Most of us have a spot in the house that stresses us out the moment we open the door. For a mom who posts as @heyhannahlee, that spot was the garage, and she decided it was time to do something about it.
Her goal was simple and fierce. “I am determined to have a garage that does not stress me out before the sun goes down,” she says. The clock was ticking, too, because a junk removal service was due to arrive in just four hours.
@heyhannahlee
She calls it what life looks like when you decide to get rid of over half of your belongings, and says this was the worst room in the house.
The World’s Most Expensive Baby Gate Kept The Kids Out Of The Mess
First things first, she set up what she jokingly calls the world’s most expensive baby gate. It keeps her little ones safe while she empties the entire garage, and it frees up the driveway for the piles she is about to make.
The dust was no joke. She says she had an allergy attack from everything that came loose while she dug through years of stuff, and you can hear it in her voice.
She also had a donation pile waiting from the last time she worked on the garage. Time is money, she says, so she decided all of it would be donated and not resold. It simply was not worth the effort of listing it.
“We Have Maybe Gotten Something Out Of This Bin Once In The Last Five Years”
Then came the bins she calls the bins of doom. They had been sitting in the garage for years, and her test was blunt. If the family had opened a bin once in five years, it had to go.
The finds were a mixed bag. She found one single AirPod from a set she bought about five years ago, an Eno hammock she says she has never used, and her old Cricut supplies, which she decided were worth keeping. Her husband, Jamison, insisted they hold on to the hammock for the memories, so it stayed.
She also found a whole bag of toys the family no longer needs. Then she heard a voice from inside the bag say “to infinity and beyond,” and she knew she had to rescue Buzz Lightyear, her son’s favorite.
A Grasshopper Nearly Took Her Out, And The “Man Bins” Had To Go
Mid-cleanup, a grasshopper gave her a scare. She admits she overreacted, but says she hates them, and the garage seemed full of surprises.
In one corner sat what she calls the man bins. She says she has no idea what is inside and prefers it that way. Jamison tried to convince her to keep everything in one of them, but she held her ground. “You have not touched this one time in six years, it’s going.”
Another bin turned up even more toys. She can hardly believe it, since the playroom is already overflowing. She kept one or two sentimental pieces and sent the rest straight to the donation bin, because there is no way her kids will play with all of them.
The Corner Where Her Online Boutique Used To Live
One part of the garage was harder. It was the place where she ran an online boutique she loved and calls her third baby. She had to close it between having two kids and running two businesses, because it became too much.
So she had to make a lot of small choices about what to keep, and whether she wants to reopen. She says it was a whole thing, but the end of the day made it worth it.
By evening the garage had gone from a mountain to a clear space, and her donation hall was full. “I was so proud of myself for how much we got through today,” she says. She even promised that the next episode is her favorite yet.
How To Clear Out A Garage Like A Pro
You do not need a junk removal truck on the calendar to copy her method, though a hard deadline certainly helps. Pick a day, set a time limit, and empty the whole space onto the driveway so you can see everything at once.
Sort into three piles as she does: keep, resell and donate. Her rule of thumb is a good one. If an item is not worth the time to photograph and list, donate it and move on.
Use the one-use-in-five-years test on bins you have not opened. If nobody has missed the contents, chances are nobody will. Keep a small box for true sentimental items so the decisions do not feel like losses.
Wear a mask or a dust cover, because garages collect more dust than most of us expect. Keep the kids and pets safely away from the work zone with a gate or a helper, and take breaks.
When you are done, put the donation bags in the car right away or book a pickup. A pile that sits in the garage for weeks has a way of sneaking back into the house.
Her garage is proof that a stressful space can be tamed in a day with a plan, a deadline and a little humor.
