My garage is a jumble of stuff. Lots of stuff. Bins of old books, tools, gardening implements, paint cans, fishing poles, and more. Stuff in the garage that I don’t have room for in the house. Just stuff. I looked around and felt a bit overwhelmed by all of it. Where do I start? More importantly, how do I start?
I stepped back to take it all in. Then, I decided this garage cleanup was just another project that I needed to take care of. A pretty big project but a project never-the-less and projects have specific pieces, parts, components to make them manageable.
The first thing I did was to count the number of pieces I thought I’d have if I worked in 30 minute increments four days a week. Working for a specific number of days and for short periods of time each work day prevents burnout and overwhelm. It would also allow me to see progress and feel a sense of accomplishment.
Each piece of the project puzzle was assigned a number. For example, No. 1 Top Shelf next to garage door. No. 2. Middle Shelf next to garage door. No. 3. Blue Bin on Floor by garage door. No. 4 Blue Bin on Floor in the middle and so on until each “piece” of the puzzle was assigned a number. I had a total of 27 pieces of this garage clean up puzzle.
The next step was determining a start date. I had to decided when was the best time for me to begin this project. Once that decision was made I marked it on a calendar.
Step three was to determine the end date. I marked each planned work date with a project number. And, knowing how life sometimes gets in the way, I allowed two extra weeks or four additional work days to complete the project. The last date marked on the calendar was my end date. So…I had a start date and an end date. The last consideration was budget. Did I need to purchase anything to complete this project. The answer to that was no. All I needed to do now was get started.
I pulled together the three containers that I needed to work with…donate box, put-away box, and trash bin. I went to work, working my plan and I made daily progress. The trash bin was filled and empties. Several donate boxes were filled and dropped off at the donation center. And the put-away items got put where they belonged. As anticipated, life did get in the way so it took a few more days added to my project planning calendar but in the end, it was worth it. I have a garage that is much more functional now that it’s not overloaded with stuff.
Please click the image below for your Project Planning Worksheet.
