Do you love your garage? How important is the garage to your home, home buying process, or just over all…happiness? For some people the garage is just a place to park the minivan and store the lawnmower. For others, it’s the neighborhood social hangout spot. And if you or your loved one is like my husband, the garage is a sacred burial ground of things they simply just will not throw away!

What type of garage person/family are you?

The Suburban Dad Garage – This is the perfect place to store the family mini-van, the kid’s soccer balls and hockey gear, store the golf clubs and lawnmower, and hang that “World’s Greatest BBQ Master” apron. Not sure about you but I grew up with this garage. If you borrow it, put it back EXACTLY where you found it, make sure you close the garage door when you are done, and if it’s snowing out, you know, just come through the garage.

The Collector – Or some would say, “hoarder”…if you have this garage, you probably have your first car (or parts of it), old boxes of nails, carpet remnants from that remodel in ’92, piles of tools you plan to “organize later” and all you collectibles that you just know will be worth money someday but your wife has banished them to the garage after 20 years. Your garage is a graveyard of memorabilia and a gathering of things you “might need later”. Or it’s just a mess and you need to order up a dumpster and do some downsizing. 

The Neighborhood Gathering Hotspot – You are the cool house on the block. It’s Saturday night and everyone is coming to hang out in your garage, maybe play some pool, smoke a cigar, throw back a few beers, or perhaps play some darts. Why waste valuable indoor space in the cold winter months (I’m in Minnesota, remember) on a car when you can entertain your friends on last decade’s couch? 

The Musician – If you or someone in the family is in a band, you’ve probably been banished to the garage for your practice space (hey, those drums get loud). Throw down a few rugs and your space is ready to go. Is your garage full of your gear? Do you have a soundboard next to the family bin of stored Christmas decorations? Then you are the musician garage type for sure.

The OCD Mechanic – Maybe you fix cars as a career or perhaps it’s just a hobby. If your garage looks like NASCAR threw up everywhere, this is your garage personality. You have every tool whether you need it or not because you never know….and because…why not? There’s a great variety of tool brands and auto part metal signs hanging up as well as one of those cool boards on rollers so you can slide like a boss under every car you have lifted up. And don’t forget the air compressor purring away in the corner ready to power your tools and fill those tires. 

The Psycho – If your garage looks like this and your home isn’t new…we need to talk. Do you ask visitors to remove their shoes in your garage? Is that a plug in air freshener I smell? You know this is….a garage, right? For cars and tools and lawn equipment like the rest of us use it for? But for you, you complete psycho, you can cook off the floor or perform surgery in this empty sterile pointless empty concrete room.

So, what’s your “garage personality”? 

Till next week…..stay warm (and consider cleaning your garage)! In the meantime, here’s a great (and super interesting) infographic on the history of garages: