Most homeowners would love to have a garage that is so neat and tidy they always know exactly where everything is stored. But achieving it is another thing. It takes time, effort and motivation.

And sometimes, motivation comes after being repeatedly being inconvenienced.

Have you ever pulled into your garage, exited from the driver’s side of your car only to find you can barely squeeze out from the door due to the all the clutter wedged next to it?

If that sounds like the scenario of your life, it’s time to get serious about giving your garage a makeover.

Like a lot of things that appear to be horrendous projects, getting started, really making a commitment to unloading and organizing all that stuff you’ve been storing, is half the battle.

These six tips will get you moving in the right direction. It all boils down to planning, tossing, and having a plan for organizing the stuff that stays in the garage.

• Get revved up. Buy a lot of large sized trash bags, and keep them in plain view in the house like on the kitchen table. It will be a constant reminder that the big clean-out day is coming. And oh what joy after it’s over-- you’re going to get your garage back. At the same time you’re at the store, buy a few inexpensive storage containers with lids, labels and marking pens.
• Shop for shelving. You don’t have to make a big investment in storage items, but a couple of new shelving units can also help streamline and better organize the space you have. Visit a home improvement store for some ideas.
• Consider having a garage sale. If you only have energy and time to clean out the garage, so be it. But if you can muster up the extra time it will take to price items, put them on display, and get someone to help out on sale day, you might turn your junk into a few hundred dollars or more.
• Hire someone to help. This is the method I use, and while it may not work for everyone, it motivates me. I make it a fun project with snacks and soda available to the extra sets of hands. I have found that when I hire a neighborhood teenager or one of my own kids, to help take things off shelves, clean the storage areas, load unwanted items into the car to take to places like Goodwill Industries, and sweep the garage at the end of the project, there’s a rhythm to working together as a team. And the teens end up with some money in the process.
• Dig in with assigned tasks. Organizing a garage full of items can be effectively and efficiently done if everyone knows what is expected of them. If you have several people helping out, and everyone is taking things off shelves and constantly asking if you want to keep something, you’ll be spending all day answering yes or no. Instead, assign yourself the task of knowing in advance what some of the absolute “keepers” will be. Of course you’ll come across a lot of things during the garage makeover that you didn’t know you have.
  You won’t be able to make snap decisions on everything you uncover. So put these items in a designated area. Then make sure you make the all-important to-keep or not- to-keep decision at the end of the day. Don’t allow yourself the freedom to do it the next day. If you do, the same items may all end up back in your garage again.
• Give it the one-year test. Years ago, a friend of mine had a garage anyone would envy. Small items--everything from holiday decorations to garden tools, were organized according to the items’ “theme.” All of these items were labeled in boxes in see-through containers. Big items like bikes, and sports equipment were hanging on wall-organizers so they were off the floor of the garage but easily spotted when needed. It was a garage that emulated the look of a well-organized retail store. I wondered if she had a secret behind stacking and storing this skillfully arranged collection of family gear.

She told me they clean out the garage once a year as a family. The “secret” is this. If something hasn’t been used in over a year (she admitted that they bend the rule sometimes), out it goes.

At first, I thought it seemed a bit harsh. But if you apply this rule to your own collection of forgotten, seldom used clutter that creeps into all corners of your garage, a new sense of freedom can be yours.