A two-car garage covers about five hundred square feet of floor space. That’s about the size of a small apartment! Two parked cars take up half the space in the garage, when you include room for the car doors to open. This leaves a significant amount of room for storage, and (drum roll, please!) it’s the best kind because most is along the walls. To make the most of it. Designate zones, as in other rooms. You may have a building zone for storage of hammers, drills, wrenches, and the like. The garden/lawn zone would include tools hung from hooks on the wall. Sports equipment often fits nicely in a wheeled trash can—labeled, of course—in the sports zone. If you use the garage for general storage for things like games, dog food, decorations, and more, create zones for each category and post signs labeling each zone. That will nudge you—and other family members—to take that extra step and put things away properly after use. Hint: Arrange zones so that items used frequently are near the garage door you use most. Measure spaces carefully before buying storage containers. Keep things off the floor. You can hang things for pennies if you hammer large nails into studs around the walls. Peg Boards keep smaller items neat. Putting things away is a snap if you trace around them, leaving an outline that shows where they should be returned after use. Anything that can’t hang should be in labeled containers, stored neatly on shelves. Lightweight items can go on high shelves; heavy items should stay low. If you can afford them, cabinets with doors create a neater overall look. Put rafters to work. Exposed rafters can hold a multitude of items. Slide skis and ski poles, long and thin sports equipment, even long gardening tools onto a ladder hung horizontally from the ceiling, above your head but within reach. Suspend large tools and sports equipment—especially bicycles—from hooks screwed into the rafters.  Make it shine. As you organize, give the garage a good cleaning, discarding things you haven’t used in years. It doesn’t have to be spotless. But the neater it is, the more likely you’ll be to keep it that way. Hint: Make oil stains fade by using your foot to grind unused kitty litter into the greasy spot. After a few hours, sweep up the litter with the oil it has absorbed. Prevent future stains by taping a piece of cardboard over the spot where you normally park. When you want to spruce up, simply change the cardboard for a new piece.

Your home functions like small business, so it’s important to develop an office space that will help you manage your home in an organized way. You may need only a small area for record keeping and bill paying. If you conduct outside business from your home, you’ll need a larger area.
Where will this be? you ask. Consider a spare bedroom, a basement, even a closet. Computer armoires that can hold a compact office, when closed, can blend with the decor of nearly any room without looking out of place. And the contents are completely hidden!
Some people don’t need a desk. They work fine at a table, when necessary, and can keep everything they need stored in one place in a box or filing system.
For any home office two tools are indispensable in cutting paper clutter—a computer arid a wastebasket. A filing system is nearly as important.
Well, you’ve done it. You’ve organized your home. Look around. Don’t you love it? Congratulations on a job wefl done!