Time to Organize Your Garage

Getting your cars parked in your garage may be a dream to you, though now is the time to get your garage organized. Seems everyone is out there, cleaning out from the change of seasons. Getting ready storing away the nasty snowthrower and dusting off the lawnmowers. Beginning the project, for many people, is the toughest part.

You see the piles of stuff and the shelves overflowing with items randomly tossed about for storage. Here's how you can go about organizing a garage:

step #1: Notes - Look at every wall or area and right down notes on items seen, comments made by my client or in your case little thoughts that drift into your head. It's OK to write, "absolute disaster" or "hopeless mess." Just get it down on paper. Doesn't have to be a novel, random notes are perfect.

step #2: Ideas - Envison what your garage would look like. Use your walls for storing as much as possible. Think shelves, racks, hooks, bins, bags, etc. All of these ideas can be attached to the wall, getting your stuff off the floor.


step #3: Plan - Maybe take a bit of a break and let your thoughts simmer. Come back into your garage and plan what you are going to do. Take some measurements for shelving. Remember to use the studs as much as possible, this will keep your stuff on the walls. Studs are typically every 16 inches along the wall length.

step#4: Action - Get your garbage bags ready, boxes for donations and rev up those power tools ... the organizing party is about to begin. Hang up your shelves first, if possible. This gives you space to store the items you use. Items you do NOT use do NOT go on a shelf, trash or donate. Work around your garage and find homes for the things you use. You will be left with stuff that is has no use in your home.

step #5: Clean Up - You will be left with stuff that has no use in your home. Donate or trash it. Get it out of your life. It's OK to part with stuff. Sweep up the floor and pull your car into the garage. Reward yourself for a job well done!

What random thought do you have about your garage?

Happy Birthday Organized Solutions!! We're giving away FREE Professional Organizing

In your weakest most vulnerable moments, greatness is there if you are strong enough to see it.

Crazy when I think about it.
-Brand, spanking new single divorce mother of two boys, 6 and 4 years old.
-Been a stay at home mom for 5 years, after leaving a senior engineering position at Ford Motor Company.

Everything I had worked so hard for in my world, shattered apart. Gone.
At least it appeared that way ...

For at that time, I felt an opportunity was at hand.
"Well, if I'm going to start completely over in life. Let's make a difference and have some fun with it."

Single mom, 2 boys, unemployed, HUGE mortgage, alone, family living 2 hours away ... Yeah, let's start a business. All I knew was my whole life I loved to help people and I was learning again how much I loved to have fun. Guess the combo worked!

Organized Solutions is 7 years old today!

Hot Damn!!

I am so thankful for all the people I have met, clients who I have helped and companies who have contacted me. Thank you for reading this blog and commenting.

None of this could have been possible without my boys in my life. These dudes rock my world and keep my head on straight. They have been the best business partners anyone could ask for. It is so awesome to see their enthusiasm for our business.

To celebrate, we are giving away 4 hours to someone in need of getting organized. We need to hear your story. This could be yourself or someone you care about. Send me your nomination by September 30, 2011 and my boys and I will select our recipient. We need to keep this local to the surrounding Toledo area, though I will work to find help for those out of the area. I know professional organizers across the country who can help you.

My email address: angie "at" iorganizeyou.com

Thank you for all your help and support.
You all ROCK!!

Who do you need to thank for your success?

Organized Solutions Thanks You With FREE Professional Organizing Service

In your weakest most vulnerable moments, greatness is there if you are strong enough to see it.

Crazy when I think about it.
-Brand, spanking new single divorce mother of two boys, 6 and 4 years old.
-Been a stay at home mom for 5 years, after leaving a senior engineering position at Ford Motor Company.

Everything I had worked so hard for in my world, shattered apart. Gone.
At least it appeared that way ...

For at that time, I felt an opportunity was at hand.
"Well, if I'm going to start completely over in life. Let's make a difference and have some fun with it."

Single mom, 2 boys, unemployed, HUGE mortgage, alone, family living 2 hours away ... Yeah, let's start a business. All I knew was my whole life I loved to help people and I was learning again how much I loved to have fun. Guess the combo worked!

Organized Solutions is 6 years old today!

Hot Damn!!

I am so thankful for all the people I have met, clients who I have helped and companies who have contacted me. Thank you for reading this blog and commenting.

None of this could have been possible without my boys in my life. These dudes rock my world and keep my head on straight. They have been the best business partners anyone could ask for. It is so awesome to see their enthusiasm for our business.

To celebrate, we are giving away 4 hours to someone in need of getting organized. We need to hear your story. This could be yourself or someone you care about. Send me your nomination by the end of September and my boys and I will select our recipient. We need to keep this local to the surrounding Toledo area, though I will work to find help for those out of the area. I know professional organizers across the country who can help you.

My email address: angie@iorganizeyou.com

Thank you for all your help and support.
You all ROCK!!

Who do you need to thank for your success?

Vegas, Zebras, Ant Farms and Desert Snowman

Been gone pretty much all last week in Las Vegas for the National Association of Senior Move Managers conference. I was honored to be invited to be a speaker in one of the educational sessions. My topic was a non-organizing topic, more like a marketing "rock show."

Well, like all great rock shows, there was some opening music. Then jumped right into the fun. It was awesome to hear the laughter and see the lightbulbs going off in many faces as I talked about how to make your most important marketing tool fun and unique -- YOURSELF!!

Good times indeed. In fact one person came up to me and said:
"I believe you could speak about
ant farms and make them sound exciting."

The set of zebras pic is one of my favorite slides from the show used to demostrate the power of being different. (you should see what I used for "unique")

Here's the opening playlist:
Spirit in the Sky, Nitty Gritty Band
Black Betty, Ram Jam
You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC
The Chain, Fleetwood Mac
Joy to the World, Three Dog Night
Lose Yourself, Eminem
Who Are You, The Who
How Far We've Come, Matchbox 20
Rockstar, Nickelback
Domino, Van Morrison
Son of a Preacherman, Dusty Springfield

Oh and of course my business partners were with me, my boys. We drove to Utah (because we could), toured the Hoover Dam (took lots of dam pictures), built a snowman in the Mojave Desert and they dragged me to the top of a 700 ft sand dune (so much damn fun).

What three songs would you have as YOUR opening playlist?

Basementpalooza

"I want to purge "The Basement." When can you come to Chicago? I need you here," "Alicia" wrote to me hoping I could make a road trip to Chicago for some organizing fun. Always up for an organizing adventure, I was happy to make the journey.

Like so many other famous paloozas, it's all about having a great time ... a party, you might say (who knew there's a SPAM-a-Palooza?).

"Basementpalooza" is the title Alicia gave her organizing project. Her basement is a large spare room in her apartment, not a true basement, though she nicknamed it "The Basement" because that's how she treated it - a place to toss and stack stuff she really didn't know what to do with.













Alicia had every intention of getting her "basement"organized though just could not get the party started with it. Many times just continued to add to the piles and bins because it was just easier than dealing with it.

The time had come for this all to stop. She was tired of climbing over bins and moving piles to get to items. With the music cranked up, we went to work sorting and organizing.












We began looking through the bins of papers and books that Alicia had been storing for years which she moved from one home to another.

Two 90 gallon recycle bins filled with paper later, we moved onto her collection of books. Only her best and favorite ones were left on her shelves, all others were loaded into her car for resale and donation.











Alicia's clothes were next on the organizing tasks. Her dresser drawers were emptied, one by one, and all items no longer working for Alicia were bagged up for donation. We continued through her closets, sorting clothes, purses and shoes.

Finally we ended up with designated areas for her office supplies, grad school references, travel literature, holiday decorations, photos and personal memorabilia. Alicia's clothes and books were trimmed down so she no longer felt overwhelmed when she stepped into this room. We even got her bedroom decluttered and organized for a much more peaceful night's sleep.

Alicia wrote me a note that just makes me smile, part of it read:
"I really do feel like I have a new lease on life - just knowing that the basement (or room formerly known as basement) is cleared out makes me feel like I have so much more freedom and potential to do what I have been wanting to do, reach for my dreams, relax, enjoy life and be truly me!"

To help bring someone back to themselves is priceless. I truly love helping make a positive difference in peoples lives. Alicia was always there, just got a little lost. So glad she is back on track for fun and happiness with an "awesomely organized room formerly known as the basement."

If you're feeling overwhelmed and just down-right bummed about your home, you can do something about it. Get some music playing, few bags and boxes on hand and begin your own Organizingpalooza. It all starts with that first item you pick up and place in the bag.

What kind of palooza are you going to have?

Organized Solutions Is Giving Away Organizing Help To Celebrate 5 Years!

In your weakest most vulnerable moments, greatness is there if you are strong enough to see it.

Crazy when I think about it.
-Brand, spanking new single divorce mother of two boys, 6 and 4 years old.
-Been a stay at home mom for 5 years, after leaving a senior engineering position at Ford Motor Company.

Everything I had worked so hard for in my world, shattered apart. Gone.
At least it appeared that way ...

For at that time, I felt an opportunity was at hand.
"Well, if I'm going to start completely over in life. Let's make a difference and have some fun with it."

Single mom, 2 boys, unemployed, HUGE mortgage, alone, family living 2 hours away ... Yeah, let's start a business. All I knew was my whole life I loved to help people and I was learning again how much I loved to have fun. Guess the combo worked!

Organized Solutions is 5 years old today!

Hot Damn!!

I am so thankful for all the people I have met, clients who I have helped and companies who have contacted me. Thank you for reading this blog and commenting.

None of this could have been possible without my boys in my life. These dudes rock my world and keep my head on straight. They have been the best business partners anyone could ask for. It is so awesome to see their enthusiasm for our business.

To celebrate, we are giving away 4 hours to someone in need of getting organized. We need to hear your story. This could by yourself or someone you care about. Send me your nomination by the end of September and my boys and I will select our recipient. We need to keep this local to the surrounding Toledo area, though I will work to find help for those out of the area.

My email address: angie@iorganizeyou.com

Thank you for all your help and support.
You all ROCK!!

Who do you need to thank for your success?

The Garage From Hell

Moving is an exciting and stressful time.
It will be compounded if you have not even finished unpacking from a previous move.

Knowing they were going to be in this home temporarily, Soul and her family never sorted through all the boxes stacked in their garage. On top of those boxes, were more boxes and items tossed adding to the pile of stuff. Their fishing gear was scattered about the perimeter of the piles which left them climbing over items to get in and out of the garage.

With the Soul family frustrations rising, time had come to purge. Plus with a new home in the very near future, something had to be done. They have a storage unit where they keep their bass boat.


The game plan we came up with was to sort through the boxes: keep, donate/curb, storage and trash.

Keep items were mainly fishing gear, tools and garden stuff.
Donate/curb items were things the family knew they would not need, but others could use. We had a couple mattresses, chairs, dresser, books, etc. These items quickly disappeared as we worked.
Storage items were mainly boxes that had not been opened from the previous move because they were waiting to get into their permanent home.
Trash ... big pile of papers, torn boxes and broken items.

Ideally, The Soul family wanted their boat in the garage for easy access. So, we swapped and transferred the storage boxes into the storage unit and the boat came home. As the Soul family packs up for their final move,they can add those boxes to the storage unit. On the big move day, the Soul family will have a much smaller number of the time consuming boxes to shift and can focus getting their furniture situated and slowly bring in boxes to unpack in their new home.

A project that would have taken days for the Soul family to complete, began at 9am and finished before 2pm -- under 5 hours!!

Since Soulman was focused on hauling the storage boxes, he has a few to sort in the garage yet. Though he'll get them done before the move date.

We conquered this "garage from hell," as Soul called it.
The Soul family is ready for their boat to come home and start packing for their final move.

Completing this project will make moving into their new home sooo much easier. I am thankful I was able to help the Soul family with this organizing adventure to Dallas, Texas.

What have you conquered?

Organizing Texas Style

Heading to Dallas to help Soul get organized and ready for a move.

This is officially the longest organizing adventure to date - 1,175 miles (1,891 km)

We will be focusing on her garage, though I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be a bit of fishing and much laughter, too.

Where has been your longest adventure?