Old people are a pain in the ass!
 

OK with that said. I have a really good relationship with my mother and father but they can be very frustrating at times. especially when you want to mess with their stuff

OK my parents have been the worst when it comes to having a normal functioning garage. They have a large three-car garage that they can barely park one car in because they collect junk and refuse to purge. I have to admit I'm really good at throwing stuff out especially when it doesn't belong to me :)

I have been threatening for years to "help" my dad clean his side of the garage. Well a few months back I decided to put my money where my mouth was.


Here is what I had to start with: A mountain of crap!!!

My first step was to start going through all of his stuff and figuring out what should stay and what should go I quickly found out that a hoarder should not be part of this process. So while my father was away I decided to list his stuff on craigslist. I found a young guy that was interested in starting his own little workshop he showed up to buy only a few items but by the time he was done we hide his truck fully stocked

When it was all said and done I got nearly $800 for all that was in his garage and this is what it looks like. Barely a Dent in the mountain. Remember our goal is to be able to park a full-size car inside.

OK here is where it got interesting. So I take the $800 I got from selling all of his junk and give it to my father he asks what is this for? I say it's for all the stuff that I took out of your garage while you were gone. He super stoked and thanks me. Well when he gets home to see what I have sold , let's just say I'm no longer the favorite son. I think my dad thought he had a toolbox full of snap on mechanics tools and a complete set of Festool woodworking equipment. Both my mom and dad were super upset that I had sold what they thought was gold. But in reality it was all miss matched and missing Harbor freight and craftsman tools from the 80s. How do I know this because I sifted through everything before deciding what to sell and what to keep. The stuff he did have was missing the vital parts he had zero of what you needed and 10 of everything you didn't need.

So at this point The Band-Aid has been ripped off and we can start to make some progress. His beloved "workbench" that had become a storage shelf for projects and crap he never wanted to put away had to go

And just like that they can now park their cars in the garage where they are supposed to go

My father be grudgingly admits it's nice to be able to park his car inside. :)

So our next step is to take down the paneling and sheet rock the wall and run some new electric outlets

With all of his tools gone. We needed to start building a pegboard system where he could hang basic tools

After it was all said and done this is what we ended up as far as tools he needs

The stairs going in and out of the garage were a trip and fall hazard

So I build them a new set of stairs and added a handrail. I figured a set of stairs and a handrail is a lot cheaper then a new hip if they were to fall :)

Before

After

Nice work Grant! I need to get to work on our garage - moving and babies has led to one big cluttered mess.

I still have some work to do but now that my dad can park his car in and out of the garage I think he's finally on board and likes the whole less clutter Idea & Less is More concept. I'm sure he is still butt hurt I sold all his crap out from underneath him, but if I would have had his approval on every move I made we would never be where we are today. :) When it was done He gave me a big hug and said he hadn't been able to park his car in his own garage in 40+ years and he now loves it :)

depending on their age, new hips are "free" to them, we all get to pay for it!! I kid. looks great

For any of you thinking of taking a project like this on Be sure to Dawn your flame suit, & bullet proof your feelings because your parents or spouse are gonna push back lay it on the guilt real thick! LOL

Everything looks good Grant except for one very big mistake. You should have peeled that green shag carpet from the steps and reinstalled it on the new steps.

Often its good for your sole to purge some of the clutter from your life.

That's an amazing transformation, Grant! Well done!

I have one of those little fold up dollys. I used it to move a giant home entertainment center out to the curb to get rid of it - thing probably weighed 250 lbs - worked like a champ.

Nice job BUT

where is all the LED accent lighting LOL

Ya Know this garage transformation turnd out out to be more of a insight to the future. As parents age us kids tend to have to take on the parent roll? Stepping in and saying NO! your not gonna live like this is very hard. Doing something about it is even harder. Having to listen to the emotional distress they spew and propaganda, is the worst! OMG the guilt trip & the sulking. My dad would have you believe he was Bob Villa & he actually did wood work in that garage!!!! and selling his crappy tools was removing a arm or leg or selling his soul ! My mother called my brothers (Who were all on board with me doing what i was doing) and he layed into them that I sold all their tools & they couldn't even now change a light bulb LOL LOL.

Well its been a few months now and everyone is Happy. I think it paved the way for me to work with them and make changes in the future. Most of all I wanted them hold back on how they felt about what I was doing untill I was done. I told him "Hey Dad if you don't like your garage when Im done you can go back to your old way after" That was a total lie on my part but I just had to throw it out there! :)

My mom is 78 and a retired school teacher. Her sister was a certified horder so my mom has some of those tendices. So I will be doing this soon, for the second time. About 10 years ago her basement was flooded from an over flowing creek. You should have seen her face when I tried to throw away box of school papers. She kept saying those are work sheets and she might give them to another teacher some day. Well 10 years later and wife is a teacher she still has those same boxes.

It would be hard to describe how mad I would be if someone did this to me. I can make my own decisions, I don't need someone who thinks they're smarter than me to step in and save me from myself.

You are a good son. I can't wait to get old enough where being cantankerous is expected and acceptable.

^^^^ I knew that when I was done my dad would be happy, I would never do anything that in the end he would be un happy. After all it's his home it Dosent effect me "Yett" he can live how ever he wants. But if you see you can help someone take the first step in a direction that you know will make them happy in the long run then it's worth it.

I remember telling him. Hey You have a few options you can go on the way you are now and I won't do anything OR I can clean out your garage after you pass away. OR I can clean it out Now and you can actually get some use out of your garage. I'm glad he went with option #3

Nice job. That's a lot of work you did.

My wife's dad had a stroke 3 years ago. He was a professional cabinet maker. He had amassed a ton of tools and junk in his 30+ years of wood working. We had to clean out his garage, so this was not my first Rodeo when it came to making room and having to deal with the emotions of someone who Dosent want to let go. It's tough kind of like ripping a band aid off but it's gotta be done. My dad was pissed but I told him, Hey if you feel you need to do some wood working you come over to my house you can make all the dust and mess you want, at my place and you can use my tools (they are better then yours) and we can work on stuff together. :) my dad's on blood thinners and frankly I don't want him cutting stuff any more, so I was able to kill a few birds with one stone on this one:)

Nice work. Turned out really good.

Looks great! Nice improvement.

Very good. Looks better than it was):D

Amazing G! I would be embarrassed to show you my parent's garage. It is way worse than this so I wouldn't even know where to start. But I better get going soon as I don't want to do this when they're 80!

I'm with you. It's their stuff! What part of that is hard to understand????? The gall of this kid!

Hey to each his Own. My only regret is I didn't do this earlier, SOME people or SOME parent's know what's best for them but for the life of them they cant rip off the band aid. In this case I felt that's what I needed to do and I'm glad I did it. Pop's has a nice clean well lit garage that he can park his new car in.

A bonus has been I now invite my Dad over to my man cave and we work together on wood projects.

Wow fantastic job!

Are you kidding, the parental roles reverse at some age, their troubles become yours like falling and breaking a hip due to navigating that nightmare , or a fire hazard or them slipping and falling on ice going to car outside. This is the normal progression and grant is a proud protective parent

^^^ Well Said^^^
Your 100% right. These old one become a liability and you gots to be the grown up some timescale