Ok, so maybe our messy garage wasn’t disastrous enough for you people, but we did discover several new species of spiders in there… and Sherry was “attacked” by a mouse in the cleaning process (it ran over her feet- yes, both of them- but her shrieking made it seem much more vicious). No matter the scale of our mess, it was very satisfying to spend an hour on Saturday morning just purging, sweeping and rearranging for a totally cleared out and organized end product. In case you were wondering what the process looked like, here’s a fun little time lapse video that we made of our big garage clean-up (you can watch it below or over here on YouTube):
As for how we shot the time lapse, it was just a simple set-up using our newly refurbished MacBook’s built-in iSight camera and a downloadable program called Gawker. Then, thanks to the slope of our driveway, we just put the computer on a box (of which we had plenty) and hit record. The whole thing looked like this:
But back to tackling the garage. It was pretty much just a simple cleaning effort this time around. We share your dreams of someday implementing a few stellar organization systems (nothing excites us like a wall of built in cabinetry and a tool-riddled peg board) but we realized during last year’s clean-up that we just don’t have enough stuff to warrant anything major yet. Maybe once we’ve got kids and have accumulated all sorts of frisbees, basketballs, and camping gear we’ll find ourselves excitedly installing an intricate shelving or cabinetry system. But for now we were just be happy to rid our bike seats of cobwebs and put an end to the cardboard box convention that took place where our car could have otherwise been living.
As you may have noticed on the video, we used the tried & true process of moving everything out and creating three groups: 1) trash, 2) recycle/donate and 3) keep. Then once the garage was empty we broke out the brooms to sweep out all the leaves and remove all the remaining cobwebs. Afterwards the “keep” stuff got moved back in (with a more orderly & intentional arrangement this time – garden tools with garden tools, paint with paint, etc). Storing like objects together always makes it easier to find things and creates zones like “paints & stains” (which are housed on the tall tiered shelf) and “rakes & shovels” (which now hang together in a row on wall hooks).
Hopefully we’ll keep the garage looking this way for a while, but then again, we probably said that last year so only time will tell. It seems that our weakness lies in the fact that we’re not always perfect about cleaning up the remnants of past projects. In fact, the clean-up process was a bit of a walk down memory lane. Just check out some of the “artifacts” that we rediscovered on Saturday morning:
- Two catering buckets that The Nest’s photo crew ordered (now used for carwashing)
- A cast iron sink from our old kitchen, which we finally Freecycled yesterday
- Painted pots from an R Home photoshoot, one of which I clumsily kicked over
- Boxes from our recent mattress delivery…
- … nesting in a box from our new patio lounge chairs
- An old metal firepit that got rusty and was replaced by our new DIY stone firepit
- Sticky scraps of balloon from our failed string lantern project for the front porch
But enough about our clean-up, we’re eager to hear more about YOUR weekend projects. We’ve already received a few great before and (much tidier) afters by email, so we’d love if everyone could share links to their pics in the comment section of this post so that we can all marvel at the weekend projects that were accomplished (photos can be uploaded to photo sharing sites like flickr, kodak and shuttefly and linked to for all to see). Thanks again for tackling this project with us! We’ll have to do it again sometime…
Time lapse video music courtesy of MoOt.
heather s. says
Looks great…in fact, it looks a lot like it did this time last year when you cleaned the garage. :) My weekend was full of parties and baby shower prep/hostessing so I didn’t get a single thing done around the house.
melissa laine scotton says
yay! glad you’re back. I was so jealous of your time lapse video… I was like aw man they must have a super fancy camera. But now I’m so excited about Gawker! Thanks so much for letting us know about it!
D.J. says
My wife, Lisa, commented with our garage adventure pictures in the original thread, but I figured I’d post it again here. All in all we probably spent about 6-7 hours emptying, cleaning, and reorganizing. Thanks for the motivation, this is probably the cleanest the garage has been in decades! The basement is the next daunting challenge.
Madelaine says
No pictures, yet, but this past weekend we were busy putting up our outdoor canopy, re-shaping and edging the flower beds, and painting the front door a great dark, smokey eggplant. That was all the outside stuff.
Inside we hung pictures, a glass shelf in the bathroom, moved a hanging lamp and hung new curtain panels in the bedroom, and cleaned. Very busy, but such a sense of accomplishment!
D.J. says
So yeah, the URL field doesnt put the link in the comment :)
http://www.nerdaid.com/garage.html
Cara Beth Buie says
Oh gosh! It would take many many many more hours to clean out our garage! We moved to a new house in April and are STILL unpacking! You have inspired me to at least ATTEMPT a clean out! Thanks for the fun video!
Dana says
Your new and improved garage looks great!
My most recent project is a biggie. I am overhauling and organizing the public library that I manage. Every nook and cranny needs some TLC. I’ve been tackling one area a week and have made quite the progress over the past three months. (I’m a neatnik, but past workers have not been so tidy).
Yesterday, I got so sick of our office space that I spent about six hours rearranging it. What you said about keeping like objects together is definitely true. Our problem was that we had folders and envelopes and staples in a million different places and, therefore, didn’t know what we owned. Now we can actually find office supplies without having to reorder the same thing twice. I feel so inspired that I’m spending some of our grant money at the Container Store!
Sasha says
Love it! Very inspiring. Thanks for letting us all see a little bit of organized world!
Jen says
Yay for clean garages! We haven’t lived in our new home long enough to create a garage mess yet, so we unpacked and set up our home office instead. It’s still a work in progress (aren’t all home projects?), but at least I have a functional space to work from home now!
http://homeinthecountry.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/yellow-office-revisited/
Notesfromthegrove says
Holy time-lapse madness, batman! THAT FREAKIN’ ROCKED!
priscilla says
i couldnt help but wonder, “what happened to the nest in your helmet?” =D
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Priscilla,
After we were certain the birds were done with it, we carefully dumped it into the back woods (we’ve heard bringing them inside can bring in tons of bugs- eek!) and thoroughly cleaned and aired out John’s helmet (which is thankfully just fine even though a family of birds called it home for a while). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Tiffany says
Here are our before and afters. We took 2 loads to Goodwill and 1 load to the dump! We are loving our newly cleaned space!
http://norwoods11908.shutterfly.com/26
(I hope that link works!)
Melanie says
You did that in an hour?? It would have taken me a whole weekend, I think! I’m in N. VA and it seems like garages aren’t so common here. We only have a carport. I’m jealous!
My office closet turned crafting space from the weekend.
http://oldwhitecottage.blogspot.com/2009/07/office-closet-finished.html
danielle says
Aren’t garages so hard to keep clean? It’s one of those rooms in your house that just doesn’t get the attention that it always deserves. Looks good though! I can’t believe how big it looks when you move everything out of the way.
girlrunningaround says
LOVE the video! You guys rock!
Jill J says
Ha! Cute video! Don’t you wish clean up went that fast IRL? I spent 8 hours cleaning out the basement yesterday (and still not finished.) Now my garage looks like your “before!” But no worries, we’re having a garage sale in a couple of weekends.
Carla says
Looks so great!! We tackled our basement and have a ton of things to donate and sell at our yard sale. Love the video too :)
Elizabeth says
We went to a wedding this weekend or we would have tackled a project. I love all the inspiration though!
Juggling Thoughts says
It took a little more than the weekend, but we stained our old bedroom set to look like new! Check it out!
http://finewire.blogspot.com/2009/07/diy-bedroom-set-staining.html
Great job on the garage!
JenM says
Loved the time-lapse video! Thanks for doing that. The garage cleanup looks great. My weekend project was a long saga involving a table makeover:
http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/2009/07/table-saga.html
But I also wanted to share my most dramatic organising before-and-after. It’s my friend Laura’s study / guest room in her tiny cottage (the houses here in England are generally small). You can see it here:
http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/2009/06/lauras-study.html
Powered by Tofu says
Loved the time-lapse youngsters!
Amanda says
That video was too cute! My favorite parts were Burger running around, and John sitting in the lawn chair with Sherry moving behind him. I didn’t see any mouse discoveries in there though. If I’d have found a mouse there would have been screaming, jumping around the room and running out of the garage for a good 10 minutes. lol
elizabeth says
we were on vacation this past week, so we didn’t have time for a before and after project. unless you count our living room going from clean to post-vacation, too lazy to unpack, giant mess… our ‘dog room’ is being converted to a laundry room/pantry/utility room in the next couple of weekends, so we will be sure to take before and afters. might try the time delay thing if we get fancy! the plumbing has been completed in that room, so now we need to patch the drywall, paint, purge, and reorganize!!
Rebecca says
I’m about to go tackle my garage, but first I need to go buy some kind of shelving. Where did you get yours? I feel like I saw the answer in a previous post, but now I can’t find it!
Oh, yes, it was much too hot to tackle the garage this weekend, but since we got a cool front this week that has the temps in the HIGH 80’s (down from 105), I think it is my one chance in the Texas summer heat to get it done!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Rebecca,
The shelf is just a simple Home Depot plastic tiered system that really helps us keep our paint and extension cords and hoses organized. Here’s a post with more info and closer pics: https://www.younghouselove.com/no-mans-land/
xo,
s
jbhat says
Hi! Love the video, love the story, love that you did it together. It can be fun to organize with someone who likes to do it. My husband does not. So…
I had my uber-organized sis over last night for bratwurts and Project Pantry, a walk-in pantry which also serves as a broom/storage/utility closet. We emptied it, wiped it down, swept it out, and set about the process of purging. The we put the “keep” stuff together on a like with like basis, and then put way the kept items according to how often I need to go in there and grab them. The former arrangement wasn’t efficient at all, but now it makes perfect sense to me. Sorry, no pics, but it looks great!
And hey–thanks for the kick in the pants.
kasey at thriftylittleblog says
Cute video! Unfortunately for me, my garage will take a little bit more work. I’ll probably wait until temperatures aren’t in the 100’s!
Liz says
I love the time laps video! Not going to lie though, I was trying to find Sherry’s mouse adventure! LOL
My fiance and I added four shelves to the closet in my craft room this weekend! It was much needed :) I blogged about it too: http://cherryredblog.livejournal.com/20922.html?mode=reply
Kylie says
This weekend I went out of town and came home to a completely different house! My hubs, dad, and f-uncle (faux uncle)ripped out every bush that was up next to the front of my house. We just bought our home and the people had let every thing get very overgrown (we had bushes reaching 2 stories). I’ve got before and afters – but since it was all men all weekend, there aren’t any during (dang!)
Things are looking MUCH better already for our new-to-us house, but we’ve got a long way to go. Go here for pics: http://jkhenry.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/shock-and-awe/
Jessy says
We cleared out the spare bedroom. It was the catch all room of our apartment – and every time we cleaned it all up it went back to the way it was. I hope we keep up the good work this year. Thanks for the motivation! I have no pictures. I was too embarrassed about the before ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Holy cow you guys. We’re loving all the links to your fabulous before and after projects! We’re quite an accomplished bunch, eh? Thanks so much for sending ’em our way, and of course we encourage everyone reading to click the links above for some great little weekend makeovers if you haven’t already checked them out!
xo,
s (& j)
Ryan says
Looks great!
We spent Sunday clearing out our backyard and laying sod. Not so much fun but it looks SO much better! Its amazing the difference 2 pallets of grass makes! We’ve got 2 lemon trees to remove (too thorny for the kids) and we’ll be home free except for some straightening up and getting some furniture for the patio.
Before:
[url]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/3742706049_5677cc9c1f_o.jpg[/url]
After:
[url]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/3743497292_b6ed37f4d4_o.jpg[/url]
[url]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2539/3743497362_855cb8f57f_o.jpg[/url]
Victoria (Everman) Klein says
Looks like a MASSIVE success :D
Kathryn Alayne says
My weekend project http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynalayne/sets/72157621584733583/ Almost wrapping up the downstairs painting. Next up will be flooring!
L@JourneyChic says
Great job! I like the idea of grouping similar items together and need to employ that in our garage!
Sean R says
@Liz, I was looking for Sherry’s mouse adventure too, haha! Clever editting possibly?
I thoroughly enjoyed Sherry sweeping the walls though.
Chris says
Great job, and really cute idea! I have to request a repeat in about 20 years. If we made a time lapse of cleaning our garage, the video would be days long. You’re still young – you need a couple of kids, half a dozen bicycles and 20 years worth of cr*p – then we’ll see what you can do! Oh, yeah, and a house with no basement. That makes it even more fun.
G&D says
Nice work Youngsters! Loved the time lapse video–very clever!
Kristina says
Didn’t get to tackle our office because some friends needed help scraping their popcorn ceiling and it took 11 hours! Oh well, next weekend. :)
Brandi U. says
Totally cute video! I worked on transforming my bar stool one weekend and here’s the result: http://not2shabby.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/mission-accomplished-ii-so-so-stool-transformed/
Not So Glamorous Housewife says
perhaps a time lapse job on painting my house would make it go faster. Browns to white certainly takes some layers!
Jenny Kerr says
This is so cute! I just wanted to say I’m glad that you guys just switched names and didn’t shut down your blog entirely or anything like that. I’m not to the fun stuff like decor yet with my house, but I still enjoy reading about it. :)
Alicia says
We improved our street appeal by cutting down a lot of shrubs etc along our fence line. Our house had been a rental for 8 years prior to us purchasing it last September, so the garden had been let go and plants have grown in odd, scrappy ways.
I also spent some time working on storage issues. I went from having a large built in wardrobe in my previous bedroom to a free standing wardrobe about half the size (left by the previous owners). I can’t afford to replace it at the moment, but I managed to create extra hanging spaces in the lower section. Also, simply reconfiguring the placement of larger items (such as luggage) allowed me to better maximise the small amount of space.
kaush says
Love what you’ve done with the garage but LOVE the time lapse video :-)
Kirsten says
Seeing your garage cleanup helps get me motivated. We just ordered some elfa shelving for our garage and a freestanding bike rack so that we can try to get everything off the floor and make it all accessible while freeing up space. Now, if I could only do something about the Vegas summer…
lindsey clare says
you guys, that video is totally cute! loved it. i’m definitely going to try out Gawker.
Sophie @ Century Finds says
The garage looks great cleaned up! My garage is a disaster area right now, although at least we can still fit cars in there ;-)
My weekend project was a bar cart. You can see it here:
http://centuryfinds.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/my-bar-cart-project/
Unfortunately, no After photos. I haven’t had the time to start on it yet…
Juliette says
My weekend project involved some simple bathroom-improvement. My photos aren’t as snazzy and sharp as yours, but the blurb is here:
http://adayintype.blogspot.com/2009/07/girl-with-drill.html
I also took on the lovely DIY jewelry-organizer project! Fun!
The blogging thing is quite new to me, so forgive the haphazard-ness of it all!
Cecily T says
Hey, guys, we are overdue for our own garage cleanup due to the remains of recent projects (painting baseboards and moulding for the basement/spring seed-starting, lumber storage while we got our daughter’s swingset built).
We also inherited a lot of paint and stain from the previous owners (thanks a lot, sarcasm). What’s the best way to get rid of stuff like this? Our hazardous waste collection is only once a year, so we are stuck for like another 10 months since we missed it! The old paint was buried behind the afore-mentioned project materials. Does paint and stain store okay in garages with temp. extremes? Or should we just chuck all of it?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Cecily,
Good question! We actually have a recycling center/dump for our county that has an area for specific hazardous waste (oil goes in one place, old paint and stain gets tossed in another bin). Definitely google or call your county to find out where you can drop yours off. It feels so good to load up the car and haul it off, never to be seen again!
xo,
s
Sarah says
That was cool! I’m going to use the time lapse video as incentive for my husband to clean out our shed. It was supposed to be his “spring” project, but as you can see it’s almost August! Thanks for sharing!
D.J. says
Oh sheesh! We cleaned out our garage, I posted the pics above. So naturally, when we called our township to send us some free mulch, a nice service that they provide, they decided to dump WAY too much in front of our garage the day after we cleaned it :( We filled all of our flower beds with a solid 3 inched of mulch and maybe used 1/6th of the pile. We can barely get the cars around the pile in to our freshly cleaned garage. Anyone in SE Michigan need some free mulch?
http://nerdaid.com/mulch.jpg
Jane @ the Borrowed Abode says
Thought of you guys this past weekend when I helped my dad (ok, bossed my dad around) with organizing his garage! Doesn’t it feel oh-so-good to get it clean! http://theborrowedabode.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/organizing-for-others-garage-hang-ups/