How to Marie Kondo Your Garage (Our Top Tips)

In this post, your favorite overhead garage door company provides our top tips for Marie Kondo-ing your garage.

How to Marie Kondo Your Garage: 5 Useful Tips

Before we go any further let's take another minute to contemplate just what it means to Marie Kondo something. In a nutshell, it's an approach that emphasizes keeping only those things that have real meaning to you or that you are highly likely to use, then organizing what's left to create a space that's highly functional. The goal is to get past that part of you that holds onto things just for the sake of holding onto things.

Turning Your New KonMari Awareness Toward the Garage

Now that you have a firm grasp on what it means to adopt the KonMari approach to organization it's time to shine that new awareness on the garage. As Littleton's premier garage door installation company we can attest that many homeowners seem to view their garage as the place to hold things they don't really want but can't bring themselves to toss. It's not something that's unique to this area. Everyone does it. Even us with our own garages. But this fact makes the garage the ideal place to practice the KonMari approach.

So, with that in mind here are our top tips for Marie Kondo-ing your garage:

Tip 1: Establish your intention

The KonMari method stresses the importance of never starting a decluttering project until you have a clear intention of exactly what you want to accomplish. So, before you start work ask yourself how you want to feel when you enter the garage and exactly what function do you want the garage to serve (i.e. home gym, parking, workshop or something else?).

Establishing your intention is crucial to preventing your garage decluttering efforts from veering off the rails and becoming aimless and random.

Tip 3: Separate items by category

If you really want to Marie Kondo your garage this is crucial to the success of your effort. Separate everything in the garage by category in the center of the garage space. Categories typically include tools, gardening equipment, paints and related materials, furnishings, sporting goods and more. By separating everything into categories you can see what you have, what items are duplicates and which items you never use. This will be important when it comes to paring things down.

Tip 4: Ask yourself: Is this an item that serves a real purpose in my life?

Marie Kondo would likely change that question to "Does it spark joy?" but we can imagine a lot of guys in Highlands Ranch not knowing what to do with that question. So we'll go with the more intention-focused question: "Does this serve a purpose in my life?" You can follow up that question with "Is it a quality item and does it enable me to do what I want?"

If the answer is "yes", then keep it. If the answer is "no" then discard it, recycle it, donate it or sell it. It is also important at this phase of the decluttering process that you resist the urge to start organizing. Don't start buying storage bins or peg boards until you have completed the paring down process and know exactly what is staying in the garage.

Tip 5: A place for everything

And everything in its place. Marie Kondo stresses the importance of establishing separate places or "homes" for every type of item. Determine which type of storage device will be most appropriate for each category of item. Storage bins should be clear and clearly labeled. Shelves, pegboards and hooks should be dedicated to specific items.

All garden tools should be together, all car-related items should be together, and so on. It may take you some time to get used to the new setup, so do not waver in your commitment to it. Instead, practice putting things back exactly where you got them until it becomes a habit.

Long Term Maintenance

Getting in the habit of putting things back where you found them is only part of the process of maintaining order in your now meticulously organized garage. You will also want to conduct periodic KonMari sessions to make sure clutter is not creeping back in.

In addition, take the time to evaluate the success of your organizational efforts and tweak things like categories and storage methods if necessary. And, perhaps most importantly, refrain from depositing anything new in the garage until you have first determined without a doubt that it serves a real purpose.

Benefits of the KonMari Method

The Marie Kondo method of decluttering will pay a variety of benefits, some of which may not manifest immediately, but only over time. Those benefits include:

• More room in your garage – If you want to establish a home gym you'll have the room to do so.
• Easy access to tools and other important items – You'll know exactly where everything is.
• A sense of control over your domestic environment – No more dreading going into the garage.
• No stress when you need to find something – Everything is in its place all the time.
• Fewer duplicate purchases – Most duplicate purchases happen because a person believes they don't have something, when in fact they do. It's just lost in the clutter.

For Expert Garage Door Installation in Littleton Trust C & M Garage Doors

Once you have performed a Marie Kondo makeover on your garage you may decide to add a new door to further spruce things up. If so, get in touch with C & M Garage Doors. We offer expert installation, maintenance and emergency repairs on your overhead garage door that will ensure it always expresses the Marie Kondo ethos of efficiency and purposeful performance.