Garage Makeover

A few months ago, I decided to give up one family member and gain a new one.  Yes, that's right, I said buh-bye to Carly the Corolla.....

And hello to Camryn the Camry! Oh, and by the way...Camryn is a girl. 



I'm kinda diggin' her but not in a lesbian way even though she sure does have a nice rack on her.  See for yourself.  Whatta beauty.  

Before I got Camryn, I knew I had to do something that I had been putting off for the last two years.....cleaning/organizing the garage.  If I was gonna get a pretty new car, I wanted her to have a pretty new home.  Plus, Camryn is a bit more voluptuous than Carly so I wasn't even sure she would fit if I didn't clean it out. 

Yep, there was really only enough room for a Corolla and that's about it. 

Let me take you on a little tour.  First we have the right side with my old headboard, night stand, weedeater/leaf blower and boxes with random stuff that I never bothered to unpack. 

Then I have my bike, Shari-oke machine, my lawn mower and more random stuff.

In this corner, we have some boxes that I didn't even know what its contents were, my old projects from my Interior Design classes, a bag of extention cords and more random stuff.
 

Once I dug into those boxes, I found THESE!

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with these?  Throw them away??  The thought is like a stab in my heart.  I've hung onto them for the time being until I figure out what to do with them. 

Moving on to the other wall, I have a bunch of random plywood in case I could use it for a project, an old canvas that I thought I could save and paint over, a ladder....and yep, more random stuff. 

I wanted to start with a clean slate so I went through every single item and did just what all the organizers say to do.....I made a donate pile, a keep pile, and a trash pile.  Thank God the garbage man was coming the next day because I had that sucker piled up!  Then I was left with this.  I even took the time to sweep out the garage and spray it down with a hose.

Then after about 8 hours of work, I was left with this.  I kept the old headboard because it's about 18 inches deep and I can use it as a work surface but I donated the nightstand to Goodwill.  I have the ladder hanging with potting soil below it.  All of that other stuff that was on the headboard went to Goodwill too.  

I ended up buying this shelf at Lowe's to give me some vertical storage and it's pretty sturdy for the price.  I don't remember how much it was because it was 3 months ago, but I'm thinking it was in the $30 range.  In the bottom is where I have all of my extra pots.  The next shelf up is where I keep my gas cans, weedkillers and my grass cutting shoes.  My dad bought me a caddy with all of the car cleaning supplies I need for Camryn and it lives on the empty shelf but this pic was taken before I got.  Then I bought a couple of cute storage bins which I haven't filled yet.  I will probably put extention cords in one (once I have labeled them) then maybe spray paint cans in the other.  Oh, and I kept a few of the plywood scraps just in case I need them for something.  I almost threw them away but couldn't bring myself to do it. 

Beside the shelf is my lawn mower and a grapevine Christmas Tree that I store in the garage. 

The other thing I bought was this rail that I can hang my shovel, weed eater and leaf blower on.  Note: Hanging this thing up is really a two person job but since Tippy couldn't reach it, even from standing on the ladder, I had to do it myself......and that's why it's not level.  Oh well.

The other side of the garage is my favorite part!  Look how empty and clean it is!  The only thing that lives on this side of the garage is my bike, which I'm planning on selling on Craigslist, and some left over cardboard for my spray painting projects.  Oh, and there's currently a giant spider with 6 legs that are each about 3 inches long that's living on that wall too.

And this is what I see when I pull into the garage everyday.  Ahhhhh.

Much better from this, huh?