The Garage

The garage has been a constant battle every since we moved into our house. Many people in the neighborhood have empty garages. Some use their garage as the "man" space. Think coke machine, couches, game tables, neon bar signs. Some have messy garages. We have an ever evolving garage. At one point in time I could park my car in the garage. That was nice. It seems that mostly our garage is just a mess. Nicholas and I both put "stuff" out there constantly when we have no other place for it. After spending the past three days cleaning the garage, I have come to the conclusion that the problem is that our garage serves so many functions other than being a garage. So what's in our garage?

Garage storage
We have some of the normal stuff you might find in a garage. Gardening tools, bicycles, big boy and little boy sporting equipment, weed eater, tools, house paint, extension cords, and camping equipment.

Attic storage
We don't have an attic, so some of the things I would normally put in an attic (or basement if you live north) end up in our garage. Some of our childhood stuff we want to hold onto but don't really have a home, Christmas and other holiday decorating supplies, empty boxes that we need to keep, lots of tubs of baby clothes Lil' D has outgrown, baby equipment (swing, exersaucer, carseat, strollers), and suitcases.

Art supplies
Nicholas is an artist. He has his own studio, but really he needs his own house to hold all his supplies. He also has many interests, so the supplies exponentially increase. Wax, paint, glassblowing tools, glassblowing bench, and wood.

Art (Created)
The side effect of being married to an artist is the pile up of "stuff"that gets created. A lot of it is at his studio; old work is at his parents house; work we want to display is in our house; work that is not safe to display or really just too big (because really, Nicholas doesn't make small work)...that's in the garage. Nicholas sized glass torsos (we have 2 or 3 in the garage), 11 year old boy sized glass torsos (we have 2 or 3 in the garage), ceramic adult sized amputated legs (we have roughly 8 in the garage), and LOTs of glass pieces (a whole china hutch full).

Closet storage
We don't have many closets inside our house, and we have no utility closet, so many things I would normally put there end up in the garage. Vacuum, brooms/mops, moving blankets, shopping bags, extra non-perishables (like paper towels), TV trays, sewing machines, and coolers.

Other stuff
We also just have some random stuff like part of the countertop we have removed during our very slow kitchen re-do. Or the old water heater that Nicholas took halfway apart so he can turn it into some tool.

After three days of cleaning, sorting, sweeping and organizing, the garage looks awesome. And now there is plenty of room for Nicholas to fill it with big equipment and stuff from his studio in preparation for his art show on Saturday. I wonder how much time in life we all spend just trying to juggle and move "stuff."