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Garages - becoming too narrow..


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Our rented house has a garage with a door that you can't get a car through anyway, but we only needed it for storage so it didn't matter. Makes it a bit tricky to get the bike in and out though, I'm looking forward to having a proper garage where it can just be rolled out the door.

We're looking for a house at the moment.

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What do people do with their garages these days other than dump stuff in them?
Ours sounds similar to yours (10 to 15 years-built detached with integral 'narrow' garage), and we keep in ours: the summer/toy car; crated and cased wines/beers/cans/etc. (some in a second full-size fridge); besides the expected wall-mounted or -hung pushbikes/mower/tools/tool rack; and boxed 'stuff' on shelves (I've put up tons of hanging hooks and shelving in it, including even an overhead one near and across the garage door, just clear of the door travel path).

 

The trick is in optimising shelving space, wherein for any new stuff you want to dump in it, you have to take earlier-dumped stuff out to the charity shop or the tip :D

 

Currently, same rule for the garage as for anything else anywhere in the house: not used or moved in past 2 years = out, and 1 (new) in = 2 (old) out, no ifs or buts or appeals.

 

I call it anti-consumerist therapy. You soon find out there's ample storage even in new(ish) builds, once you've shed the excess rubbish you don't need.

Edited by L00b
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We bought our current new built house nearly ten years ago, our car at the time only barely fit in the garage. Our current (main) car hardly fits, but what is even more annoying is that our second, much smaller, car also doesn't properly fit in now, you can hardly open the driver door, never mind the passenger door!

 

What do people do with their garages these days other than dump stuff in them?

 

It`s not the garages getting smaller, it`s the cars getting wider. My previous car was a Ford Escort, it fitted under the section of our car port which narrows relatively easily. I swapped it for it`s newer version, the Ford Focus, that was a few critical inches wider, and it was tight fit.

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The issue is indeed that cars are getting wider, however, you'd think that garage builders (ie. developers) know this. It seems they are just ignoring it. A friend recently moved to a newly build house down in Bedford and his garage was even narrower than ours! He'd be likely to fit a mobility scooter, but very little else.

 

@kidneystone - going to have to find out what our insurance prefers now :)

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Developers don't care because by the time you've figured it out it's far too late.

 

Another trick they like to pull is building a 2 car driveway.

but it's not 2 cars wide it's 2 cars long, meaning you always have one car blocked in.

 

To answer your first question though

 

What do people do with their garages these days other than dump stuff in them?

 

our garage is so full of junk it's now difficult to fit a push bike in there!!

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Maybe an important factor is that people are generally bigger and heavier these days. It makes getting out of a car in a small space a tad tricky.

 

The last few cars I've owned/driven have been 2 doors, the doors are proportionally longer than a 4 or 5 door car. I'm tiny, but still have to be careful where I park.

 

---------- Post added 07-03-2017 at 12:31 ----------

 

Developers don't care because by the time you've figured it out it's far too late.

 

Another trick they like to pull is building a 2 car driveway.

but it's not 2 cars wide it's 2 cars long, meaning you always have one car blocked in.

 

To answer your first question though

 

 

 

our garage is so full of junk it's now difficult to fit a push bike in there!!

 

Ours is the same, its chock full, you couldn't even get in it at one point :o

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