It’s that time of year again, when new years resolutions are set and we all strive to do the best that we can, for as long as possible. Cleaning is never far down on the list of popular new years’ resolutions. The fact of the matter is that we all make it a goal to clean our homes as thoroughly as possible, but we sometimes forget to add another area around our home that might get ignored, the garage. The garage tends to get dirty, cluttered, and all around disorganized. So, in celebration of the new year, I am going to give you some easy ways to tackle the junk in your garage for a cleaner, brighter, and more organized garage.

When organizing your garage, the first tip is to de-clutter by grouping. Find all like items and group these items together as much as possible. The reality is that a variety of different items can get “lost in the mix,” so to speak. Target this problem by grouping everything the same together. Group all the nails together, gather all your tools and put them in one spot, and take every single car part and put them all in one group. Once you have everything alike grouped together, the second step is easy. The second step in organizing your garage is to find new and interesting ways to store these grouped items. Build or buy a tall bookshelf along with many different boxes (or bins) of various sizes which fit into the bookshelf. Place all grouped items of each type in one of the boxes and label with what is inside, etc. A bookshelf with labeled boxes is a great way to organize smaller items you might find in your garage and keep them all together and easily found again. For the larger items, either hang them up on nails or place them on overhead shelves for the easiest organization ever!

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Having a piece of mind alleviates stress

Just as you have a pediatrician on call in case your child develops a high fever at 2 in the morning, it’s a sound idea to have a reliable garage door repair service available 24-hours a day in case of emergencies. Many people keep valuable tools, sports gear, and other assorted equipment in the garage, and leaving a broken door open at 2 am to be looked at later is not using sound judgment.
With a repair service on call at a moment’s notice, a seized motor or dislodged door won’t be a headache for long. Building a relationship with your service company ensures a piece of mind should problems occur. Your established service will already know your system, and with a description of what went wrong, will know exactly what to do without adding stress to the situation.
If you’re leaving for work at 6 in the morning and the door won’t close, or coming back from a night on the town, it is worth its weight in gold to know that help is just a phone call away. Most attached garages have a built in door to the house. How comfortable is the feeling that if left behind, some stranger could simply walk right in a browse through your valuables?
To find a solid repair service, perform a quick search through Google, and then review feedback on sites such as Angie’s List. Another option is to check with your local chamber of commerce for recommendations and reviewing the company’s history with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Even better, talk with you neighbors and ask who they use.
Don’t let a problem door lead to more trouble. Take a moment and find a professional, on-call garage door repair service today.

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Your garage door is the largest moving part in your house. It can also be the most dangerous.

We won’t try to scare you with epic horror stories of garage door FAIL. You can Google that yourself, but be prepared for gruesome tales of decapitation, lost limbs and lifelong suffering.

Every single day in this country, a garage door repairman goes to a job where there is blood splattered everywhere.

But that won’t happen to you if have your garage door installed by a reputable and experienced technician, if you follow the the simple maintenance tips outlined in your owners manual, and if you have ALL repairs done by a professional.

There are still pitfalls, though.

One of the most common injuries resulting from poor garage door maintenance is strain, specifically back strain when trying to correct a garage door malfunction. Then there’s people falling of ladders while trying to re-adjust their openers, cuts and scrapes from metal tracks, and sprained limbs due to reaching,twisting and stretching.

The two most important things to remember to avoid costly and dangerous garage door maintenance are to inspect your operating system regularly, and to call in a professional at the FIRST sign of trouble.

Here are a few tips for upkeep of your garage door and opener. These simple safety and maintenance can be performed by you, but leave the hardcore stuff like installation and spring replacement to the pros.

* Have your garage door and opener checked by a qualified technician once a year, just as you would your heating/cooling system. It only costs a few bucks, and may save you a bundle by identifying potential problems.

* Always respect the awesome power of an electric garage door. Never let children “play” in and around a moving garage door, or with the remote.

* Let everyone in your house know when you’re doing maintenance or inspections, so they won’y accidentally

* Use monthly walk-through inspections as a way to familiarize yourself with the mechanism, and to spot early warning signs of trouble. Close you garage door and stand inside. Inspect the springs, rollers, mounting hardware, cables and pulleys. Look for signs of wear and damage. Use common sense – if both your garage door springs don’t look identical, something is amiss.

* Likewise, if your garage door doesn’t sound right, don’t just ignore it. Although it is monstrous in size, your garage door mechanism is a precision instrument that should perform as effortlessly and silently as a well-oiled machine. Garage doors, unlike people, do not get noisier as they get older.

* Check your door’s balance. If you have an automatic opener, close the door and disconnect the opener. You should be able to lift the door manually with little resistance, and the door should remain fully open. If your door is difficult to lift or doesn’t stay open, it’s probably out of balance and requires service by a trained technician.

* All automatic garage doors manufactured after 1993 are required by federal law to include a photo-electric sensor and reversing mechanism to prevent people, pets or objects from being crushed by the door. If your system pre-dates these important safety features, it’s a recipe for disaster. Test your system by placing a 2×4 piece of wood on the floor directly underneath the door. If the door does not immediately reverse upon touching the wood, you need to call a serviceman right away.

* Also check the photo-electric eye sensor by passing a broom handle through the path of the photo eye after pushing the button to close your door. If the door doesn’t reverse, close the door and clean the photo eyes with a soft close. Then re-align the photo-electric eyes by hand. If that doesn’t solve the problem, call a professional.

* Test the force setting on your automatic opener by holding the bottom of your garage door with outstretched hands as it’s closing. If the door keeps going down and doesn’t quickly reverse, the closing force is too strong and needs to be adjusted by a service technician.

* Last, but not least, grease up your garage door mechanism at least twice a year by applying spray lubricant liberally to the tracks, rollers and hinges.

Take care of your garage door and it will take care of you, for many years to come.

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