For many men, the garage is not a happy or fun place to be. It’s crowded, dirty, too cold or hot, and lacks even the most basic cable channels. For the majority of garage owners, it is a space used for storage, parking a car or two, and base camp for yard work. But it doesn’t have to be this way.  With the slightest bit of effort and some decent forethought, you can turn your ground floor attic into a man cave.

Let’s deal with the junk first. You’ve got too much of it. I know you can think of something right now that you can throw away in there, but every time you actually reach for it you decide to keep it for some sentimental or future reason that doesn’t exist yet. Stop doing that. Throw things away, organize them so that if you’re keeping them, you at least know what and where they are. If you still have a crowded space after your purge, then it’s time to get as much of your items off the floor or counters as possible. Hang things up, install inexpensive cabinets from Craigslist to hold items, or put up some pegboard (so cheap!) and hang tools like a certified Bob Vila.

Now that you’ve de-cluttered and can actually see the cement floor, you’re probably noticing how dirty and stained it is. And let’s not even talk about your countertops or workbench. Soap and water isn’t going to cut it my friend. You need a cleaner that can break up the most common garage messes – grease and oil. The FactoryTwoFour garage has always used Spray Nine because A) it works, B) it comes in big bottle we don’t have to replace often, and C) it does the job of what we used to use three different cleaners for. Spray liberally, give it a minute to do it’s work (think of it like foreplay for cleaning), and then use some of those durable blue shop towels to wipe away what was previously an unsightly mess. Congrats, your garage is getting cleaner by the second.

Now that you’re organized and clean, you can sit back and decide what you want your garage to be. Do you want a workspace to tinker in, or a man cave, or just to finally fit in your family’s second car? There are no wrong answers (unless you turn it into a giant ball pit. That’s how you get on watch lists…), so take some time to really think through what your ultimate garage space looks like.

Finally, keep the mother clean and tidy alright? You just sunk a Saturday afternoon cleaning the place, take the three minutes a night it takes to put things back where they belong. If it’s tidy, you’ll be more apt to keep it clean and wipe up any grease spots. If it’s clean, you’ll be more apt to keep it tidy and organized. It’s called the Circle of Garage Cleaning, and we got it from a movie about animals falling in love.

We’ve got a bonus for FactoryTwoFour readers – Just Take the Spray Nine Challenge and get a coupon for $3 off a bottle of Spray Nine to try it yourself. That’s free cleaning product foo!

See what Spray Nine Heavy Duty can do for you.

Take the Spray Nine Challenge.

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See what Spray Nine Heavy Duty can do for you.

My garage is my happy place, and in additional to all the tools, tapes, and spare parts there is a shelf inside stocked with every chemical imaginable. Lubricants, sealants, rust removers, paints, grease, oil, and powders; you name it, I’ve got it. And every single bottle or can is used for a very specific and singular purpose. If I’ve got a stuck bolt, I reach for penetrating oil, if it’s glue residue, then up steps a solvent. And when I recently had the gnarly job of cleaning 30 years of grease and muck off our Porsche project’s engine, I grabbed the bottle of heavy-duty cleaner and degreaser Spray Nine.

When I removed the engine from the Porsche, I discovered that it was so caked with a thick layer of black grime on every surface that it would need some sort of action hero-esque cleaner to have any hope of ever seeing it clean again. In the pantheon of action stars, the 80’s were king and gods walked among men.  So it’s a good thing Spray Nine is basically the Carl Weathers of cleaners. This heavy-duty degreaser was about to be pitted against Predator-level road grot. Spray, bristle brush, and rag in hand I walked into my own private dirt jungle.

With the amount of time and effort we are putting into this restoration, it just wouldn’t do to put a greasy engine back into our newly painted body shell. No, this thing had to be made sparkly and ready to eat off of to match the level of beauty that’s going to be present on the outside.  But it would take some serious effort to get the engine there.

30 years and at least 3 different state’s worth of dirt had accumulated and turned into a thick, gelatinous substance that until now was unknown to science. Luckily, it was no match for the grease cutting biceps of Spay Nine. Spray, bush, wipe. Section by section, surface by surface shiny aluminum began to be revealed and displayed. It broke apart the dirt clumps, dissolved the oil, and wiped free the brake fluid with ease. I had scheduled the whole weekend for this cleaning job, and rewarded myself for finishing in day by watching Rocky, Rocky II, and Predator back to back. This is why I use Spray Nine – it simply works well and lets me get back to my 80’s movie life.

 Half and half, before Spray Nine and after

Take the challenge below and score yourself a $3 coupon for a bottle:

Take the Spray Nine Challenge. 

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