Garage wars: how to de-clutter and organize--and make room for your cars.

• Author: Haraldsen, Torn
• Position: Executive Living

When was the last time you saw someone's garage that just had a car parked in it--or for that matter, had any car parked in it? In the case of more than 25 percent of American homes, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy, that might be never. Even two-car garages only have room for one car in 32 percent of homes. Garages have transformed from shelters for our autos to collectors of things forgotten.

Summertime is when that reality hits most of us. It feels like the right time to sweep the floors and organize our garages, even though organization experts advise doing it in the spring or fall months, when temperatures are cooler. Regardless of the season, the biggest question is the same--where to begin?

Vicki Winterton, owner of Organizing Mind over Matter, and Laurie Rackham, owner of Perfect Place Organizing Consultants, tackle such issues head on for hundreds of Utahns each year. They offer some helpful tips:

Categorize What's There

Winterton has four steps in her organization template--she calls them the 4Ms--minimize, measure, maximize and maintain. One key to starting is taking inventory of what's there.

"Measure to take stock of things you've decided to keep," she says.

Rackham adds that organizing things by category is a great way to start. That might mean noting items such as things for the cars, yard and garden tools, household tools, sporting equipment and grilling items. It also means you'll find some items that don't belong in garages, like luggage or food storage items that could be adversely affected by heat.

"Until you really know what you have in that garage, it's difficult to know where to put it or what to remove," Rackham says.

Prioritize

Once you create an inventory, decide which items should stay, which should be moved into the home, and which should make their way to the landfill. Sentiment is one thing, but making garages into storage units or oversized hope chests is another.

"Simple is hard to do, but very liberating. And holding on to something just because it's cheaper doesn't make it more valuable. It just makes it clutter," says Winterton.

Safety is Paramount

Regardless of what you might have in your garage, common safety sense should be upmost.

"For example, storing old paint is not a good option," Winterton says. "Paint in Utah doesn't do well with our heat and cold fluctuations." And keeping such products as yard chemicals in a cluttered environment is particularly dangerous. "Those items...