Organize your Antioch garage for fun and function during the COVID-19 lockdown

How many times can you watch Harry Potter? No doubt, you’re sick of the news already. Sick of the news, sick of the walls that confine you in your Antioch home. You need something to divert your attention. You need an activity that is productive while offering a mental release from the COVID-19 lockdown and organizing your garage might just be the ticket.

The garage is one of the most inefficiently used spaces we have at our homes. It becomes the receptacle for all those things we don’t want to put away right now. We tell ourselves, “I’ll get to it later.” But when is ‘later?’

With lockdown-induced time on your hands, this is a great time to straighten out the garage. Maybe you can clean the garage enough that there’s room for both cars again. But, as long as you’re at it, maybe you should take it a step further.

Don’t just straighten out your Antioch garage; organize it

Organizing the garage goes beyond cleaning and straightening. Done properly, organizing includes a plan. To make an effective plan, you need to start with an inventory of the things you keep in the garage. When complete, you may want to go through this list and determine if there are items in the garage you really want to put somewhere else.

Once you’ve created your list, go through and prioritize based on likelihood and frequency of use. In other words, if you garden a lot, your gardening tools and materials are a higher priority. If you work on your car or motorcycle frequently, your tools are high priority.

Next create a layout of your garage and start planning where things can go. You may want to consider adding shelves, pegboards, and hooks that will make storage of items in the garage easier. Thankfully, hardware stores in the Antioch area are considered ‘essential’ so you can pick up some hooks, pegboard, and shelving if you need it.

Another good idea is to go online and look for garage organizing hacks. You can come up with some wonderful ideas for maximizing the use of your space in your garage.

If you do a good enough job organizing the garage, you may decide to pick up some epoxy and paint the floor. But, whether you take the project that far or not, you should take a few minutes to consider the condition and maintenance of your Antioch garage door and garage door opener. It’s nice to have an organized garage. It’s wonderful to have a garage door and garage door opener that work smoothly and reliably when called upon.

Have you checked your garage door’s balance lately?

The question above asks if you’ve “checked your garage door’s balance lately?” We might just as well ask if you’ve ever checked your garage door’s balance. Seriously, how many people do you know who check their garage doors to see if they’re balanced? Do you know anyone who has ever checked the balance of their garage door?

Since it’s done so infrequently, what’s the issue? Why bother to check to see if your garage door is balanced? The answer is rather comforting:

• It’s easy to do
• You can improve the performance and durability of your garage door and garage door opener

Checking your garage door’s balance is so easy that we’ll share it with you here and now.

How to balance your garage door:
Step 1: Close the garage door and pull the emergency release handle down and away from the door until the door is disconnected from the trolley.
Step 2: Lift the garage door to the halfway point. Let go. When you let go, the garage door shouldn’t move. If it’s balanced, it’s supported by the springs and will not go up or down.
Step 3: Lift the garage door all the way open and, once again, let go. The garage door should rise slightly. If it slams closed, even if it slowly drifts down, your garage door is not balanced.
Step 4: With the door remaining disconnected from the trolley and the garage door opener, raise and lower the garage door slowly. While doing so, listen and feel for spots where the garage door binds, hangs up or grinds and sticks. The garage door should move freely.
Step 5: Close the garage door completely and pull the release handle again. Press the remote control for the garage door opener and the trolley should move into place connecting to the garage door again. If this doesn’t happen, you may have to lift the garage door until it engages with the trolley.

If your garage door fails to pass any of these tests, give a qualified garage door technician a call. They’ll come out and balance your garage door for you.

When the garage door isn’t balanced, it makes more noise, it takes more time to open and close and it causes more wear and tear on the garage door and the garage door opener. Your garage door and garage door opener will last longer if you keep your garage door balanced.