Garage Cleaning

A few weeks ago, I was looking for a tool (my ultra-sonic distance estimator). No wonder I couldn't find it:

My tool storage in the garage. That black stuff is weed fabric for a project...

   Wait, maybe it's here:

In that box? Or under the pile of potting soil bags?

The orange ball just showed up on my lawn one day. It looked like an ING commercial. I'm not sure why I still have it.
And the mess wasn't even contained to the garage! Maybe I put it here:

On the back patio.

...in the cardboard box that I put on the patio three years ago and has been sitting there (through rain and what not) since then.
Hm - maybe its time to clean and organize?

Step 1: get all the stuff off the shelves and "organized" into categories:

The random pink umbrella (unused!) is another mystery item

Believe it or not, that's "organized" into piles right there. And I don't know why I left my car in the garage for all this - you'd think I would have moved it.

While cleaning, i squealed many times because of spiders and other creatures. In the desert, even the spiders are deadly:

Black widow! You bet I jumped...

I usually let creatures live, but I draw a line at kinds that can kill me living in my garage...
I know my organizing style is more "put like items in containers" than "put everything in an exact place on a peg board" (knowing your shortcomings is important!), so some clear plastic bins (with no lids) later, it looked like this:

Much better! And I can open my tool box without having to reach into dark places...

It's all organized in "areas" now: painting, outdoor irrigation, gardening equipment, indoor plumbing, tools, car washing, etc. I need a couple of more/larger containers - one for my parents' motorcycle stuff, a larger box for the painting supplies, but it all looks much better. The weed fabric is neatly rolled up on the top shelf.

On the other side, there is now room for the black bin. That's my compost bin (an on-going experiment). I have to keep it in the garage if I have any chance of keeping it "semi-moist" like its supposed to be. I refuse to water my compost-pile on a daily basis...

Compost bin plus extra "brown" materials in the bag - maybe it will turn into leaf mulch?

I even managed to condense all the stuff from the other side of the garage also, making room for my soon-to-be-improved wheelbarrow:

The orange ball is still there...

And I finally got rid of the mess on the patio:

Now i can actually use the grill!

I found an even-larger black widow in the "box of horrors", which I ended up just throwing away (without touching it!)
I discovered I have three watering cans... how did I end up with three? However, my ultra-sonic distance estimator... is still missing!