Reclaiming the Garage

Is Your Garage a Graveyard? How to Reclaim Your Square Footage

For many homeowners, especially in Malibu, California and its surrounding areas, the garage has stopped being a place for cars and has started being a “graveyard” for things they don’t know what to do with. It starts with one box of holiday decorations, then a broken lawnmower, then a stack of old tires. Before you know it, your $40,000 SUV is sitting in the rain while $400 worth of junk is enjoying the shelter of your garage.

How to Take Your Garage Back:

• The Three-Pile Method: Clear a space in your driveway and pull everything out. Create three piles: Keep, Donate, and Junk. If you haven’t used an item in two seasons, it belongs in the “Junk” or “Donate” pile.
• Think Vertically: Once the floor is clear, invest in shelving or wall-mounted slats. The goal is to keep as much off the floor as possible.
• The “Heavy Lift” Hurdle: The biggest reason garage cleanouts fail is the “big stuff.” Old refrigerators, heavy workbenches, and piles of scrap wood are too much for one person to handle.

Stop treating your garage like a storage unit you pay a mortgage on. View our Residential Services to see how we can help you haul away the heavy items today.