Behind the Scenes

This weekend I did a crap-load of work on the "behind the scenes" world of a biking lifestyle... I cleaned my garage.

While this may not seem to have very much to do with cycling, it really does. When my garage is a mess, I work on bikes less, I tweak bikes less and I ride bikes less. And recently, everything was beginning to fall together into one giant pile of rubble.

I took all the non-outdoorsy stuff and threw it into tubs and stacked it all against a wall. If you're ever in my garage, don't breathe around this area, the tubs may fall over on you.

I've also had my dad's kayak for the last few months on loan. I finally took the initiative to move the 16' beast off of the floor and hang it from the ceiling. I owned a long boat before, so I had a ceiling rig of pulleys ready to use, I just hadn't utilized them yet. So really, it wasn't that hard.

I also hung four different stripped bike frames and their wheels from the ceiling. It pulls everything out of the way quite nicely and makes room on the floor for luxuries like parking and walking.

Now I have one junk pile (versus an entire garage that's a junk pile) that will soon enough be taken to my in-laws for permanent storage. The floor is almost completely cleared. Now I can park the Xtracycle, hang the short bikes and work at the repair bench with ease.

It really is crucial to have organized space for your bikes. In the process, I realized that I want to work on stuff when the atmosphere is conducive to getting things done. I also found all my camping stuff strewn about all over the place. Stuff had fallen out of bags, been shoved around and generally lost throughout the garage. The next time I would have gone camping, it would have been miserable trying to get everything together. I would have linked that emotion of frustration to the general camping experience and would have somehow started out with a poor attitude. Now that everything is organized, I'll be able to head out with no headache.

How about you? Do you have a place for all your outdoor needs? How do you keep it all organized?

Get out there.