Few household activities inspire more dread than reorganizing the garage. Americans' garages are filled with the requirements and detritus of daily life -- paint cans, golf bags, bicycles, dusty trophies, power tools, old clothes, boxes of moldy magazines. Sometimes it gets so stuffed that the family car doesn't fit anymore.
If garage organization is on the agenda, there are several approaches to take, whether you tackle it yourself or need some help disposing of and organizing your belongings. Homeowners can attack the job at a variety of price levels, from less than $100 for small do-it-yourself jobs to tens of thousands of dollars for a custom-made system from a garage reorganization company.
Lori Sadaka, who lives Weston, Fla., an upscale suburb of Fort Lauderdale, spent about $20,000 on her three-car garage. HouseWall Garage System installed hanging bins and baskets, heavy-duty cabinets, flooring, ceiling fans and even a sensor that tells her when to stop driving into the garage.
She said she was embarrassed by the way her garage looked, and she encouraged people of any budget to take the plunge. She is parking her car in the garage for the first time in 15 years, she said.
"We were just afraid to touch anything. Everything was dirty," she said. "Getting things off the floor and being able to see it was a big attraction."
She's clearly part of a trend. Sales of garage organization products totaled about $750 million in 2006, up from about $500 million in 2001, according to HomeWorld Business magazine's Housewares Census.
The cheapest way to reorganize, of course, is to do it yourself. But there are several essential steps, including product selection, storage, disposal and design.
First, the homeowner must decide what should be removed. Obvious things, like rusted lawnmowers or old carpets, are easier to get rid of than things with emotional value, like awards and books.
"Break the job down into small, manageable pieces," said Barry Izsak, author of "Organize Your Garage in No Time." "You don't get all that clutter overnight, so you won't be able to organize it all overnight. But it takes a lot less time to undo the 10 years of clutter than to accumulate it."
After deciding what stays, separate the room into zones -- lawn and garden, sports, cleaning and maintenance, a work area with a workbench, memorabilia.
Next, it's time to think about storage options, which can get tricky. Homeowners should ponder how they want to store things -- either in cabinets or on hooks, in see-through or non-transparent drawers -- before buying anything.