This week’s tackle wasn’t just mine. In fact, I would probably have to say that Ron did the bulk of it. Although I did ‘suggest’ that it was a tackle that couldn’t wait much longer and wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was home on Sunday and that it was a gorgeous day out.

Because cleaning out the garage requires emptying out the garage. Not a good idea during inclement weather, of course.

We usually try to clean out the garage every spring, so that all of the summer toys and gear are clean and accessible. However, due to Becca’s arrival two years ago and then Ron’s work schedule, it hadn’t happened – well, in a while.

The garage was a mess. A BIG mess. Tools, toys, stuff put aside for our garage sale, trash, and who knew what else all in one spot. I love having the attached 2-car garage, but it does tend to collect junk.

Ron started working on it around dinnertime, while the girls were outside playing. Here’s a few pictures I snapped while he was getting started:

Yes, I know. It was a mess. We did manage to fit one car in it, but Ron parked outside all winter.

Ron spent all evening getting most of it cleaned out, while I dealt with bedtime for the girls. I did help clean off the metal shelves since most of the stuff on them was either mine or the girls’. And I managed to get some ‘in progress’ pictures…

After Ron finished ‘his’ half of the garage (the left side, with all of the tools), I tackled the other side and all of the girls’ and my stuff.

One thing I wanted to do was to also solve a problem that we had inside the house. We don’t have a ‘mud room’ or any good place to keep coats, shoes and backpacks. You see, when you come in our back door, there’s a small area right there and then you either go straight and down the stairs to the basement, or take a step up to the left and go into the kitchen. In that small area we have hooks on the wall to hang stuff, but coats and backpacks for 5 people are bulky, and we’ve been tripping over shoes and boots there for years.

At daycare, the girls take off their coats and shoes in the garage, right outside the back door, and I wanted to incorporate that idea in our garage too, to cut down on at least some of the clutter by the back door.

I love how it turned out! We threw a ton of stuff away and filled our garbage toter to overflowing. I sorted out everything that we’re going to put in our annual garage sale with Kristi in a few weeks and have it all stacked in the back, by the extra refrigerator. So that space will open up even more after we sell or donate as much as we can then.

Here are the ‘after’ shots – it was dark out by then, so I had the garage lights on.

From the left side…

To the back…

And over toward the right, with all of the garage sale stuff piled in front of the metal shelves…

And the right side, with the girls’ shoes, coats and backpacks, and their toys and my gardening stuff on the metal shelves.

I can only hope that it’ll stay even somewhat clean and uncluttered! The girls were really excited to see their hooks and places for their shoes, and all of the bikes and riding toys are ‘parked’ so they’re easy to get to. We still can’t park both vans in there right now, but in the winter when the bikes and outside stuff can be hung or stored in places that are less easy to reach, we should be able to easily get both vehicles in there.

The garage has gone from being a place that I was embarrassed to have anyone see, to one that I want to show off. Thank you, Ron, for taking the time on your day off to work on this with me!

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!