Declutter Your Garage By Tossing These 15 Commonly Stored Items

A home garage is generally designed to house your cars inside and keep them safe from inclement weather, petty thieves, and elaborate pranks. However, it also doubles as a storage space. And before you know it, your overflowing shelves and cabinets will make it difficult to park your automobiles safely or open the door connected to your interiors. Although you can regularly shift items to get the job done, this is a short-term solution at best. So, declutter and organize your garage to make the most of the space. Besides, it's one of the best ways to cool down your garage during toasty summers.

Simply throw out stuff that no longer serves a purpose, is expired or broken, or falls in the same category as trash. But you don't have to empty your garage and spend an entire day (or two) going through the contents. This is because you might get overwhelmed looking at the sheer amount of items you own. Plus, if the weather turns suddenly, you might not get enough time to move everything inside. To stay on task and avoid being overwhelmed, divide your garage into zones and remove the clutter from each zone one-by-one. You can spread this task over a few days or weeks, depending on your schedule and inclination. After you're done, try out a few budget-friendly ideas to organize your garage. Need a little nudge in the right direction? Here are 15 commonly stored items you should toss out when decluttering your garage.

Storing paint in the garage is a big mistake. But do you know what's worse? Letting curdled, hardened, or separated paint occupy precious space in your garage. Similarly, storing cans of expired chemicals, like pest control solutions, varnishes, and stains, is a bad idea since the majority are combustible and could lead to unwarranted accidents if left unattended. So, take a hard, long look at the cans of paint and chemicals and prepare to get rid of the unusable or expired ones. Take them to your local hazardous waste dumping center to get rid of them the responsible way.

If your garage also doubles as your sports room, chances are you have a lot of worn or outgrown sports equipment. For instance, the tattered basketball hoops and balls occupying the lower shelf in your garage need to go. In a similar vein, the soccer jersey your child wore to their local matches might evoke a lot of good memories. But if they don't fit anymore, it's time to take a mental snapshot for the future and bid them goodbye. Donate anything in good shape and toss the rest out.

Your Peloton may be your pride and joy, at least when you're using it every morning. However, what about the elliptical or treadmill you ordered enthusiastically but never use? Besides taking up a lot of space, such unused equipment might run into mechanical problems. The moisture in your garage might have also led to a layer of rust on your old exercise equipment, like dumbbells and weight plates. This won't just affect their appearance but also make them a safety hazard since the uneven surface can cut your skin. Although you can remove rust from such equipment, it's best to remove them and other equipment you won't use in the near future.

Your old gardening spade that's barely hanging on for dear life or the old car parts you're holding on to for emergency purposes fall under this category. The broken tools or parts won't come in handy 'one day,' so it's safe to let go of them. If you've got any full-size tires in your garage, you want to check on them, too. This is because they have a shelf life of 10 years. You also want to take a look at your power tools and get rid of any that don't function like intended.

Who doesn't have a few unfinished projects in their garage? However, the problem arises if you have amassed a few over the years and don't intend to finish them anytime soon (or ever!). So, acknowledge your passions and hobbies to pick out the projects you simply forgot about. Salvage whatever you can or want to; maybe the life-size canvas depicting the night sky just needs a fresh coat. But your clay pot may be unsalvageable. So, do yourself a favor and donate the ones you're unlikely to finish to make room for your new DIY projects.

Do away with items that no longer serve a purpose like your broken furniture and baby stroller. The old chair you placed in your garage to finally have a place to sit when hiding from your kids might have become another clutter magnet. Similarly, the old bikes your kids no longer use, their car seats, the pogo sticks they haven't jumped on in years, and the broken pool table in the corner fall in the same category. Don't worry. You don't have to dump them in the trash. Donate them to someone (or a charity) to give them a second life.

You might have hand-picked each decor piece stored in your garage. Still, if they don't sparkle the way they used to or look their age no matter how much you fluff them up, maybe it's time to part with them. So, sift through the boxes and make two piles. Put the items that are usable in one pile and the broken or redundant ones in another. Donate the items in the former pile to a charity and toss the rest out. You may want to inquire about the disposal process for certain items, like flickering fairy lights, with your local recycling center before putting them in the trash can.

It's easy to let cardboard boxes accumulate in your garage. Take your TV packaging or boxes from your Amazon orders for example. You might have even saved a few of your moving boxes, especially if you bought them at a premium. Unfortunately, cardboard boxes break down over time and get dirty and invite bugs to nestle in. Moist boxes might even attract mold. You also don't want to store more aluminum cans and plastic bottles than you can repurpose. So, it's best to remove them from your garage.

If you're hoarding your legacy DVD or CD player in the age of on-demand streaming services, you might want to determine if it's worth keeping. Think if you ever use them or plan on using them in the near future, or you're holding onto them just because. In case it's the latter, donate them to a charity. You might even be able to sell them, provided they're in good condition. The same goes for your CDs and DVDs. In case you're not ready to bid all of them goodbye, DIY a stunning birdbath with some old CDs. Dispose of your broken electronics but avoid putting them in the trash can.

Remember the time you got specialized fertilizers for your garden? Or, when you bought batteries in bulk because they were on sale? What about synthetic lubricants? Check every bin and box, and set aside these items. Check each item's best before date and decide if you want to keep it or toss it. Even if certain products are in their prime, you may not use them anymore, so it's best to get rid of them. Keep in mind that such wastes might qualify as hazardous, so dispose of them accordingly.

Ripped and torn clothes work great as cleaning rags. Nevertheless, you shouldn't own more rags than you know what to do with or if you seldom use rags (microfiber cloths, anyone?). The same goes for your not-so-nice shoes. You can keep a pair or two for menial tasks like mowing your lawn or participating in the neighborhood cleanup programs. So, toss them out to free up precious space. Also, don't store your nice clothes and shoes in the garage since it isn't a climate-controlled space and will damage them.

It's common to create a pile for donation while decluttering your home. But problems arise when you take that pile and let it fester in your garage. This habit might even promote decision paralysis, with you reclaiming items you didn't want to part with. The best course of action is to trust your past self and avoid going through the pile again. Just put the bags and boxes in your car's trunk and drop them off at a charity center.

Even though the world is moving online, there's something nostalgic about holding a tangible document, book, or magazine in your hands while you read it. However, it's a terrible idea to use your garage as your personal library. This is because the moisture will damage the pages while rats and other kinds of creepy crawlies will readily build a makeshift home. Plus, too much paper in an enclosed space might lead to fire accidents, so go through the books, documents, and magazines stored and either donate or recycle them.

Having a few building materials on hand isn't just a smart choice, but necessary, too. This is especially true if you sourced one-of-a-kind materials, like luxurious marble, for your home. But storing bags or boxes will just take up space in your garage. After all, your flooring won't cave in (generally) or huge chunks of your chosen tiles won't fall off from their designated spots. Moreover, building materials like cement shouldn't be used after the three-month mark or if it comes in contact with moisture. So, take inventory and only keep the necessities.

We're all familiar with the meme where dads store every broken tool piece in the garage because they might need it someday for a random project. But guess what? Even if the pieces would fit a few of their DIY endeavors, it's unlikely they'll remember about it or the exact place they stored it. So, if you come across a scrap piece of wood, bent nails, old taps, rusty pipes, faulty wires, smudged painter's tape, and halogen bulbs while decluttering your garage, toss them out to reclaim the space.