Chances are that you are underutilizing your #garage space, making it look more #cluttered than it has to be. If you’ve already #decluttered and #cleaned the garage yet still have #stuff to store, Family Handyman offers multiple ways to get the remaining essentials off the floor and make them easily accessible. Ceiling tracks, flexible shelving, rollout shelves and “throw-and-go” bins can help #organize everything from yardwork implements, automotive supplies and sporting goods to tools, camping gear and holiday decorations. Bonus: Keep putting things in their proper places, and it will be easy to find what you need when you want it.
Tag: clutter
Declutter the Garage and Have a Sale
August may give you an extra day to #declutter, the chance to sell some of your extra #stuff and the warm, sunny weather necessary to do both. But before you have a #garage sale, you’ll likely need to clear out the #garage! The first thing to do is take everything out, says Budget Dumpster. Not only will you be able to sweep and wash the floors or repaint the walls, if necessary, you will also be able to make a realistic assessment of your #storage needs and add #shelves, hooks and other #organizational aids. Then, you can sort the things you want to keep — maybe even your car — back into a freshly #decluttered and #organized space.
Empty Your Garage and Start Sorting
Once you’ve removed everything from the #garage, you can sort everything into the familiar #keep, #donate/sell and #trash piles, says Living Well, Spending Less. This requires you to be absolutely honest about your answers to the following question: If you haven’t used whatever it is in the last year, will you really ever use it again? If the answer is “No,” that thing is #clutter. So get rid of the disused sporting goods, the rusty or duplicate tools, and anything that appears broken. Slap a price sticker on anything that someone else might want and host a #garage sale, or contact ClothingDonations.org for a free donation pickup.
What’s the Most Cluttered Area of Your Home?
While many people concentrate their #decluttering efforts on #closets and #kitchen cabinets, the #garage is often the most #disorganized space in a home, says Garage Living. Studies say half of homeowners rate the garage as the most #cluttered area of their house, and only one-third of those with two-car garages can fit more than one vehicle inside it. It’s an easy out-of-sight/out-of-mind dumping ground for #stuff — and especially the “aspirational” #clutter you rarely use, but might come in handy “someday.” Do yourself, your car and the things that you do use a favor: Contact ClothingDonations.org to #donate that stuff.
What Does Freedom Mean?
Amid the bombast of the fireworks, the festivities of the family cookout and the splashy hubbub of the pool party on Independence Day, you might take a minute to think about what #freedom means. Few of these celebrations would be possible without it — or at least they might not be nearly so joyous.
Too often, the word “freedom” is misused in service to a partisan position, author, Afghanistan war correspondent and documentarian Sebastian Junger told Military Times upon the 2021 release of his book, Freedom. “Freedom comes with responsibility. Freedom means freedom from oppression, not freedom from obligation.”
While The Organizing Blog regularly talks about freedom from #clutter, true freedom is an all-encompassing imperative. Even as you thank a #veteran, remember that you, too, are in the fight. Be wary of those who misuse the term in service to an ideology that seeks to undermine it, and join in the work to guarantee that every person in America is equally entitled to lead a life of liberty.
“Freedom is being able to come out of your house and do what you want to do,” Maryland veteran Harrison “Lumpy” Johnson told the Severna Park Voice in 2015. “People complain all the time about the country and where we are headed. We have freedoms other countries do not have. When The Star-Spangled Banner plays, it gets me.”
The concept is not lost on children. “Freedom to me is being able to go school to get an education, to go to church to practice my religion, to have a house to call a home,” wrote Kylar Thomas, winner of the Manistee (Michigan) VFW’s 2015 Patriots Pen contest. “These are just a few of the things we have in the United States that some countries cannot do freely. That is why many people from other countries want to move to the United States.
“We are a country that has brave men and women who have fought to protect these rights. They know first-hand how important it is to be thankful and to protect our freedom,” Thomas noted in his essay. “We need to be grateful for all they do and the sacrifices they made for our country.”
The definition of freedom may be just a little bit different for every person in the good ’ol U.S. of A. It’s a melting pot of cultures and attitudes — people working together toward a brighter future. That’s what makes the country great and free. Remember to celebrate that fact in the weeks ahead.
Happy Fourth of July from the Vietnam Veterans of America and ClothingDonations.org!