My Embarrassing Secret

Hello everyone,
Well you have seen me slowly turn my rundown cottage into a real home, you have seen me paint and decorate, build beds, floor a loft, transform a garden and generally begin to enjoy my home here in the country.

But among all of these lovely things I had an embarrassing secret that I just was too ashamed to ever talk about.

 MY GARAGE!!!!!!

Here is why I was so ashamed of it:

It was a serious dumping ground of Crap with a capital C. It was virtually impossible to walk from end to end without risking life and limb on some strewn garden implement of death and absolutely impossible to find anything.

Opening the freezer always meant moving countless things and as for trying to find anything at the bottom of the freezer, well it was virtually impossible because there was nowhere to put anything that I got out. I had to move things before I could use the washing machine and generally I hated having to step foot in here.
The floor was littered with bits of wood shavings and dust from the various DIY jobs I did (don't even ask how I managed to work in there while sawing wood etc) and this would all get walked into the house, every time I went in, meaning I had to then vacuum the house.

My enormous collection of tools was all thrown in a heap and trying to find the right spanner for a job because a task of such magnitude that I often gave up.

My original idea of piling boxes on top of each other, a bit like shelves, clearly hadn't worked as they had all collapsed on top of each other, spewing out a multitude of contents everywhere!

Today, I decided was the day to solve my troubles and sort out all the crap.

Let's start by getting the plant pots sorted. One box of seed pots and trays, one of individual small pots and then the larger ones together in another. At least I can find what I need there now.

The tools was a job I nearly gave up on, it was so hideous to do. I can't say it is perfect, but at least I am in with a chance to find the right tool for the right job now, sort of.

Finally I can walk from one end to the other and, although it may not be perfect (my friend called it 'a man's garage, with everything shoved to the sides) at least I am no longer ashamed if someone sees it. Everything is together in sections, tools and plant pots on the right, garden tools, spare wood and lawn mower and strimmer on the left, with some ladders and buckets etc.

Wow, I can get to the washing machine and freezer without breaking a leg.

They're clean too.

I can't quite escape my obsession with keeping old bottles though! Well you never know when they may be useful? (lots of lovely, free Champagne up there for Christmas time).

Of course, every silver lining has a cloud. My loft now looks like this: