The following contribution is from another author.
The garage — also known as “the chaotic storage room of the entire household,” and maybe also as “the throwback to vintage Americana, and the place where you can work on your 1950s Corvette restoration, just like your grandad might have done.”
For those of us who don’t have garages in our homes, we often don’t really think much about them at all. And for those of us who do have them, the garage often does get dismissed as solely being a storage bunker.
But, surely there are things that you can do to get more out of your garage than just that?
Here are a few suggestions.
Turn it into a workshop for whatever kind of “productive leisure” activity makes you come to life
With the wonders of the Internet age upon us, it’s remarkably easy to spend just about all of your free time in front of a screen, surfing the web, catching up on your favorite TV series, or just mindlessly clicking on anything in your peripheral vision that looks shiny.
Of course, the Internet is an incredible tool, with incredible potential. But, if you listen to the academic and author Cal Newport, it’s also important to indulge in some creative, offline, “high-quality leisure” to maintain proper balance.
A garage can serve as a perfect setting for a workshop, dedicated to whatever kind of “productive leisure” activity makes you come to life.
You could indeed use it as a place to restore an old Corvette, or you could turn into a woodworking room, or an amateur artist’s studio. The possibilities are limited only by your own imagination.
If you’re going to use it for storage, set it up so efficiently that the rest of your house gets to be more or less completely de-cluttered
Alright, look, there is a reason why garages are so often used as universal storage chambers. Firstly, because everyone needs storage, and it’s better to have your items stacked up in your garage than stacked up in your living room. Secondly, because a garage is, by default, a “practical” room with a purely practical function (hypothetically speaking, anyway.)
Here’s the thing, though – if you’re going to use your garage for storage, you can at least set it up efficiently, so that you can fit as many belongings there as possible, as securely and reliably as possible.
Not only does that mean that the rest of your house gets to be more or less completely de-cluttered, but it also means you can actually reclaim your possessions from the garage when you want.
Garage storage solutions such as racks, shelving units, and more, are a must if you actually want to do this properly.
Turn it into a high-tech “command center”
Surprise surprise, technology has its place in this article.
With the extraordinary number of different gadgets, gizmos, and life-streamlining tech devices out there, having a large area of the home where you can really explore these tools, set them up, and make the most of them, can be a very worthwhile thing to do.
You could set your garage up as a high-tech “command center” where you keep computers for video editing, store assorted tools and bits of machinery there, or could just generally explore the frontiers of the 21st century as they stand thus far.
