The Key To Keeping My Garage Clean and Tidy

Who would have thought that by cleaning the outside of my washer and dryer that it would help me keep my garage clean? Certainly not me. Certainly not my husband who wondered if my OCD had kicked into a totally new gear when he watched me clean them. Fact is, if I had known that the  magic formula to keeping my garage tidy starts with two glowing white appliances, I would have picked up my bottle of Simple Green many messy garages ago.

But I didn't. And that was then, and this is now. And as is with my general philosophy in life, learn better, do better.

You might remember a few months back I wrote about how I finally managed to clean my garage after many months of defeat, and the victory felt soooo good. I knew I had won the battle, but I also knew that it would take several weeks, and even months to pass before I would know if I had really won the war. Well I am happy (and proud) to report that my garage is still clean!!! Nothing has managed to get piled up, all the tools are in their proper places, and the whole space fills me with a sense of serenity and not stress-- for as much as a garage can really be serene.

But it hasn't been without some discipline and work. There have been opportunities for slip ups. It's getting to be what passes for winter here in California so temperatures in the garage make it a place you don’t really want to linger. It's been tempting to just stack random cardboard boxes, or other miscellaneous crap that I don't have the time, energy, (or clothing layers) to deal with. But then I remember that slippery slope. How one small pile can multiply into a bigger mess before I even realize it's happening

So the game changer has been being super diligent about putting things where they belong, and not allowing the garage to become a catch-all dumping ground for randomness that it had often become in the past. I remember how messy my garage has been in the past, and all of my failed attempts to organize it, that motivates me to NOT allow history to repeat itself.

But then there is also the happy surprise of how much my sparkly white front-loaders have been the extra nudge that I didn't even know I needed-- until I did.