I have a confession to make so brace your self - my garage is messy.

Yes, it's true.

And it bugs me.

I'm a neat and tidy fellow you see.

Some would say even fastidious.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness I like to say.

Everything has a place and there's a place for everything.

Alas, when it comes to my garage I fall short of my personal expectations.

I have the winter tires for Mrs. Gennings's car stacked next to the lawnmower.

The snowblower is crammed in front of my fishing gear.

I've got a can of varnish on a shelf that also is home to my battery recharging equipment - the batteries are for the cordless drill and the cordless weed-whacker, both of which are located on the other side of the garage.

Yes, none of it makes sense.

And, if you really want to know, I feel like less of a man because of the situation in my garage.

After all, a garage is what men are supposed to specialize in when it comes to organizational skills.

But not me.

Oh, my garage isn't a total disaster. There is room to walk around and I know where most things are stored. But the space isn't what it could be.

I try from time-to-time to organize things but eventually, I somehow get them unorganized.

Drill bits get placed not near the power drill but somehow next to the gardening tools.

The collection of old books we no longer want is next to the recycle bin but the books aren't bound for repurposing but rather for the used book store. A trip - that in the mind of the books, if books can have minds - that must seem like it will never happen.

But I digress.

To compensate for my lackluster garage organization, I am a compulsive garage floor sweeper.

"At least the floor will look tidy when people come over," I say to Mrs. Gennings.

"Who the heck is going to care about our garage?" she asks whenever I talk about sweeping.

"Well, you never know...somebody, maybe," I say, lacking conviction.

Now if you want to see a real garage you should visit my brudder-in-law's home.

Chris The Fixer - also the tall one in Mrs. Gennings' family - has the nicest looking residential garage I've ever seen.

So nice is his garage that it was once featured in Better Garages and Workshops Magazine.

The guy has cabinets, shelves, drawers - and they're nice looking. Not battered. Not a mish-mash of old Ikea furniture meets thrift shop stuff.

Yep, Chris' garage is a beaut.

Why, you could eat off the floor.

Word is people drive to his house just to sit and look at his garage on nights when there's nothing on the tube. His wife isn't keen about this practice though and so they often keep the garage door closed and the front porch light off.

Where Chris got his shelving unit and how he keeps the garage so darn tidy I don't know.

I never think to ask him either, because at the site of his garage I'm so gobsmacked that my brain shuts down.

Nonetheless I've fessed up. My garage is far from tidy.

I'm sorry if that offends some of you.

I'll keep at it though - organizing and trying to make it nicer.

One day at a time, so the saying goes.

Now, I gotta find my garden shears. I think there next to the box of Christmas decorations...

Michael Gennings is a reporter for The Stayner Sun. Feedback is welcome at mgennings@simcoe.com.