Nothing like being multiple months pregnant, and deciding it’s time to tackle a variety of home projects before baby. We’ve had a garage organization project on our to-do list for years (embarrassingly enough!), but continually kicked the can down the road on accomplishing it.
After my mom found out I was pregnant, she gifted us a set of hours from Amy of EcoModern Concierge, whom I’ve worked with a few times in the past on home organization projects (check out my previous post featuring our project in my office closet). Amy is a jack at many organization projects, and her garage before & afters are super satisfying.
Let’s just say for us to kick our tail into gear and get the garage organized and useable in-time for baby to arrive, we needed to hire a professional organizer! And if hiring a professional organizer is out of your price range, I encourage you to consider bringing in a third-party person like a friend, neighbor or relative to help you go through and decide what to keep and what to get rid of before you even start tackling the actual organization.
Our Garage Organization Project
BEFORE
In the 5+ years we’ve lived in our home, we’ve only had one side of our garage “in-use”. Meaning, only one side was free and open to park a car or use as free space to work on a home project. The opposite side was used for storage or what I personally like to refer to it as – a dumping ground. Between our bikes, golf clubs, luggage, miscellaneous furniture pieces we’d been holding on to, and within the last year tile, floor and paint samples for Rick’s business ALE Renovations, we’d accumulated a TON of stuff.
Our eventual hope for the garage was to have some sort of shelving running along the wall to store and better organize items like luggage and tile samples. We definitely needed to go through a handful of boxes that had items from our childhoods’ packed away and other miscellaneous stuff. Plus, we wanted more of an open space on the floor to use as an area to keep the stroller or extra carseat instead of inside our house.
I reached out to Amy back at the beginning of the year, to get on her calendar and talk through a bit of the process. We scheduled a FaceTime call to run through some of the particulars and show her the space. After that, she asked for some specific measurements and photos so she could send along a product list of different types of shelving, bins, organizing items that she recommended I purchase for the day of our clean out and subsequent install. We scheduled an early-starting session, on a cool-ish spring day (that’s always a gamble in Houston!), for a five hour time slot to tackle our garage. Amy, an assistant and myself got to work!
DURING
I expected this to be a super tedious process, ultimately worried that I would find it hard to get rid of things or go through sentimental items. However, bringing in a third-party is a game changer. Can I yell it louder from the rooftops?!
Amy and her assistant worked to pull out everything from the garage – all the boxes, all the pieces of furniture, sports equipment, etc., and we organized it in piles along our driveway. These piles were items to keep, items to store up in the attic, items to donate and trash. After everything was pulled out of the garage, Amy and her assistant began working on putting together the , while I sorted through what to keep and what to part ways with.
Let’s just say knowing that you only have so many hours with a professional willing to help you, kicks you into gear, because I made decisions pretty quickly on what to keep and what to donate or trash. Amy and her assistant then proceeded to group the items to keep and sort them in bins or storage boxes and organize them on the shelving we’d purchased or take items up to the attic.
I had been so daunted by this garage organization project, but bringing in Amy was exactly what we needed to get the job done efficiently.
AFTER
Two words to describe the after: LIFE CHANGING!!!
Truly, every single time I walk out into our garage, I think to myself… “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”. This garage organization project seemed like it’d be such a tedious process, but looking back on it now it was hardly such.
EcoModern Concierge made tackling our garage organization project something that I could actually wrap my head around. Amy streamlines the process by sending along product recommendations and quantities prior to the organization day and makes sure you’re prepared. We purchased all the shelving, bins and containers prior to the day we tackled the project, and purchased a larger quantity than we actually needed.
All of our airtight containers and bins are labeled accordingly and everything is extremely easy to find. Some of the shelves hold containers or bins, while others are holders for our luggage, gardening supplies, a cooler, etc.
Amy and her assistant also organized the existing cabinets we had against the back garage walls – filled with paint, cleaning products, etc. Everything in those cabinets is also labeled accordingly, which truly removed the entire headache of just a hodgepodge of crap inside each.
Now instead of piles in the middle of the garage bay, we have open space to store our bikes and a workout bench. Plus there’s plenty of free and open space to utilize for projects or workouts. Our golf clubs have a dedicated spot against the wall and my holiday wreaths are organized and can be easily seen from their hanging storage space.
Our huge ladder also found a home on the opposite wall with some . Again, another life changing aspect is simply utilizing the wall space within our garage for this organization project. Per Amy’s suggestion I chose the to organize our brooms, shovel and more on the wall and out of the way. I would’ve probably spent hours trying to figure out which product would work best, but bringing in EcoModern Concierge for their expertise was worth every penny and more!
Amy and her assistant loaded up all the items we were able to donate, excluding furniture, into their cars. They also helped us get all the trash squared away and ready to put out on trash day.
By the end of our organizing appointment not only was our garage functional, it was clean and all together a brand new space. Amy and her team came in with a plan to tackle our need for an organized garage and left us with that and more!
Hiring EcoModern Concierge for home organization projects has been worth every penny. We paid for this entire project and couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. Do note, Amy and her team do not take on outdoor garage organization projects during the hot Houston summer months (plus, you don’t want to be outside either). So try to get on her calendar in the fall or winter/spring months where the Houston weather is optimal for organizing your garage… you won’t regret it!
