Another superbly helpful article from our friends at Hagerty– if you find yourself ‘shuffling’ things around without any real improvements in organization you are not alone. Read on……

Spring time means cleaning time?

Spring cleaning is a concept that has existed for centuries. It’s the annual reminder to take personal stock of what we have, what we need, and what might need a little bit of organization or clean-up. Whether you take it seriously or not, spring cleaning is something worth at least trying if your garage is also a workshop or DIY space for your automotive habits. Make your annual cleanup better than ever with these five tips, straight from my overflowing and disorganized garage, direct to yours.

Beware of the organization trap

When I was young, I would spend the occasional Saturday morning piddling around the garage with my father, who described the time as “organizing,” but if I snuck upstairs for a mid-morning snack, my mother would ask how dad was doing “shuffling his shit.” I spend a lot of my time shuffling my shit, so I guess that might be genetic. Perhaps you got that same gene.

If you do, be warned. We are the particularly gifted type who regularly put five pounds into the 10-pound bag—often without drama. The bag is not a literal bag here, but instead the area on a shelf or under a workbench. Packing things in more tightly is technically organizing, but it does not make it easier to get work done. Spending time unburying a part you now need but know is tucked behind a bunch of other things is still a waste of time. Organizing should make things easier to retrieve and use, not just allow you to fit more into the same space.

Be honest, are you actually gonna get to that?

Spring cleaning might be about returning your storage bench to a workbench, but it is also prime time to take stock of how much time you have against how many projects you have. This doesn’t have to be about getting rid of things. Instead, consider keeping the priorities up front and putting in a little extra effort to pickle and store the long-term projects better. This ensures that when you do get to them, they are how you left them—not a mismatched pile of parts that has been shuffled five times in three years, that’s also starting to rust.

Think forward

While most of the thinking in the garage is very present-focused, it’s also important to think about the future and what projects might be coming up. Are there some things in the trash pile that would be useful for that project? A few things worth hanging onto just a little bit longer?

It can be easy to simply default to “throw everything away” or “keep everything.” Resist this urge and instead look at the discoveries you make while spring cleaning and honestly assess them against the to-do list or calendar that helps keep track of the projects and tasks you have on the docket. Some make sense to keep and keep track of due to an upcoming task. Let this help guide your selection of what stays and what goes.

Take out the trash

It sounds simple, but actually throwing things away is tough. During an annual clean-out, a new pile will likely form in the garage, full of bits and pieces amassed during the colder months that you had every intention to throw out. It’s important to actually follow through.

The struggle—for me at least—is often that items in the trash pile do still have some small perceived value. For example, nearly every motorcycle I bring into the garage gets new control cables in the interest of safe operation. Some of the cables I pull off other bikes are still functional, just in less-than-desirable shape. Perfect spares, right? Yet I can easily find myself keeping all the cables “just in case,” which means I have a trash pile by a different name.

Create homes, not spots

Organizing is hard. Putting things down is easy. Be careful not to fall back into just piling things together. Instead, take the time to catalog—even if only mentally—the parts and pieces as they appear from the depths of disorganization. This holds for tools also; the items that get rare usage might end up in the same spot, but it’s not a good spot for them to live. Spring cleaning is the time to look at workflow and space to put things where they should be, rather than a place where they fit.

Here’s an example: The vise for my drill press often ends up living on top of a toolbox, meaning it has to move each time I open the box and again when I go to use the drill press. This spring, it’s going to get a better home.

Spring cleaning should feel refreshing when complete. That can be tough in a garage where we are often forced to confront the progress (or lack thereof) on a project each year. Whether life was good to us or not, taking a moment this spring to assess and get back on track can be powerful. If you have tips or tricks you use for your spring cleaning, be sure to leave them in a comment below.

For the Silo, Kyle Smith.