I think I’m late to the party, but its time for a little spring house work! Last year, we worked on decluttering. If that’s what you need to do, check out this post and this one. Of course, this is a never ending project as things just keep coming into the house (new toys and clothes at Christmas, things the kids bring home from school, etc.). However, we really need to concentrate our efforts elsewhere this spring. Here’s what I would like to tackle before Memorial Day
- Stain our deck. We built it almost two years ago, so its a little overdue for the first stain. We got a sample this past weekend that we need to try out. I want to get the color right since this is a highly visible part of our house. Check out our deck here.
- Freshen up landscaping. We already started killing weeds, but we also need to mulch. We may also replace some current landscaping.
- The garage…..THE ga-rage. Its horrible and it just keeps getting worse for several reasons. Parker has a lot of tools and just seems to keep acquiring more. We also have bikes, a scooter, a wagon…you get the idea. And there is NO organization. The garage didn’t come with any organization, and we haven’t bought much to make it more organized. Parker also uses this space to work on projects like the mudroom. So not only is the garage disorganized, its also covered in a layer of sawdust. I really want a clean garage, but I really don’t want to clean it. Do you have any rooms like that??! I mean, I think its going to take a full weekend. And that is if the kids leave us alone.
Both Parker and I agree that if we could go back and change anything about our house, we would do 2 things. We would rough-in plumbing in the basement, and we would do a garage extension or a 3-car garage. Since we don’t have a lot of space, I love the idea of using pulleys. Parker thinks I am ridiculous, but I think it would be perfect. Right now, our bikes hang on hooks from the ceiling, which is pretty high. That means that I can’t get my bike down on my own. Parker also has a lot of tools that he doesn’t regularly use. If we put all of this stuff on pulleys, it would allow us to have more floor space (so we could like actually park in our garage) but be able to easily access stuff when we need it.
This next garage is perfect. Its so clean!! I like how all of the tools are hidden and the bike pulleys are exactly what I’m thinking!
Parker also wants these slat board things. It does look like we could get a lot off the floor and on the wall with these!
We do want to be careful, however, not to spend too much money getting the garage functional. Installing wood floors is still on our radar for the fall. That is a big budget project, so we have to be careful not to use that money. I am very inspired by this project! Check out their “before.” Its VERY similar to what we are dealing with. They even have a random half door leaning against the wall just like us. Here is their after. I really like this because it looks like they did this pretty economically. Its so much better!!
Our goal is to at least begin staining the deck this weekend (or at least getting it cleaned and ready to stain). It’s suppose to be beautiful, so we can also pull the weeds we’ve killed this week. I’ll also be sure to snap a before picture of the garage before we do anything to it. I only want to share the “before,” though, when I can also share the “after.”
What are you doing around your house this spring? It’s a lot of work maintaining a house, and sometimes its even easy to wonder if its worth it (slash a responsible thing to do with our money) to own a home and keep it nice. I’d like to do a whole post on this, but I’m still working it out in my head. Ultimately I realize that I am fortunate to have a house to maintain. One of my main motivations for having a house with plenty of space (space that we are improving to work better for us) is so that I can do things like I did yesterday: on a whim, invite 40 people to come to my house after school today. All it took was a couple hours of cleaning last night, and I can comfortably host a bunch of coworkers for a little bonding time. I’ll just make sure to keep the garage shut 😉
I’d LOVE to hear what motivates you to do a little spring cleaning, home improvement, etc. It might help me with that post I’ve been thinking about since I started this blog.
Jalene
You should talk to Kyle! We spent Spring Break gutting and organizing our garage, building shelves to fit OUR needs, and suspending many items like the bikes and kid-cars. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out!
Send me a pic!! How much money did you have to put into it?? I just hate spending money on the garage, but more than that I hate our messy garage. I won’t let the kids even go in there to get their toys. I get their toys out and then shut the garage. Or I keep their toys in the car and mudroom so that they don’t get gross from the garage 🙂
You must not have spent too much time checking out our garage! Justin switched our bikes from hooks to pulleys about a year or so ago (I have mixed welding a about this for anxiety reasons). We also have some really cheap options for hanging almost everything on the wall. Doesn’t look pretty but definitely functional. Maybe painting the 2×4’s we used to put hooks all along a vibrant color would do the trick to make the space functional AND cute. Justin just fastened a loop to the end of about everything (brooms, etc) and they all hang from nails on thes horizontal 2×4’s
I’ll have to come check it out! We are thinking about doing slat walls on the whole garage. Our neighbors have it, and it basically allows you to hang anything anywhere. Plus it gives the garage a nice finished look. We haven’t priced it out, though to see if its realistic.
^^^ *mixed feelings (not welding)