I Need To Clean The Garage!

Although I live in a house that is only a few years old I am constantly thinking about updates that could be done to the house. A couple of years ago my wife decided to buy some faux stone and replace the fireplace surround. The stone sat around for about a year, but eventually last winter (2008-09) we removed the original tile surround from around the fireplace and my brother-in-law, my wife and I installed the faux stone surround. The fireplace is set into a corner of our living room at a 45 degree angle so we had to cut each stone on the edges to fit. Because it was winter and very cold outside we cut the first day in our garage. This was a BIG mistake! The dust from the tile saw covered every surface in our garage and the next day we cut outside which cut down on additional dust, but the damage had already been done.

During this project we also removed the original fireplace mantle and my wife's brother built a new one out of oak from scratch for us. When he came over to install the mantle it needed a little bit of wood taken off each side where the 45 degree angle meets the wall. So, he sanded each side of the mantle a few times to get the right fit.  Since it was still cold outside this was also done in the garage and now even more dust collected on every surface.

During 2009 I never did get around to cleaning the garage.  I parked the 1967 Cougar that I bought in April in the garage all summer and early fall, but I constantly worried about stuff falling on the car or getting a ding from my wife's car in the garage. This winter the Cougar has spent its time in a large, heated garage at my parent's house. I like things to be organized and I can frustrated when things are out of place, but I will also admit that I am not a big fan of cleaning and tend to put this chore off indefinitely. However, this year procrastination is no longer an option.  The garage is a complete disaster!  I have added a generator that my dad gave me plus we added two large trash cans (one for garbage and one for recycling) from the village where we reside.  This spring I will need to pull everything out of the garage and start from scratch. 

I am looking for low budget ideas on organizing the garage and maximizing the space that we have and keeping an adequate amount of space around the cars. I want to get all of my tools and extra stuff organized so finding things is easy and putting them back is a breeze. I am researching, but I am open to ideas from anyone who is actually reading this post.  Now I will continue to procrastinate until the weather warms up a little.