I’m so excited to announce that I’ve joined in Better Homes and Gardens ONE ROOM CHALLENGE once again! When thinking about which room I wanted to choose for this season’s One Room Challenge, my choice was crystal clear: MY GARAGE! Throughout the past year, I’ve been working so hard to improve our backyard and outdoor space to make it a better space for entertaining. However, whenever anyone comes to visit, my first instinct is always to sprint over and shut the garage door before anyone can see my ghastly embarrassing mess! Well, that ends now! My dream is to transform this space from a gross and unattractive storage unit to a beautiful outdoor ADU. Aside from the major expenses of adding a bathroom, exterior doors, windows and a kitchenette, which will have to wait due to budget (so basically plumbing and framing), my goal is to transform this space into a multi-purpose outdoor oasis: living room, guest room, playroom, workout room, entertaining room. Each week I’ll be posting my progress, leading up to the final reveal on November 18th! Follow along each week as I transform our space, and check out the other participants rooms and follow their progress HERE.

WEEK ONE: PURGE + DEMO

Now if I were to tell you this was a weekend project, that would be the biggest lie ever! The truth is, I’ve been trying to purge our garage for the past three years, but I may have a slight hoarding problem:) I say that jokingly, but obviously there’s a little bit of truth in that statement. It’s incredible what we’ve accumulated over the years, and especially since having Coyote. It wasn’t until last month when I finally made the decision to make the big purge. So this One Room Challenge couldn’t have come at a better time. Holding onto all of this stuff is no longer serving me, and its time to get rid of it all. I’d love to embrace a more minimal lifestyle, and rid ourselves of all of this stuff once and for all.

So this week’s goal is to PURGE all of the stuff and DEMO all of the shelves surrounding the interior of the garage.

I mean, I’m pretty embarrassed to even share these before photos. But if anything, hopefully it will inspire someone to do the same:)

THE BIG PURGE

1. Take everything out! It’s alot easier to get rid of stuff if you take it all out, once you see the clean open space, you’re way less likely to want to put it back in, trust me!

2. Divide everything into groups or piles:

   • Get Rid Of Pile

     • Donate

     • Trash

   • Athletic/Sports Equipment - my husband has over 12 surfboards, plus we have bikes and more.

   • Tools/Hardware/Paint

   • Lawn & Garden

   • Luggage/Strollers

   • Work - Merchandise, Boxes, Packaging, Misc.

   • Clothing - We don’t have a lot of closet space in our home, so I have quite a bit of clothing in the garage that needs a proper home

   • Keepsakes

   • Holiday Decor

3. The more I sorted, the more I found I was ready to part with

Once it’s sorted, its much easier to make quick decisions on whast’s staying, what’s going, and what needs storage solutions.

NEXT UP: DEMO

Ever have pent up stress or anxiety? Take it out on some old shelves! These babies were on there, and when I say on there, I mean really on there! I used a crow bar and a hammer and borrowed Coyote’s noise cancelling head phones, which were clutch for this project. It took me one full day to demo just the left side.

The nails holding these babies in were 4 and 6 inches long, some rusty and man oh man did they not want to come out!

They shelves also had this lovely layer of sealant or gooey putty behind them that did NOT want to come off. I used a sharp putty knife and hammer to chip it all off. Damn, my neck hurt after a full day of this:)

But check the progress!

Once I got it off the first two walls though, it was time to call in re-reinforcements. Luckily our handyman was available to come and help me knock out the rest of the shelves, because by that point I couldn’t turn my head to the left or the right haha!

Our handyman knocked out this side, and it was kind of comical how fast he did it compared to me, lol. But I tried! A for effort!

And Strader’s surf wall came down too. I already have ideas for a new and improved surf zone, and I can’t wait for you to see it!

Whew! Shelves are down, gunk is off, stuff is out! Time to sand and paint!

Stay tuned and check back next week to follow along as I transform this space!

And be sure to follow along with my fellow designers as well! Click HERE to see everyones’ progress.

Better Homes and Gardens ONE ROOM CHALLENGE