Americans and their garages.....

My dad had a gorgeous garage built on their place in New Brunswick, it had a big loft and a tremendous amount of space and included a central vac outlet and garage-only hose and attachments for cleaning out the vehicles.

Google Streets view (says 2013):
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My 4 car garage contains 3 cars, 4 motorcycles, a lawn mower, a snow blower, and tons of extra stuff that keeps the house and vehicles running.
The vast majority of my neighbors park at least 1, if not all of their cars out on the street, which I just can't understand.

We get hailstorms here in Colorado every year.
I can't understand leaving a brand new vehicle outside to get destroyed by hail every year when you have a garage to protect it with.
 
At least 1/2 of them here are full of junk.

I live with my grandpa to take care of him, no garage here so it's outside only parking. My 96' Jeep is garaged at my aunt's though with her 70' Beetle.

If I didn't have that spot to park it, I'd rent a 10'x20' storage unit to park it in.
 
It isn’t that way in my neighborhood in Central Iowa. Most people here are organized enough to fit them, or have older kids with less outdoor things that take up space.

That being said, we may have 3 young children moving into the house permanently, so I will be rearranging the garage so my Jeep YJ will remain inside along with my wife’s van, but my daily driver will be in the driveway to make room for bikes and toys in one stall of the 3 car garage.

In the winter, the bikes will be hung up, and I’ll get a stall back.

It’s amazing that people rent storage for stuff. We have an 18 month rule. If it hasn’t been touched in 18 months, it goes away, other than a couple larger, expensive tools.
 
It's common here too. One neighbor has 2 car garage but converted to living/lounging area (neighbor's wife won't let him smoke indoors), another neighbor 3 car but only 1 vehicle parks inside then a workship and gardening center in more than half. I have a 2-1/2 car garage, but only the 1 newest vehicle gets parked inside. I'd say at least 80% of neighbors, park a vehicle outside so they can use that garage space for something else.

There is a little junk in the corners of my garage, but we have an HOA preventing unattached sheds/barns/etc, so the garage is used for mower/snowblower, other outdoor equipment, gardening/landscaping/crop supplies, a 2nd mini-workshop, automotive tools, general tools, metal shelving for groceries and other misc, deep freezer, bicycles, hoses/extension cords/chains/ladders/car parts/wood/table saw, garbage/recycle bins, lockers, etc, etc. I'd say only about 10% of it is junk to someone who doesn't have the same activities, but then 10% of someone else's stuff would seem like junk to me too.

One thing about having semi-valuable stuff in the garage besides a vehicle is, suppose I drive somewher, vehicle gets snowed/iced/rained on, then when I get home, if parked in the garage I have drain-off. Floor is graded towards a drain, but even then that is a lot of humidity to cause rust and mold, and dirty caked on road grime from the undercarriage when it snows, so prefer to just keep the outdoor elements, outdoors as much as possible. The vehicle parked in the garage only gets driven in good weather, or stays outside to dry if unexpected rain is encountered.

Then again, around here almost all neighbors have a basement. That's where the real junk gets stored.
 
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It’s the same story here. In our neighborhood the homes have two car garages but I would estimate less than 20% actually park two cars inside them. My wife and I do, I couldn’t go back to parking outside.
 
It’s amazing that people rent storage for stuff. We have an 18 month rule. If it hasn’t been touched in 18 months, it goes away, other than a couple larger, expensive tools.
We have off site storage for things of personal worth that are rarely used and hold no actual value. We have a modest home and there isn’t much room for storage. “Stuff” get thrown out but items which hold important memories do not. They get put into plastic totes and taken to storage. When you look at the “junk” people store you might be looking at something that isn’t junk to them.
 
Ever since we bought our house 4yrs ago both of our Hondas are garaged. No way I’d keep them outside under taxes sun.
 
I have a 2 car garage and my trailer gets the second stall and my MINI lives outside. A steep driveway and heavy snow for 5 months of the year makes keeping the trailer outside impractical.

Hoping to build a nice 3-car detached garage soon for more space.
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3-car garages are rare in this part of MA and while my truck can fit on ONE side of the garage, it would completely block use of the stairs going into the house - so my truck lives outside. My wife's RX350 goes on one side of the garage and the other side is a fully functional gym with TV, power rack, etc.
 
Wife and I both decided when we bought our house that she will always be able to park her vehicle in the garage and we will never pay for offsite storage for our belongings.
No snow to worry about here, but summer heat is brutal, and keeping the vehicle in the garage allows it to cool off much quicker, as well as prolonging the paint and interior life.

As for garage's used as storage units, why pay $100 month for storage of $1000 worth of "stuff" for years.

In the 27 years in the house, she has only parked outside for short term issues (furniture stored in the garage for home improvement projects and such).
There was a period of about a month we parked both our vehicles in the garage, but that limited vehicle access to drivers side only due to size, and neither of us liked that.

We have a single double wide garage door for our 2 car garage. I can't stand the 2 car/2 door garages. Much more limited space for vehicle parking IMO.
I have a large workbench on one side of the garage, and full shelves on the other side, her vehicle, 2 motorcycles, yard stuff, auto stuff (rolling tool box, work cart, floor jack, ramps), garbage can, and a kids bike in the garage. Plus other junk on the shelves and workbench. We also have a shorter than normal (length wise) garage. Our laundry room used to be part of the garage area, but previous home owners enclosed that space, so we lost about 3 feet of parking space. We have to factor that in vehicle purchase for my wife, since we have just over 17 feet from door to wall and need a few inches buffer on each side for door closure and parking.

I really would like an outdoor shed for the lawn stuff and other rarely used items (ladders, wheelbarrow, folding table and chairs, etc), and may get one some day. We do have a lot of "junk" in the attic that others would store in a basement, but it is not as easy to get at like a basement would be.

My brother has a nice garage setup. It is a "4" car detached garage.
A double wide door on one side, with a single door side that is 2 deep. He has all kinds of space in that thing, as well as an "attic" space to store even more stuff.

While I would love to have a house on acreage that I could put a freestanding separate garage on for projects and such, not something that will probably ever happen for me.
 
Used to be able to fit both cars in the garage, then my brother in law found 3 youth quads and bought them for my kids so I no longer fit… plus in the winter my truck holds onto so much snow it creates a massive lake in the garage as it melts. My wife parks in there though.

Cars outside don’t bother me much… cars parked on the street with empty driveways annoy me, especially when the street isn’t wide enough for that.
 
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