Garage-cleaning 101
KEVIN MCCLINTOCK GateHouse Plus

Did you know that only 15 percent of Americans who have attached garages actually use them to house their car or truck? Yep, and there are probably two main reasons why this is. One, it's an utter mess. Or second, it's used as a workshop or spare-spare bedroom.

Like all the other rooms in your house, you shouldn't ignore a special scrub-down for the garage. So if you just want to tidy it up, extend it, improve it or convert it over into something completely different, it will still take time and extra elbow grease to accomplish.

Here are some tips:

+ Decide what needs to be done, in order of importance. Next, divide up the jobs among the family members. Even the little ones can help out, such as picking up loose items and placing them into labeled bins.

+ Gather up the items you need

+ With your supplies, workers and plan in hand, it's time to cutout the clutter. Create certain area, such as "trash," "give-away" items, "shortterm" and "long-term" storage.

+ If you have many helping hands, divide them into teams, so the clean-up is more organized and there aren't hands and knees and elbows bumping into each other.

+ Drop off a bunch of items from the "give-away" pile to the local donation center.