The first official day of Spring typically puts a spring in our step, if you’ll pardon the pun. Major League Baseball starts Spring training, Robbins start chirping in the trees and flower buds poke their heads through the crusty soil. If you really want to embrace the sense that seasons are changing, get busy doing some Spring Cleaning.
Tips for Spring Cleaning your garage
By this time of year, most garage floors are covered with the dregs of winter driving – dirt and salt carried in from the roads. The first step in getting at this layer of winter residue is to clear the deck. Move things up on the shelves, where possible, and out of the garage, and out of the way, so you can blast that filthy film away.
You want to put things that don’t do well with water out of reach, such as salt for the driveway and walkways (hopefully, you won’t need anymore until next winter anyhow). Now gather your tools:
- A hose with spray adapter
- Stiff push broom
- A mop
- A bucket
- Floor squeegee or wet vac
- Detergent (might try some vinegar, too)
Start by wetting the floor. Add warm water and detergent (vinegar) to the bucket and dip the stiff push broom into the mixture. Then start scrubbing. Once you’ve broken the salty dirt from the floor, mop up the floor and dispose of the dirty water.
Clean out your bucket and fill it with warm water. Then mop the floor with the fresh water. Once you have the floor clean enough, squeegee the water into a drain, if you have one, mop up the water or turn loose the wet vac. You may have to repeat the first step several times, but you should find yourself with a clean garage floor ready for spring and summer.
Straighten and Organize your garage
We generally use different items from the garage with greater frequency in different seasons. You use a rake more in the fall, a snow shovel in the winter, gardening tools and lawnmower in the spring and summer.
You’ll want to move the fall and winter tools back out of the way (but keep the snow shovel handy for a little while, just in case) and bring the spring and summer tools to the forefront. Often, this means bringing the spring and summer tools to the middle shelves where they’re easily reached and putting the fall and winter tools in back, up high or down low.
It’s a good idea to coordinate your tools so that, for instance, your gardening tools are in one area, tools used in the house another set of shelves and tools for working on the car and other equipment are in another. Then you want another area for those recreational items in the garage.
Switch out your motorized equipment and ‘toys’
We’re getting closer and closer to the day where you’ll want to put the snow blower away, while parking the snow mobiles. At the same time, we’re also getting closer to the day when you’ll need the lawnmower. You’ll also want to get the jet skis ready for the season, as well as the boat.
As you put gas-driven equipment and ‘toys’ away, you want to prepare them for storage – clean them off and put some stabilizer in the fuel so that it doesn’t go bad while in storage (read the instructions carefully). Then you want to check the powered equipment you use during the summer to make sure that it all runs safely and reliably.
This is a good time for some garage door maintenance
While you’re doing your spring cleaning in the garage, it’s a good time to perform some garage door maintenance. How did your garage door and garage door opener fare over the course of the winter that is starting to slip away? Do your garage door and garage door opener need some adjustments? Is anything broken or badly worn?
You’ll also want to lubricate your garage door. There are different types of lubricants used for different parts of the garage door. You may want to bring in a garage door technician to lubricate your garage, inspect its condition, and make any necessary adjustments to the garage door and garage door opener. Then, get ready to enjoy spring and the summer that follows.
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