Garages: The American Dream

What does your garage reveal about you?

Take a look around your neighborhood. If you are in the northern hemisphere, there are plenty of signs about that summer is nearly ours for the taking.

This year in particular, we are emerging from the cold and dark of an overextended hibernation and slowly blinking our eyes at the sun as if we’d been underground with the cicadas for seventeen years.

Our dingy, rusty garage doors that have long been sheltering our belongings from the elements are now opening with a yawn and welcoming us in to feel a bit normal again.

For better and for worse, there is no space in the home I can think of that is more quintessentially American than the garage. It’s often the one place we can truly be ourselves and indulge in whatever brings us joy. They reflect our individuality with an unfiltered light that reveals the inner workings of what makes us tick.

Unlike our kitchens, bathrooms, and living rooms, we don’t feel the same pressure to keep our garages tidy and inviting. We, as a society, understand that garages are inherently messy.

They serve as a place for us to express our inner engineer, fitness guru, artist, sports enthusiast, outdoor adventurer, or entertainer. They evoke an air of nostalgia for our childhood, reveal evidence of the wonderful things we have done, and offer a glimpse into the future of the things we’ve yet to do.

All of this to say, if you’re lucky enough to have a garage, ask yourself whether or not you are using it to it’s full potential.

I‘d venture a guess that most people don’t get excited about having a garage simply because they want a room they can fill to the roof with overstuffed containers. With increasing demand for more functional space in and around our homes, the garage can be a diamond in the rough begging to be polished.

If you determine your garage is not serving your family as anything other than a storage unit, the first step is defining a true purpose for the space. If it is simply for storage, that’s completely valid, but then ask yourself if you can actually find what you need when you need it. If not, then it’s not serving you well as a storage space.

You can have multiple purposes for your garage, but the more purposes it serves, the more challenging it will be to maintain order. If you do not have order, the purpose gets lost.

To better strategize what the space could be used for, start by walking around and taking a hard look at everything. Start with one wall and from corner to corner move your way through.

Take note every time you identify a new category of “purpose”. Your categories may look something like this: Car, Camping, Holiday, Sports, Toys, Honey-Do Projects, Gardening, Tools, Maintenance, Cleaning, Fitness, Furniture, Paint, & Overflow (for other rooms).

From here, analyze each category individually and decide if it actually belongs in the space.

For instance, if you have extra supplies for your vehicle, ask yourself why. If tinkering on cars in the garage is a hobby that you routinely enjoy, then the “Car” category is a good candidate for purpose. If you simply have extra parts and accessories floating about that you have no intentions for, can you either implement them now or make a few bucks by selling them?

Likewise, if you had spent a few lovely summers camping with your family but haven’t been in years, do you have plans to go again this summer or would it be worth passing along the old gear to another family who is always camping?

At the end of this exercise, you should have a much better sense of what the garage should be used for and why. You can now begin to take actionable steps towards making your garage a functional and enjoyable space to enhance your lifestyle and entertain your interests.

The key is to remember that space has value too. You may be hesitant to part with possessions you had invested in at one time, but if they’re no longer relevant, it’s a sunk cost. Consider how much value your space will bring you once you can start utilizing it for activities that are important to you now.

Or if the emotional appeal isn’t doing it for you, you can use hard numbers. Real estate websites like Redfin will show you the price of your home per square foot which you can use in turn to calculate the financial value of your garage. Is the onsite storage unit still worth it?

So fling open those doors this weekend and allow the fresh air to breath new life into the American Dream and embrace all the opportunity that awaits you on the inside.

If you're still stuck or just need a hand, schedule an appointment today and allow us to make your dream a reality.

Happy garaging!