Tackle That Tough Spot - Garage/Mud Room/Pantry Area

This is the first post in my new series, Tackle That Tough Spot. I have identified several places in our home that cause me much stress, annoyance, and exasperation. I will tackle, de-clutter, clean and re-purpose the areas and report my results back to you.



This all started one day when I realized that I had house envy which made me very embarrassed and annoyed with myself. I also realized that maybe if I just cleaned up some of the mess that we have started, maybe I could find all of the space that I really need.



The first area in our home that I am tackling is our garage specifically the part of the garage that leads into our home. We have a one car garage that hasn't had a car in it for years, if ever. Over the years, the garage has been taken over by bikes, outdoor toys, beach chairs, etc. We have come to terms with the fact that we will probably never be able to put a car back in the garage because we truly don't have any other place for those items.



We tend to come into our house through the garage and it has become a place where everything gets dumped, like shoes...


...coats and bags. I also use shelves for overflow pantry items from my kitchen.



We have an extra refrigerator.

This is a corner where my husband keeps some tools, car supplies, extra batteries and light bulbs and other misc. stuff.

This wooden shelf is supposed to be used for kitchen appliances and items that I use occasionally, like crock pots, baking pans, storage containers, etc.

As you can see by the unorganized clutter and piles that we simply weren't using the space wisely and efficiently.

My husband and I took a few hours to clean up this portion of the garage and had some fabulous results.

Our shoes and hats are now organized. We removed any shoes that were out of season, out grown or not worn. The out of season shoes went to our bedroom closets. The out grown and not worn shoes went to the donation box.

Much better...

We decided that where the refrigerator had been was in the way and blocking my entrance into our laundry room, which you can see in the right side of the next picture. We moved the refrigerator and my husband hung a coat rack that he salvaged from the garbage near his office. He added some lower hooks for the kids to hang their coats.

I also re-organized and straightened up the shelves. What is left is mostly kitchen pantry over-flow, cookbooks and miscellaneous kitchen items.

I can breathe...

We bought the three wall cubbies years ago at IKEA. They are awesome and if I remember pretty inexpensive. We use them for our hats, gloves, scarves and extra re-usable bags. They also make a great landing place for phones, keys, wallets, sunglasses, etc.

We now have a place to hang our coats and bags. The kids can hang up their own coats.

It's working...

We moved the wooden shelf to a place in the basement where we had some room. I'll keep the kitchen stuff on it that I use occasionally. The refrigerator is now where the wooden shelf was. It is out of the way, but still very accessible.

We de-cluttered, re-organized, cleaned-up and re-purposed a space in our home that just wasn't working efficiently. We also filled up a big trash bag and a box to donate. In the end, we created a mud room and pantry area in a space that we already had and with supplies that we already owned. No money involved.

Also...who knew that we had a dance floor under all of that stuff.

Did you tackle a tough spot this week?

Come back next week for another installment of "Tackle That Tough Spot" Series.

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This post is linked to:

• The Finer Things in Life