The value of a well-designed, organized and clean garage is often underestimated. The kitchen has long held the title of hardest working room in the house because of the many roles it plays in our lives – restaurant, convention center, home office, study hall. But that’s true only if you don’t count the garage.
Granted, we don’t ordinarily live in the garage, but, attached or not, a garage is still a critical part of our domestic environment. Like a kitchen, a garage is a multipurpose space, if only by default. Garages inevitably turn into warehouses for all sorts of things we don’t want or can’t fit into the house. It is the equivalent of a kitchen junk drawer with walls and a roof.
Here are some of the important questions that need to be addressed in order to provide an excellent design for the garage: If you look around, how much of the stuff that you see would you dispose of if you had the time to do a thorough clean-up? Which items in the house would you like to store in the garage if you had the space to do so? (chairs, vacuum cleaner, bulk goods, large pots, holiday decorations etc.) Would you like a workbench or potting area in the garage or an area to just set things down as a convenience? Do you entertain often? Do you need a counter for entertaining? Is your goal to get things out of sight or just off the floor and organized? How many bikes and how often do you use them? How often would you like to use them? What kinds of sports equipment do you use? Where do the kids put their sport or school bags? Would you like to keep coats, shoes or winter boots in the garage? Would you like a shoe bench? Where do you store patio furniture?
An attached garage usually serves as the entryway into a home. It’s a room that you are in and out of many times during the day. Because the garage door is oftentimes left open, it is the one room in the home that all the neighbors see. This means that it might very well create a first impression of the homeowner and the home. By the same token, it can create a lasting impression: realtors have suggested that it is not unusual for a client to distinguish a favorite home by describing it as “that home with the beautiful garage”.
Many homeowners resolve every year to get the garage cleaned out once and for all. Few will succeed. For the garage to actually earn its hardest working-room-in-the-house title, it needs to be approached like its chief competitor, the kitchen. To exploit a garage’s potential for storage and performance – and it is vast – you have to get serious. You have to recognize that the garage is premium real estate. Done right – that is, intentionally, deliberately, consciously and carefully – a garage actually can improve the quality of your life.
