If you aren't careful, your garage can be a black hole where you toss any items that don't quite fit in anywhere else in the home. Old furniture, bicycles, gardening equipment, and other odds and ends can quickly clog up the space. Meanwhile, your car is exiled to the driveway or street.

Cleaning up the garage will give you a chance to organize your belongings and any work space you want to create in the structure. Mickey Goodman, writing for This Old House, says the biggest appeal of this project may be the ability to keep a vehicle in the garage once again. The garage will make it easier for you to start your day in the winter, and it will also protect the vehicle from damage in severe weather such as thunderstorms.

Before you start removing everything from the garage, assess the space. Dorothy Breininger, writing for the real estate site Zillow, says you'll want to determine if the space is susceptible to flooding, extreme temperatures, insect infestations, or any other conditions that will determine what you can store there.

Make a note of your garage's dimensions as well as how much space your vehicle takes up. These measurements will help you determine how you can arrange any items in the space, and they can also influence your decisions on whether or not to buy something that needs to be kept in the garage.

Goodman says it is best to keep as many items as possible off the floor, in wall-mounted storage units or even hanging from the ceiling. Bulky items such as the lawn mower should be kept in the corners, out of the way of your vehicle. Seasonal items like holiday decorations can be stored in harder to reach areas.

As with all cleaning projects, set aside the time to go through your belongings. Keep anything you deem to be essential, and see if you may be able to store it in the attic, basement, or another area of the home. Throw away any unusable items and donate or sell the unneeded ones.

Some items should not be stored in the garage for safety or sanitary reasons. Paint can be negatively affected by extreme temperatures, so it should be stored in a more temperate area. Insects or wildlife may go after pet food or paper plates, though you can protect such objects by storing them in a sealable container. Propane fumes may ignite, so these tanks should be stored outdoors.

The garage walls are an excellent place to create storage space. John Riha, writing for the National Association of Realtors' home improvement site HouseLogic, says fastening short lengths of PVC piping to a wall will let you organize tools with long handles. Cut the pipes at an angle so they are easier to attach.

Cabinets or shelving will also provide more options for organizing your belongings. Goodman recommends that cabinets be limited to items that need a little more protection from dust or dirt in the garage. Open shelving lets you locate an item more easily, and you can also see at a glance if your storage space is getting out of hand.

Pegboards are a popular storage method, and there are a variety of options available. These can be located on carts, allowing you to wheel your collection of tools into the driveway when you need some extra room in the garage. Emma Sturgis, writing for the home improvement site HomeAdvisor, says pegboards can also be hinged to let you swivel through the boards to find the right tool.

Glass jars have long been a useful way to store nails, bolts, and other small items. If you use round clamp brackets on these jars, they can attach directly to the wall.

Some homeowners may want to designate part of their garage as a workshop, and it is possible to do so while still fitting your vehicle inside. Goodman says you can install a work table that folds down or can roll on casters when it is not in use. Make sure any stool or seat you use at the station can also be tucked beneath it.

Creating storage from the ceiling is more difficult, but still feasible. Riha suggests creating a large shelf, secured to the wall studs and ceiling joists so that it does not need any floor support. Use this area to store seasonal items, as it can be difficult to reach.

You may also be able to install a simple system to hang individual items from the ceiling. These hoists can also be used to keep seasonal items like kayaks and surfboards in an out of the way location.

Maneuvering a vehicle into the garage can be difficult, especially if you're used to keeping it outside the garage. Motion sensors, bricks or other barriers on the floor, or even a tennis ball suspended from the ceiling to bump your windshield can all keep you from pulling too far forward. Goodman says you can also attach some extra carpeting to the walls to prevent any scratching or dents if you accidentally hit these areas.

If you have enough room, you may be able to do some extra design work. Riha says the space around a door into the home can be modified with a few simple storage features, such as a shoe rack and coat hooks, to turn it into a makeshift mudroom.

You can also consider a few extra modifications to upgrade your garage as you organize it. Improved lighting, weather-stripping around the door to keep out the weather and bugs, and a stain-resistant epoxy floor can all help you keep the garage clean and organized in the future.