Organizing your garage is one of those jobs that you know needs to be done, but you never seem to get around to it. Or you peek inside, see the endless clutter and start picturing the hours that will be spent cleaning the garage and then you put off the project for yet another weekend. Typically, the garage is an area of the home that is a dumping ground for many items, but if you can take the time to organize the garage area, you will find it is time well spent. Once it is cleaned out, try to stay organized by always returning all items to their proper areas in the garage (totes, containers, shelves) to keep your garage organized at all times.

• Organize the rest of the house first as the garage is usually a a dumping ground. Then decide what types of items you would like to assign a permanent home in your garage. Can some items be moved to an indoor closet or attic, like luggage for example? How about chemicals? Would they better suited to a life in a garden shed?
• Once you decide what will live where, use a lot of boxes to pull things out of the garage and group them into their separate categories. Make sure you have boxes of all sizes on hand. (The local liquor store is a great place to get free, very sturdy ones and egg cartons from the supermarket are very durable as well.)
• Don’t forget to label boxes with their contents as you are grouping them. Otherwise, you are giving yourself extra unnecessary work.
• Don’t tackle the garage alone. Make it a family affair and set a date aside on the calendar. Involve your children and make up a game with prizes for the one who can find the oldest, dirtiest throwaway, etc. This is essential to success as everyone in the home has some level of attachment to the items that are living there (rent-free, I might add).
• Set aside enough time for this project by picking back-to-back days like a weekend so that sorted items do not have to sit in piles for too long. Although there is no way to predict the weather too far in advance, a dry weekend is best.
• Be prepared with needed supplies. You will need plastic storage bins, wire baskets, permanent markers for labeling and many, many large garbage bags. Place one in the middle of your working space so that everyone can reach it.
• Start with a general purging of everything in your path. Consider yourself a nasty dictator having a bad hair day, determined to eliminate all his enemies (everyone he knows). Decide what you want to keep and specify an area in the yard for those items. Create a separate area for things that still work but you no longer need (those can be sold). Put those things that cannot be sold into a big trash bin.
• Once you have consolidated items by like type, get rid of any broken or unnecessary things. If you come across a random item that doesn’t quite fit into anywhere specific, store it in the most similar category available.
• Organize a garage sale and pay to advertise for it in a local paper. This way, you will carry though. Plan ahead enough so that you can go through all the things that have lived there peacefully until now.
• Now that everything is sorted, go through that “for sale” pile and place stickers on them. (Put a sticker on anyone that tries to get in your way as well.) Whatever does not sell during the sale should then be donated to local charities in need.
• Sort all items that you plan to keep by their use. Create piles of like things (garden tools, etc.) as this will help you determine their importance and ultimate home in the garage.
• Now is the time for all organized men and women to go out and buy the tools they need. Often, this is done beforehand which leads to a waste of effort, products and time. Buy lots of hooks for the walls of the garage and use them to hang things like bikes, garden tools, sporting equipment, and even crazy Uncle Harry when he is not behaving as he should.
• On one wall, install some shelving. You can use actual bookcases or recycle old kitchen cabinets. You do want to have some type of storage unit with doors so that certain items can be kept out of reach. (Uncle Harry again.) Remember to use the lower shelves for those heavier items and put anything dangerous to children as high and far away from their curious reach as possible.
• Consider investing in a small shed for those larger and more valuable garage items like lawn mowers, snow blowers, yard equipment, power tools and the like. A shed is not only a secure structure, moving those bulky items into one will free up a lot more room for your car! (Not more clutter: your car!)
• Thoroughly sweep and clean the floor before putting things back inside the garage. Get rid of grease stains with some heavy-duty cleaners and a lot of elbow grease. Consider finishing the concrete with either an epoxy coating or flooring like tile or rubber matting.
• Organize items in order of their use and fill up that new shelving and/or cabinetry. Place toys within easy reach of children and adults still having trouble letting go. Keep your hand tools on a pegboard above a work surface.
• Sort seasonal items so that they are handy when needed; for example, skis within reach in winter and the rake in fall. Your goal is to set things up so that you are not constantly moving things around.
• Remember to store all flammable items, like painting supplies, in a flameproof cabinet. When storing paint, make sure you develop a labeling system. If you need to dry out paint in a can, fill it with kitty litter, which will absorb the extra paint and make it safe for disposal.
• Maintain what you have done by scheduling at least one weekend a year to keep up your hard work.

Making home improvements not only beautifies your house but also adds to it’s value. However as homeowners become more environmentally conscious they look for ways to improve their homes and make them as “green” as possible. Here is a list of 21 home improvement tips for your home.

1. Consider installing solar panels. Although solar heating has been used to warm homes for thousands of years, solar panels are totally modern and very green. They have no moving parts; you sit them out in the sun, perhaps on your rooftop, hook up the wires and collect power without adding any fuel or replacing worn-out parts. (Too bad we can’t do that for our body parts when they get older and worn out!) If you decide to buy some, consider used ones as they are quite a bargain and even after as long as twenty years have been known to produce a good percentage of the power that was generated when they were brand new.

2. Replace all the standard light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent ones. These energy-smart bulbs use 70-75% less energy than the incandescent kind and last up to ten times longer! For example, by using a 26-watt, compact fluorescent light bulb (equivalent to 100 watt incandescent), consumers can save up to $59 dollars on energy costs over the life of the bulb, which can be anywhere from five to seven years.

3. Roof improvements. Believe it or not, research indicates that roof color and the type of material used can help to lower attic temperatures. Light coloredtileroofsout perform the shingle ones when it comes to decreasing temperatures. If you are thinking about re-roofing your home, consider white tile, which has properties that will help reduce heat gain to your attic.

4. Install a motion detector outside home to replace your outdoor lighting. Outdoor lights left on all night waste energy and disturb wildlife. Light fixtures activated by motion sensors or a timer will keep area well lit and save energy and money to boot.

5. Don’t waste water. Check your home carefully for leaky faucets and get them repaired as quickly as possible. Use cold water when laundering clothes and adjust your clean threshold if you possibly can. Those jeans of yours can probably be worn a few more times than usual before washing them, and can’t that towel be dried off at least one more time before throwing it in the hamper? Make saving water a family affair. Set a good example by teaching your children how to turn off the water while they brush their teeth or take a quick shower.

6. Install low flow showerheads. They are a worthwhile investment (especially if you live in a rented space because you can take them with you). They cut down on water usage and save energy costs.

7. Create a compost pile in your backyard. Find a private spot in your yard to make a compost pile. Mix food wastes with dirt and use a shovel to turn the pile over every week or so to give it some air. Turn throwaways like eggshells, coffee grounds and spoiled vegetables into soil and garbage into something useful. Avoid the temptation to plant rude neighbors and passersby in your compost pile. (This will ruin everything and turn it bitter. Besides, that is homicide and does little for the environment, save to reduce it by one person!)

8. Install an aluminum-clad storm door. This type of door is energy-efficient and will help to insulate the entryway of your home.

9. Some considerations when heating and cooling our homes: Invest in a high-efficiency HVAC system that is Energy Star certified and install it in your home. This will greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted. It will also shave your utility bill enough to make you smile reasonably broadly. Look for a product with a higher SEER rating (Seasonal Energy Efficient Ratio). This means that the product in question meets strict government criteria necessary to be deemed “energy efficient.” The standard is 13 SEER, but many heating and air conditioning products have a rating as high as 18 SEER.

10. Clean out your air conditioner filters or replace them regularly. A dirty filter will hamper the airflow, costing you more to run your system. When not at home, adjust the thermostat to accommodate the changing temperatures outside.

11. Consider investing in and installing an automated thermostat. High tech thermostats are well worth the cost, and what you spend, you will get back over time in lower energy bills. It is estimated that you can save about 3% of your heating costs for every degree you lower your thermostat during the winter and up to 6% for every degree you raise it during the summer.

12. Install glass doors for your fireplace. Glass doors are safer than fireplace screens. They also reduce the amount of heat that escapes through the chimney from your home. Use your fireplace for special occasions only as it sends precious heated air right up the chimney (or out the door, if you prefer that phrasing).

13. Use power strips for your home computers. Even after you turn off your computer, power continues to flow to peripherals like printers and scanners. Power strips prevent the energy from being wasted and only cost about thirty dollars.

14. Install more fans in your home. Exhaust fans serve a very specific purpose. They can pull unwanted heat and humidity from bathroom and kitchen spaces during the summer months. Ceiling fans can help reduce your family’s dependence on air conditioning during the summer and they are also helpful in the winter as they can push heat down from the ceiling.

15. Do an “energy audit” in your home and make a list of what needs to be done to get things up to “green par.” Take that list to your online supplier or local hardware store and enlist their help in buying needed supplies. Plan the project as a family affair.

16.Insulate your home. Doors and windows are two of the most obvious areas of concern when it comes to home energy conservation. Use weather-stripping. Once air leaks have been detected, doors and windows are usually the first areas that need attention.

17. Seal off unexpected trouble spots. Sometimes the less obvious spots in your home can be a source of energy loss and you will need to be thorough in order to seek out and destroy them! Check out the areas around light switches and electrical outlets.

18. Live by the code of the 3 Rs: Refuse, Reuse and Recycle. Keep these three things in mind whenever you buy, use or discard anything. (If relatives and in-laws don’t live up this standard, the next course of action can only be up to you.)

19. Stop a leak. Organize a “stop a leak day” on which everyone in your family tightens, insulates, replaces, caulks or does whatever else is necessary to make your home as “watertight” as possible.

20. Add insulation to your hot water heater. Don’t forget that the standard water heater found in most homes is on all the time. Adding some extra insulation will save more energy than you would think and knock up to 15% off the costs of heating water.

21. Consider window tinting to reduce the glare of the sun. This has several beneficial and energy-saving effects. First of all, it will reduce heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. Tinting will also eliminate up to 99% of damaging ultraviolet rays and reduce the fading of your fine fabrics and furnishings. So what are you waiting for? Let the sunshine in!