Ok, so maybe our messy garage wasn’t as dramatic as some people hoped, but we did uncover a few new spider species and Sherry had a close encounter with a mouse during the cleanup (it ran over both of her feet — her scream made it sound worse). Regardless of scale, it felt great to devote an hour on Saturday morning to purging, sweeping and reorganizing until the garage was clear and tidy. If you want to see the process, here’s a time-lapse video of the clean-up (watch below or on YouTube):
We filmed the time-lapse with a simple setup: our refurbished MacBook’s built-in iSight camera and a free program called Gawker. Thanks to the slope of the driveway, we propped the computer on a box and hit record. The result captures the whole process in a compact, satisfying clip.
For this round of garage work, we kept things straightforward. We love the idea of built-in cabinetry and a tool-filled pegboard, and maybe one day — when we have kids and more gear like frisbees, basketballs and camping equipment — we’ll install a more elaborate storage system. For now, we focused on basic maintenance: wiping cobwebs off bike seats, clearing out excess cardboard and making room where the car should be.
Our approach followed a proven method: everything came out of the garage and was sorted into three piles — trash, recycle/donate and keep. Once the space was empty we swept up leaves and debris and removed remaining cobwebs. The items we kept went back in with intention: like with like, so garden tools are together, paints are together, and so on. Grouping similar items creates clear zones — “paints & stains” live on a tall tiered shelf, while rakes and shovels now hang together on wall hooks — which makes it easier to find things and keeps the space functional.
We hope this tidy state lasts, though we said the same thing last year. Our downfall is often neglecting the small remnants left after projects. The cleanup turned into a nostalgic dive through past projects as we rediscovered a handful of artifacts:
- Two catering buckets that The Nest’s photo crew once ordered (now used for car-washing).
- A cast iron sink from our old kitchen, which we finally Freecycled yesterday.
- Painted pots from an R Home photoshoot, one of which I clumsily knocked over.
- Boxes from our recent mattress delivery.
- Boxes nested inside a box from our new patio lounge chairs.
- An old metal firepit that had rusted and been replaced by our DIY stone firepit.
- Sticky scraps of balloon from our failed string lantern project for the front porch.
But enough about our cleanup — we want to hear about your weekend projects. We’ve already seen some great before-and-after photos via email, and we’d love for readers to share links to their own images in the comments so everyone can see the transformations. Photos can be uploaded to popular photo-sharing sites and linked in the comments for all to enjoy. Thanks for joining us in tackling this project — we’ll have to do it again sometime.
Time-lapse video music courtesy of MoOt.