I see it all the time when I go on listing appointments and am even guilty of it myself - cluttered garages. The garage was built as a place to securely house your family vehicles, but many of us have so much stuff that it's been months since our cars have been in the garage. What is all this clutter and why is it occupying our garages? If you're planning to sell your home, the garage should be show ready, just like the rest of your home. It should be clean, organized and show that vehicles actually fit inside. Below is a great article from a friend and Houston area professional organizer, Gayle Goddard a.k.a The Clutter Fairy. http://clutterfairyhouston.com/
October is for Haunted Houses...and Even Scarier Garages
Fall is in the air! In Houston, that means that outside temperatures have finally started to drop from infernal levels to double digits. The Clutter Fairy takes the Texas summer off from working in garages and storage units, postponing those jobs until October. But now that Halloween candy is on the shelves, it's time to tackle those frightful, neglected spaces.
Cleaning out your garage doesn't have to be terrifying.For the average American household, the garage is where treasures go to die. Once-useful items make their way in stages to the hall closet, the space under a bed, the utility room, and finally to the garage, where they're subjected to extreme heat, humidity, dust, and wildlife. Most of the items in your garage are there because you've postponed the decision to let them go--probably the appropriate next step. (Garage is only one letter away from garbage. Coincidence? I think not!)
Let's kick off the fall with some tips to make faster work of the garage:
Establish your goals. Do you want to park a car inside? Do you need to store gardening or sports equipment? Is there a fleet of bicycles to keep safe? Maybe you need to be able to find the holiday decorations and get to the washing machine again. Decide which functions are the most important objectives of your garage project.
Schedule a date. Disposal of large items is an essential part of most garage jobs. Check the heavy trash schedule for your neighborhood. Charity pick-up is another good option--or you may need both, depending on what you're getting rid of. Pick a work weekend based on when those services are available.
Get everyone involved. It might take a team to tackle the garage. It's always more work than you think, so enlist your spouse, kids, and any other volunteers who can be enticed with pizza and beer. Maybe you can pool labor with a neighbor who needs the same kind of help on another weekend. Don't try to go it alone! You'll save a lot of pain by scheduling the job when help is available. (Even passing strangers will be happy to help. Start a pile of useful-looking stuff by the curb, and a lot of your clutter will wander off on its own.)
Take out the trash. To make a dent in the project in a hurry, start by removing trash: empty boxes, piles of paper, broken furniture, dead electronics, dried-up paint. You can start trash removal before the big work day to help spread the burden on the trash bin over a few pick-up cycles.
Empty the space. When the work day arrives, get your team to empty the garage down to the bare walls. Excavating every last dark corner and groaning shelf will give you a complete picture of the space you have to work with. You want to avoid--at all cost--just moving the mess around, so you need to bring your scary clutter into the light of day--literally.
Try these pointers to get your garage overhaul under way. Or if you still feel like screaming, contact The Clutter Fairy, and we'll tackle the project together. (But please don't wait until next summer to call!) 
