Members with a garage....

Do you park your vehicle in the garage?

My husband and I do, but the majority of the people I know have too many things in their garage for their vehicle to fit.

My family had a 1 car garage when I was growing up. I can't remember for sure, but I don't think we ever used it for the car.

Boy you've hit a sore spot! We have a 2 car garage and I would like to park my car in there, but there is too much junk in it. I can get my car into the garage, but then I can barely squeeze out the door and then I can't walk thru the garage to get into the house. I've gotten my clothes dirty brushing up against the car trying to get out of the garage.

DH has a car that he hasn't driven in 3 years that is parked in there and I can't get him to sell it. Some days I want to be mean and call a junker to tow it away. Then I remember that we could probably get a couple thousand for it.

Then we have a huge shed on the property where we could store a lot of stuff from the garage, but DH says he doesn't want to clutter up that shed. That shed is big enough to park 2 cars. He doesn't use it very often because it's not heated and too far away from the house.

I want to sell the car that we don't use, move DH's work shop from the shed to where that car is parked, then move all the remaining clutter to the shed. Then I can park my car inside, swing the door wide open, and walk into the house.

This is an ongoing discussion between us. I will win one day.

We have a one stall garage, but he keeps his car in there now, since he's restoring it, but we also keep the motorcycle in there as well. Next winter though, my car will be in there I'm lucky that he keeps it really clean in there so we don't have a problem with too much junk in there - besides his tools

I do not but my dad and my boyfriend both do.
Dad has a large 2 car garage that the Prius, the Harley, and the Suzuki (his project car) currently reside in. His truck will not fit in it! LOL!
Gary had one at his parents and has one at his apartment and its used to keep the MG in because the top is slightly leaky and its a little safer in there!

We have a 3 car garage and only my car fits in it. LOL My husband parks in the driveway. His shop used to be in our garage and most of the junk is still in there and it takes up about 1 1/2 stalls.

Of our 3 cars, two are in the garage: The hot rod, and Dottie's Cobalt. She has to get in and go to work early in the morning, so it's nice that it's not too cold. Also, someone broke the window in it last year, so we wanted more security.

My pickup is parked out front.

Momofmany - You have a great idea. You just need to give him a big push. Maybe use "it's just rusting in there, let someone who would enjoy driving it buy it". Or make him watch shows where people are redoing their garages and have really big problems with junk - the type that horde/collect many many useless things.

We have a separate shop/garage building. While there's an extra fridge out there and DH's tools, we have plenty of room for our two vehicles.
Where I'm sitting now, the den, was the house's existing garage.

I live in snow country and one of the "must haves" when buying this condo was inside parking.

My last place was a townhouse with a garage under and I always used it. I have to go to work everyday and cleaning snow off a car is not something that I can (now) or want to do. And it kept it cooler in the summer.

One neighbor at the other place once told me that he didn't like parking in the garage because his car made it dirty.

But I must confess in my younger days I would sweep it out in the spring.

Óur garage is as neat as can be, but the car is parked outside it because it doesn't fit in the garage. Our neighbors have the same problem - the 1950s/60s garages are too narrow for today's cars, even ones as small as a Yaris or Golf.

We have the attached two car garage which the car and truck are parked. The onl yitems in this garage are the garbage/recycling bins, the cat and bird seed containers, the unused gas grill, my bicycle and the two expensive wrought iron patio chairs/ottomans.

Oh the two hose reels yet too.

My garden shed has about 99% of my tools.

The big garage is two story with at least 1000 sq feet. That holds most of the rest of our stuff like th esnowblower, the ATV, lawn mower, the big rototiller, the wood chipper and the wood splitter and the vintage JD tractor as well as the woodworking equipment.
And thats only the first floor!

My 12 ft trailer is parked outside and the other tractor is up north in the barn!

When we bought our home, we had a one car garage that was apparently built for a Model-T----so small it was next to impossible to get a car into it. About 10 years ago we had a 2 car garage built and we use it religiously. It's getting to the point that I need to do a major clean-out, as we can only back in so far before we hit something! That one car garage was turned into a storage shed.

I picked "other" because it depends on the season.

We have a double car garage with some added length (something we did while building it).

We have our garage incredibly well organised. We utilize what space we have. We have a good sized workbench + toolboxes + shelving + cupboards at the end of the garage (the extra length we specified) as well as our generator, gas cans, kerosene heater, shop vac and small air compressor under the shelves, the snowblower and lawnmover fit behind his van. On my side in front of where I park is a shelving unit for pop n' such, the blue boxes are underneath. Cupboards above that, and shelves along side the length of the garage which hold seasonal supplies (pool, landscape stuff, etc). All our lawn tools/rakes/shovels and the like are hung up...same with extentsion cords and ropes. We built a huge shelf to utilize the space above the garage door (can access it when the door is down). Our trampoline is hung above his van in the winter.

I drive a dodge ram 1500 quad cab short box, he has a Montana SV6 mini-van. In the winter both vehicles are kept in the garage. No ice to scrap off, no having to stand outside in the cold to do so, warmer vehicles that we don't let run before getting in to drive somewhere.

Mind you, if I had a regular box on my truck, it would be too long to fit in the garage without getting rid of the workbench and such...even then it might still be too long as there are a few stairs to go into the house.

In the no snow/ice weather, both vehicles are outside and his other car is in the garage.... plus all the bikes are down (they are hung up for the winter), more outside stuff makes it to the floor of the garage.

In the winter, his car is stored at his parents farm. Once the nice weather is here, we bring it here....usually April or May-Sept/Oct. the car is here.

For those with cluttered garages: utilize your space. Shelves are great, so are hooks on walls, etc. Pay attention to the space above the garage door too.... that is awesome (we store lumber n' home renovation type stuff up there...)

^I guess we're lucky that our shop is large. DH has a regular bed on his and there's at least a couple yards left over in length of the shop.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Momofmany - You have a great idea. You just need to give him a big push. Maybe use "it's just rusting in there, let someone who would enjoy driving it buy it". Or make him watch shows where people are redoing their garages and have really big problems with junk - the type that horde/collect many many useless things.

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Oh if were only that easy! I'm married to a man whose father was a hoarder, and even though DH claims he's not one, he is. I usually get to a point where I just sneak his "stuff" into the trash and he doesn't notice it. The stuff in the garage is a different matter. Laying on the floor is a broken tile saw (that I can't lift by myself) and a stereo cabinet from 1970. Also in there is our push mower that we use maybe once every 2 years (we have a riding lawn mower), a power washer (we use maybe once a year), 3 boxes of stone (leftovers from the fireplace remodel), lumber, bifold doors (from the kitchen remodel), not to mention all the garden tools. I'm OK with the work bench and the fridge out there, but the other things don't belong in the garage. There's a huge amount of room in a shed that he only goes in when he needs to pull out the riding lawn mower. And he doesn't want that cluttered!

Originally Posted by Snake_Lady

For those with cluttered garages: utilize your space. Shelves are great, so are hooks on walls, etc. Pay attention to the space above the garage door too.... that is awesome (we store lumber n' home renovation type stuff up there...)

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I've bought all the organization things (hooks to hang things, shelves to put things on, closed cabinets for the garden chemicals), but I can't get into the garage deep enough to actually install things. He dumps things on top of the work bench, which makes that as unusable as the rest of the garage.

This morning I pressured him (once again) to look into what he needs to do to get the car running and sell it. Instead, he went over to the neighbors to help him burn his burn pile. *grumble* I'm not a nag, and perhaps that's the problem.

Yup, this is a sore spot with me.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I've bought all the organization things (hooks to hang things, shelves to put things on, closed cabinets for the garden chemicals), but I can't get into the garage deep enough to actually install things. He dumps things on top of the work bench, which makes that as unusable as the rest of the garage.

This morning I pressured him (once again) to look into what he needs to do to get the car running and sell it. Instead, he went over to the neighbors to help him burn his burn pile. *grumble* I'm not a nag, and perhaps that's the problem.

Yup, this is a sore spot with me.

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Ummmm. No help there LOL. My hubby is the oraganizer in our relationship. He's always had and used shelves.... I used my floor But who says you can't teach new tricks... I'm actually fairly good at putting things back... the odd time I will be lazy and throw the tool on the bench instead of putting it back up on the shelf... but I hear about it LOL, so I try not to.

If it weren't for his organizations skills I would be up the creek with no paddles.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Oh if were only that easy!

I'm married to a man whose father was a hoarder, and even though DH claims he's not one, he is. I usually get to a point where I just sneak his "stuff" into the trash and he doesn't notice it. The stuff in the garage is a different matter. Laying on the floor is a broken tile saw (that I can't lift by myself) and a stereo cabinet from 1970. Also in there is our push mower that we use maybe once every 2 years (we have a riding lawn mower), a power washer (we use maybe once a year), 3 boxes of stone (leftovers from the fireplace remodel), lumber, bifold doors (from the kitchen remodel), not to mention all the garden tools. I'm OK with the work bench and the fridge out there, but the other things don't belong in the garage. There's a huge amount of room in a shed that he only goes in when he needs to pull out the riding lawn mower. And he doesn't want that cluttered!

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Oh no. Freecycle and craiglist the junk when he's away?

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Oh no.

Freecycle and craiglist the junk when he's away?

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Done that also. And add e-bay to the list.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Done that also. And add e-bay to the list.

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Toss it all out to the curb with a "free junk" sign? Or maybe "free to good home".