Is your storage space screaming for a clean-up? The idea of cleaning a cluttered storage space like a basement or garage can be dreadful because of the amount of effort it would take. You can declutter it with minimum possible effort if you know how to do it.
Here are some tips you can follow for cleaning out your storage:
Scan Your Storage Unit and Plan the Clean-Up Process
Visit your storage area and scan the place to see what’s in there and approximately how much time it will take to clean out the whole place. Creating a plan to help you organize, clean, and purge will help you stay on track.
Take Everything Out of the Storage
Create a space outside the store or within it. Collect all the items at that place. Doing this will make it easier for you to see what to keep and what to get rid of.
Thoroughly Clean the Space
Taking out your items will also make it easier to clean up the entire space. Thoroughly clean the floor and make it neat for reorganizing the space.
Declutter the Storage Space
The challenging part begins now because you might come across things associated with many bitter and sweet memories during the decluttering process. Reminiscing can consume time and distract you from the task. It’s okay to relish memories sometimes unless they overcome you.
During the decluttering process, categorize your goods in three parts:
Goods for selling:
You might not have used items for years, and you feel like you will not need them, but they are in good condition. Why waste your space by storing them when you can earn bucks by selling them on eBay or Craigslist. You can sell such items online or to someone in your acquaintance.
Things to throw away:
We often dump broken or worn-out items in the storage area, not knowing that they’ll get cluttered up to create a great mess. You will find such things in your storage.
They might include old toys, Christmas lights, broken furniture, piled-up magazines, etc.
The best way to get rid of such things is to give them away to a recycling plant. You can find many metals, glass, paper, and plastic collectors in your area. Find them as most of them buy old recyclable stuff. This way, you will be taking care of the environment while getting rid of the things you don’t need anymore.
Items to store:
Storage space is meant for storing valuable items. Pick out your important things and secure them in your storage. If you have many such items and the space is getting smaller, you can store them in a storage company in your area.
You can also hire storage companies if you use your garage to store items and need to free them to park your car.
Categorize Your Items in Separate Boxes
Buy durable boxes and permanent markers. Place the items for selling, giving away, and the items to be stored in separate boxes. Label the boxes with permanent tags for distinction. This will make it easier for you to declutter your space as you’ll only have to move the boxes.
Reorganize Your Storage
You can reorganize your storage space after figuring out what to keep and what to give away. Keep only those items that you need. Leave enough room for walking. Make sure to reorganize your items in such a way that will make it easier for you to clean up the space in the future.
Place some racks to store items that you regularly use. It will make your space look sorted out and the cleaning process more manageable. You can use cabinets to keep things that you use occasionally.
Use a pegboard to organize the tools such as screwdrivers, hammers, drills, etc.
Organize similar items together so that you will know where to find what. It will make your space look neat and save you time in the future.
Cleaning out your messy storage can be a hectic task, and you might anticipate the worst before starting the process, but you will feel relieved after decluttering and organizing your space. It will create more space that you can use for a better cause, like parking your car in the garage or storing valuable things in your basement.