Your garage was never meant to be a storage space, but it's easy to turn it into one out of convenience. If you are like many homeowners, things may have gotten out of control, and now your garage is filled with so much junk and trash you have to park your car in the driveway.  Here's a brief guide to getting your garage organized and junk-free.

Strategy

Before taking any action, it's best to determine a strategy for approaching the cleanup and then follow that plan all the way through. One great idea is to empty the garage entirely of absolutely everything in it. Once everything is moved, you can take advantage of the empty space to wash or hose down the garage. After this is done, you can then move all the objects you want to keep back into the space.

Avoid removing items from the garage in a haphazard fashion. Make three piles on the driveway or in your yard. One pile will be for things you want to keep, another for junk or trash that you want to throw away, the third pile for items you want to recycle or to donate to charity.

With smaller and less bulky items that you want to throw away, simply put them in garbage bags or cardboard boxes and set them out on the street for pick up by your municipal trash service. Larger items that you wish to donate can be something of a challenge if you don't want to deal with handling them yourself. For these things, call the charity involved and ask if they will come to pick them up.

With big or bulky items that you want to throw away or recycle, the best plan is to call a local junk cleanup service and have them take it to a landfill or recycling center. This will save you a lot of time and avoid any risk of physical injury or discomfort due to handling large ungainly items, such as old appliances or exercise equipment you no longer use.

Organize

When everything has been removed from the garage, it's time to organize things so that clutter and junk never take over your garage again. Invest in some hanging rails to store your garden tools and sports equipment. Use a pegboard to store your hand tools. Also, place two separate bins in the garage, one for trash to be thrown out and one for items to be recycled.

Getting a cluttered garage cleaned up properly is a dirty, messy job, and not everyone wants to do it themselves. Fortunately, you can contact a professional junk hauling service in your town and have them take care of everything.