Vacation Project #2

My garage is designed to hold 2 cars but I was using about 1 space worth to store junk in a rather unorganized fashion. I decided that my garage needed to be swept out and organized a little. One snowy night this winter after getting home from work after 11:00pm I was shovelling my driveway and I can't explain why but I started organizing my garage (mind you it was about 10 degrees outside). I managed to get the garage cleared up enough to fit 2 cars in comfortably. However I decided any further cleaning and organizing would require warmer temps.

About a month ago it got nice and I went to Target and bought some shelves. The garage also needed some additional lights. The only lights in the garage were the light in the garage door opener, a single socket bulb and a fluorescent light in one corner. The fluorescent light worked fine however in each of the three winters since moving into the house I had at least 1 bulb fall out and shatter on the floor (once on my car). I got a couple large clamp lights and another fluorescent light from Home Depot. I was not sure how I was going to hang the clamp lights but they were on sale. Of course the day after I go and get all the supplies to clean the garage up Winter rears its ugly head again.

After I finished painting the bathroom earlier this week I had a few days left on my vacation. It was finally nice out again. Now was the time to finish organizing and cleaning the garage.

The first thing that needed some attention was the box corner. Most of the boxes were left over from when I moved in. I had been saving the boxes for moving again but it seems that is now a few years off, time to toss some of them. I also decided that this is the corner I wanted the new shelves in. I had 2 different sizes of shelves that went together very easily, they should hold quite a bit.

Before

Shelves (pre assembly)
After

When my Sister moved to California my Dad took most of her stuff for storage until she comes back to Minnesota (come on Amy you know you will sooner or later!). Other then her bed (which makes an excellent guest bed) the only thing I am sotring is her bike. With only 1 car in the garage the bikes being on the ground was not an issue, but now that I can fit 2 cars in the bikes get in the way. I have not been riding my bike much, but that might change with a little competition going on at work (a story for another post soon). I got some simple bike hooks from Erik's Bike Shop. The only spot to hang the bikes and keep them out of the way on a daily basis was next to the common wall along side the garage door track. This should not be a problem since I will hardly ever have to take down Amy's bike. The hooks get the bikes high enough off the ground that the garbage and recycling cans still fit under them easily.

BeforeAfter

As I mentioned the lighting was not bad but could definitley have been better, so better is what I did. I added a new fluorescent light that is plugged into an outlet instead of hard wired. That was hung towards the back of the garge behind a beam. I clamped the 2 clamp lights to the support bracket for the garage door and plugged them into an adapter on the original light socket. After I got all of the lights up I shut the garage door to see how bright it was, I was pleasently suprised.

The new fluorescent light

The new clamp lights and the original socket light

The only thing that still bugs me a little is the firewood that the previous owner left. Before I bought the house he asked me if I wanted him to leave it since his new house did not have a wood burning fireplace. At the time it sounded like a good idea. It has been 3 years and I have not had a single fire in the fireplace nor do I plan on having one anytime soon. If you or anyone you know wants what seems to be good firewood let me know, it would clear up a good chunk of garage space.

After a nice 10 day vacation I am now back at work. Sometimes I come back to work and think of all the things that I did not get done on vacation. This time though I feel like I got a lot done. I have got a couple months to come up with some new projects before my next vacation in June . . .