6 Things in Your Garage Pros Want You to Throw Away ASAP

You don’t have to wait until spring cleaning to organize your garage. In fact, it’s best to do this
work in the fall, experts say. This is because you’ll want the necessary fall gear and tools close at hand before the autumn leaves start to pile up.

To help you organize your garage this fall, we’ve chatted with professional organizers to determine what common garage items you should throw away to make room for all the fall and winter essentials.

Below, we share six garage items you should toss for fall.

Unwanted Sports Gear

This includes mismatched items like your one tennis racket without a partner, or broken items like the deflated basketball that hasn’t bounced in years.

Carol Di Popolo, a professional organizer at Bringing Tidy Home, says these things should be removed from the garage to make way for fall items such as fall yard tools to prepare your yard for fall. She also points out that any outgrown yard toys are another unwanted sports gear to jettison from the garage.

“That tricycle your teenager hasn’t touched since kindergarten? It’s time to find it a new home,” Popolo says. Donate your unwanted sports gear to give it a second life.

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Old Paint Cans

Unless you’re going to use the paint again in the next month or so, experts say to ditch the old paint cans. This is because the fluctuations in temperatures that occur in a garage can impact your paint’s expiration date, Di Popolo says.

“In general, if it’s more than a couple of years old or a color you’ll never use again, it’s time to say goodbye.”

Next time, store your paint in a cool dark location, such as a basement, to avoid these temperature changes that ruin the paint.

Tools You Don’t Use

Perhaps your tools are broken, like the broken lawnmower in your garage’s corner.

“If you’ve been ‘meaning to fix it’ for over a year, it’s officially time to let it go,’” Di Popolo says.

But this category can also include tools you just don’t use because you’ve never needed them. Or perhaps you are not the handy type, and don’t use tools very often anyway, Sarah Dunn, professional organizer and owner of Ready Set Organize, says.

Get rid of these by selling them. “Tools have great re-sell value on Facebook marketplace,” she says.

Stalled Projects

Eliminate the items connected to projects you thought you would get to eventually but never do. Set yourself free from yet another thing on your to-do list by removing these items, Dunn says.

In fact, our garages are notorious dumping grounds, she adds, for things we don’t use often or at all. Decluttering this space regularly of such items can help you navigate what you need more easily when you’re completing outdoor tasks.

Broken Holiday Decorations

With the holidays right around the corner, it might be a good idea to ditch the broken holiday decor before winter weather makes this harder. According to Tina Priestly, a home organization expert at Ready, Set, Refresh, if your holiday decorations consist of broken ornaments or tangled lights that don’t work, it’s time to let go of them before the next festive season.

Di Popolo and Dunn agree that these items should be taken out to make way for fall and winter items.

Old Baby Gear

If your kids have outgrown their strollers and car seats, it’s time to wave these items goodbye.

“Donate them to a new family in need or say, ‘so long’ and dispose of them properly,'” Priestly says.

In fact, add old baby toys and baby items to the pile of old baby gear. If your kids have moved on from their old toys and baby gear, it’s time to let the items go.

“Pass them along to another family who can enjoy them—because toys are meant for playtime, not collecting dust,” Priestly says.