Parking Pretty

We all love the change of seasons, especially the one from winter to spring…until we open the garage door. Invariably, the first spring jaunt into the garage to retrieve junior’s bicycle entails tripping over ski poles, climbing around dirty recycling bins, straddling a hockey bag and kicking a soccer ball out of the way. Good luck finding the bike pump. With spring cleaning in the air, it’s time to make the most of that space, so we’ve hunted down two garage gurus to get you started.

When tackling a messy garage, we can all use a hand…from Hire-A-Hand Enterprises, that is. Owner and professional organizer Tracy Zavadil has organized almost every type of space imaginable for Vancouver families, and she’s got dozens of garage, shed and carport makeovers under her tool belt to prove it. Once Tracy knows how a family wants to use their space, she develops a plan of attack with sorting and purging leading the charge. Tracy is no stranger to manual labour and will be as involved as her clients wish. She frequently solves the “but-how-will-I get-rid-of-it?” objection, by repurposing, recycling, reselling and regifting the unwanted for her clients. 

Although Tracy loves to leave her clients with a functional space, her real goal when taking an assignment is to coach her clients into adopting good organization habits and self-purging strategies. She also wants to make the space as kid-friendly as possible. She has used colour schemes on garage walls with matching containers to ensure kids (and some husbands) stay on track. Just like your dentist, Tracy will mail you regular reminders, featuring your own before and after photos, encouraging you to stay on top of your system. With a Rolodex full of handymen, carpenters and assembly experts, Tracy takes her clients from agonize to organize PDQ.

If you’re handy and think you can do it yourself, we’ve got another solution for you. PremierGarage has been providing one-stop shopping in garage storage systems to the Vancouver and Victoria markets for several years. Check out the sleek wall-mounted Activity Organizers, (like ski racks, ball bags and skate racks). We love the fact that Premier hand delivers its goods to your door and then handles and guarantees the installation.

Great, garage done. Now it’s time to move onto the basement…

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