your bin bags of stuff still stuck in there for the next six months until you get them to the tip. So it's just that finishing them.

Ingrid  11:26  
Yeah. And I think I would like to do another note on that as well. A lot of garage stuff is heavy. So that's why already you need to have two people it's not it's not only a very big job, but it's also all heavy stuff for some reason. So you need somebody to carry it and lifted with you or help you sort it or put it in escape, or you need to have more more manpower. So really ask a partner, a friend or family member, your neighbour or anybody who you think can help you to give you a handle on that day, because you're going to need all the muscle that you can get.

Lesley  12:03  
Yeah, definitely. Right. Okay,

Ingrid  12:07  
cool. So then let's look at storage, then. So we're now kind of we're in the midst of the decluttering project, we've got everything out, and then was poured down with Ray.

Lesley  12:21  
Yeah, exactly. I think, you know, one of the things that we talk about all the time when we're doing when we're talking about decluttering, and organising products is not jumping straight in and trying to get storage. But I think it's, I think you can have a cursory look around your garage, and realise whether or not you've got appropriate storage for the kinds of things that you're going to need. So you don't need to run out and buy 75 plastic boxes. But you do need to look around and think where are the gaps, you know what some metal shelving really helped me to organise and certain things appropriately. So if that's the case, maybe try and get those kinds of things in advance. If you see huge gaps in terms of storage, try and get that storage in advance, because it will help you. But by the same token, we can still do and use temporary storage cardboard boxes, and then make a very definitive decision about what storage we need at the end as well. So it's a kind of a bit of both, it depends on whether or not you've got spatial awareness. I mean, you and I, obviously, because of the jobs that we do, can look around the garage, and we can assess that within a couple of minutes. And we can see where the gaps are. But other people might find that more difficult until they've actually declutter their stuff. And so, so you can kind of do both. But sometimes it's really obvious. If there is no storage in the garage, you're gonna struggle to zone it appropriately and to organise it effectively, you'll be able to declutter it, no problem, but you won't be able to organise it and therefore we'll still have this problem of over buying and not knowing where things are and buying things that we don't need and things like that. So potentially then look at storage in advance of the declutter and factor that in as well. Yeah.

Ingrid  13:55  
And I agree with you about the shelving. I did my garage as well. And I first had all these kind of random bits of shelving, kind of all put together by the previous owners. And at one point I went right, this is not working for me at all, and I got some really I measured it all out. We bought it in advance. So we had it all ready to go. So when we then cleared that wall of the garage and had everything out, it was a big day, you know, everybody helping, we then build up all the shelving, and then we had places to work with to figure out where stuff was going. So we did buy some really proper shelving that can hold weight as well. You don't want to get flimsy shelving you want to have shelving that can hold proper weight because everything is heavy in a garage. I've talked about that before. So invest it doesn't have to be expensive, but you don't want to get a plastic flimsy shelving unit that might look worked perfectly in an in a cupboard in your hallway. But for a garage, you want to have something bit more substantial. Yeah,

Lesley  14:51  
I mean, places like b&q have some great garage storage, don't they? Metal metal is good, because you're not going to get ruined. The plastic is more Which, as you say, is trickier. If that's all you've got perfect, yeah. But it might need to be attached back to the wall and things like that. So just think about those kinds of things. The other thing to factor in when you're doing garages, the boxes that you use need to be probably more substantial than the plastic boxes that you use inside the house. So we always love the kind of really useful storage boxes is that what's called really useful, which company really, yeah, they're really useful boxes are a really fantastic quality. Because another thing that we see all the time is we see cheap boxes that have deteriorated and snapped and broken a lot, don't we encourage us. So sometimes, it's rather than buying five boxes that snap over the years, you're better off buying a really good one that's going to last you a lifetime. Really? Yeah, and the really good boxes stack really nicely, don't they, you know, the the good, but they're expensive, you know. So the fact that you buy better buy better boxes, if you can buy plastic, strong plastic stackable boxes, those are going to be the best kind of things for certain things in a garage.

Ingrid  16:03  
Yeah. And I think even preferably with lids Don't you think Lesley prefer that Oh, dusty in the garage, and it just all seems to blow in from from outside as well. So if you can, you probably might not be you know, you might not be able to put a lid on every box because of the stuff that's in it. But if you can close it off, that will be fabulous.

Lesley  16:26  
Yeah, there's going to be a difference isn't there between containerizing, which we might talk about in a minute, there's, there's containerized. And so things like oil that you know, like engine oil, and you know, garden stuff, and that kind of thing, those are going to be containerized in a box that you need to get access to. So they don't necessarily need a lid on all the things that is more of a storage that you might not use only once a year or something. There's the kinds of things that you do need LEDs, so probably use many more LEDs in a garage than I would in a house. So in a house, I'd probably prefer open boxes that you can access things, because it is much more about containers in there rather than storage. So yeah, just think about think about that. The other thing that I absolutely love in garages to use, because you find that was a mishmash of bikes everywhere. I don't.

Speaker 1  17:18  
I've got five bikes in my garage, I'm Dutch. Yeah, you know, you're talking to the bike woman.

Lesley  17:24  
And now so yeah, and I think that you can easily solve that by getting these back cracks. And so we've got them downstairs, I'm gonna set up I've got a like a little back room, I was because I've not got a garage or a shed. And so I've got mine, mine is attached to the wall. And I've bought mine from Helford and you just push the front wheel into them. And so they're just all your bags sit neatly, and they don't fall over on top of each other. And they can be easily pulled out. So they're brilliant. It doesn't need to be attached into a wall, it can be attached into the floor, or they can be freestanding, but in terms of managing bikes, and not letting them be this mishmash of tangled things and damaging the bags. They're brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And I incorporate those a lot of times into garages, I think there are only I think you get like a three sort of, sorry, a back unit that can hold three front wheels of a bag for about 35 pounds, it's well worth it well worth it if you've got multiple bikes in your home.

Ingrid  18:19  
Yeah. And if you've got only one bike, maybe you can buy those a bike rack that just sticks out with the two kind of metal poles you attach to the wall, you can just hang your bike on it.

Lesley  18:30  
Yeah, I think it's very much going to depend on the space that you've got, I mean, a lot of wall space to be fair in garages is taken up by the garage door, it's taken up by like metres and electric electric panels and things are quite often there's loads of things on garage walls, which means that you can't suddenly start hanging things on them. But there tends to be some space, if you can go vertical on your storage. And, you know, go higher on your storage, if you can incorporate little hooks for garden equipment and that kind of thing. Those are the kinds of things Be Clever With Your storage and in your garage, and utilise every single space so that things are not stuck in the middle of the garage floor.

Ingrid  19:09  
Yeah, yeah, true. True. But let's see, I'm we're talking about this. And I'm just wondering, you know, how, how does all this stuff end up in the garage? That's the thing. That's my thing. I see everything in there. Everything. I think just so interesting,

Lesley  19:28  
is interested in really, you know, whilst a garage is a difficult thing to declutter, logistically, and from a time perspective, because it's probably a longer more difficult job than a room in your house. Psychologically, it's normally very simple because what we find is that most things just end up in a garage because people have decided that they're no longer fit for being in the house. Yeah, I'm not talking about tents and bags and things. Obviously they're going to be in a garage, but just you know, you'll have kids artwork or sentimental things or old crockery sets, or old Hoover's, and kettles and all of those things that were like, oh, yeah, well, I bought a new kettle, but I'm just gonna stick the old one in the garage for now just in case my new one ever breaks, you're never gonna go back to that old kettle, you're just gonna go and buy another new one if that one breaks. And so those are the kinds of things that find their way into garages, you know, you're not quite ready to let go of them. And then they sit in there for ages and ages. And so actually, we've already made a decision about an awful lot of stuff in the garage, that it's not fit for purpose anymore. But we've just not made that final leap in terms of getting rid of it. Also, what we find in garages, things that we've decluttered, from the house, in bags, sitting in the garage, waiting for something to be done with them. So sometimes actually, the stuff is quite easy to get rid of once you get started. So psychologically, I think, I think it's an easy room to declutter. But logistically, it's harder, because there's big volumes of stuff. Yeah.

Ingrid  20:57  
What I see a lot is kind of outgrown kids toys. Because yeah, especially when they'll the kitchen a little, they're very bulky. They've got like these little cars, they can drive around when in those three wheeler, little bikes and lots of that kind of plastic equipment, it's quite bulky ends up in the garage, the kids are now like 10. And you're like, oh, how old are your kids again, and because the stuff in there it is all kind of been dumped in the garage, I'm gonna sort it out one day. Well, interestingly, the decision has already been taken. But it just hasn't made it, it hasn't made it to a tip, a charity shop or wherever just yet,

Lesley  21:32  
all of the psychologies involved in decluttering. And sitting in that garage, aren't they, you know, the sense of this sentimental coming into it can't quite grown a bit because I feel sentimental about it. And that's where we'll find things like kids artwork, things that the kids have done, that suddenly sit in a garage guilt, there's things that people have given us that we're not quite ready to get rid of. So they all sit in the garage, then we've got the kind of frugal make do and mend mentality where we've decided that we want to get rid of an electrical item. But we're not quite ready to make that final leap, because we still think it's working. It's got value in it, you know, so all of that. And then procrastination a big kind of psychological problem that we see all the time. With declutter and the sort of delayed decisions that we talk about all the time with procrastination. And they're all sitting there. So all if you want to, when you want to see decluttering, psychology, walk into a garage and have a look at it, and you'll see all of the different psychologists that you have, are all sitting there waiting for you to face.

Ingrid  22:25  
Yeah. And I think also, especially that feel of overwhelm, because you know, the oh my gosh, it's so full, it's so packed, I can't even walk in there, I have to start dragging everything out. And that feel of incredible, like, I don't know, where to start is, I think really high in a garage as well. And that's why it's so important to enlist help of anybody, you can get your hands, you know, hands on and teenagers and kids, you know, they can really help as well, you know, just to give them a couple of small jobs. You know, it's not like this only has to be a mom and dad job, or a one person job. The family needs to be involved in this. Yeah, definitely.

Lesley  23:03  
Just as we said, for for all the reasons that we've stated above really, yeah, so yeah. So we're sort of motoring through it making it sound just kind of Yeah. So we went straight from thinking about the storage to Yeah, actually, it's really difficult decision to make. So we've done it now. So all of the in between, you're going to just have to do your best to get rid of things be really sensible about what's in there. You know, look at all the different psychologies, what can I get rid of I do I use it use? What cutting say our little phrase, do I use it? Do I need it? Do I love it, you know, those kind of things. I mean, anything that you really love probably shouldn't be in a garage. Or something. I mean, you might love your tent trailer tent to be fair, but that's not going to sit in the kitchen. But you know, it's going to be used and need that those are the kinds of things practical things that are going to be in the garage. But quite often, you know, if you can avoid it being an overflow to your house, then that's better. But sometimes we don't have an option. So sometimes people use it as overflow storage for kitchen items for bathroom items, that kind of thing. Some people use it for Toy rotation. So if they're both rotating the children's toys and they put those in the garage, but it's got to be stored really well in order for those rotational things and overflow systems to be effective.

Ingrid  24:20  
And I think that's where the next thing zoning is really is coming in because I think what's really important when you're decluttering your garage, start to categorise your items. So put your your things for your car together. Your cleaning stuff for your your sponges and everything. Start to put stuff for your garden together. You know your your plant pots and your earth and your tools and things. Things for your garden furniture, the umbrellas, the cushions. Put that together so start categorising all the different things you find. And then it's much easier to decide okay, what do I need containers for? Got all the small little bits. I mean, I've, I've got like a sledge in my garage, it's hung from the from the window, I probably we haven't had a lot of snow so but I still want to keep it because I noticed that the moment I'm going to be close to that sledge it's going to we're going to have snow in the winter in the south. So I want to keep that so but it's stuck away somewhere, which makes complete sense to me. But there's other bits and bobs you think, okay, you know, this is not very useful. This can be decluttered. But categorising will help you decide, what category is it? What kind of books do I need? And do I actually want to keep it looking like they're gonna let it go? And where does it live in my garage?

Lesley  25:40  
Yeah, a couple of things that I wanted to mention in terms of this kind of stuff that I see all the time that I do the kind of clutter fairy raising the eyebrow to, which is like, one of the things that can go that are no brainers that we find really difficult. So questions, gardening stuff, you know, we buy these things like lawn feed, and like sprayer things like weed killer, we have loads and loads of guides and things do we use those? Do we have a gardener, for example, like quite often people will have a gardener that comes in to help them. But they've still got all of the gardening stuff. So you've got to think about those kinds of things. Let's think about old paints, people keep old paint in their garage. If there's a quarter a pot of paint in there, what are you actually going to do with that? And actually, do you touch up your paint? Some people do so it's not a kind of definite decision. But if you know, I know that if I had, if I had a problem my room, I had to touch something I probably repaint the whole room. You know, I know that you know to mean? And so do you need to keep that old paint. And actually, what happens is that we repaint the room, and we've still got the colour before last. Yeah. So those are the kinds of things that are really, that are always hanging around and garages, old pieces of carpet, you know, when people get new carpets laid, you know, it's kind of people that work, I think I need to keep that just in case I need to spill bleach on it and I need to splice into it, chances are that's not going to happen. I've got a problem with the carpet, you added probably going to replace it either yourself or through the insurance. And what are the kinds of things are in that there's, there's so many things that are no brainers really cast off, you know, the car sponges, and car cleaning equipment. And to be fair, most of us, not all of us, but most of us are taking the cars car washes to be to be washed these days. And we are not using car washing equipment, oil and that kind of things for cars. Again, most of us are taking that kind of thing to the garage. Now when we're not doing like 30 years ago, people used to top up their own oil. And I mean, I think you I suppose you're unable to be fair. To be fair, but you know, like radiate Radwell just cast off that we say and I'm like, would you actually do that? Or would you just go to a garage and get them to do that in their annual service? But we kind of think, Oh, well actually, we still need to keep because we might use it car bulbs. You know, we see bulbs from headlamps, you know, and that's not the way that cars work anymore. But we just gather these things along the way. And they're just cluttering up in our garage. So those are the kinds of things that we just keep and keep and keep, and that just clutter up the space. So there's just a few things that I wanted to mention that, to me are no brainers, and 95% of every garage declutter that I do. I manage very easily to convince the homeowner that those things can go.

Ingrid  28:25  
Yeah, good point. And also I want to come back to boxes, we talked about having suitable boxes, good sturdy boxes, and also if you can stick some labels on them. So it's not only for you, but for everybody else. Where is the garden stuff? Where is the couple of car cleaning bits you have kept? Where is all of that where you can find it in your garage and label those boxes, it can just be a white sticker. And a Sharpie doesn't have to be fancy. But it will really help you to also put things back where they belong. If you've used something.

Lesley  28:59  
Definitely, definitely, and everyone's garage is gonna look different depending on what you what you do with your time, you know, so I know you've got camping and stuff. So you've got loads of camping equipment. Yeah, we haven't. I mean, we do we have got a tent to be fair, but you know, we don't really we just go in the tent festival we don't want to do company, which is a whole other ballgame. Depends on what you do. If you've got you know, if you if you've got cyclists in your family going to have multiple bags, you know, if you've got young kids, you might have this. So you know, there's no hard or fast rules about what goes in the garage at all. There's no point in us going round and saying, Oh, these are all the things that you do because you know, it's very different. Some people use it for overflow for the kitchen or the bathroom. Some people use it for cocktail rotation, all those things are absolutely brilliant if you if it's zoned effectively, yeah, that's the key to it, because as soon as you start chucking stuff in that garage and it starts to become a dumping ground, then you cannot find what you need. And that's when it loses its logic. Its accessibility and its purpose. Really.

Ingrid  29:57  
Yep. Okay. Brilliant. I think we've really helped we've now inspired people to to take to take on this this garage decluttering organisation this this spring or summer somewhere, or maybe in the beginning of the ultimate it's still a nice day. And it's this is the perfect

Lesley  30:16  
time is it's a perfect time. Yeah, perfect time to do that garage declutter, don't put it off. If there's anything that you do this this sort of late spring summer, get that garage sorted does it tell you it gives you a really it's one of those things even though no one's probably gonna go in your garage. You know, it's just a nice, it's a nice feeling to know that you've got that level of control really. Or the one other thing that I wanted to mention. Nosy neighbours are so funny on there. When you're doing a garage Declutter. All of a sudden you find everyone that you've never spoken to and you're like, Oh, are you looking at all your stuff out? Man everything out that it's just how I find get when you do a garage due course with a client I find that neighbour interaction hilarious most of the time because they really are knows what's going on and number 47. That's a complete aside and no value whatsoever to what I'm saying. It just made me laugh anyway,

Ingrid  31:12  
I love it. Well, listeners, I hope you had a good laugh about that too, when about the crazy stuff we find in garages. And that's it for this episode. We hope you've all enjoyed listening or inspired. So thanks for taking the time to listen to Dale. And if you'd like to get more tips and advice, please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And we've got a fantastic Facebook group where we have lots of interaction with our members. So do check us out and we talk all things clutter there, and we'd love to see you there. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, please subscribe to the declutter podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher, and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time and thanks for listening.

Outro  31:59  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Declutter Hub Podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration. Don't forget to tune in next week.
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