The bigger-is-better garage movement, coinciding with a growing desire for more space in the home, indicates that homeowners aren't just parking vehicles in their garages.

Nationwide, nearly two-thirds of all new homes have two-car garages while 19 percent have three-car garages, leaving only about 15 percent with one-car garages or none at all, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

The West and Midwest are the nation's three-car garage leaders, according to U.S. Census research.

In 1992, when the bureau first started nosing around garages, only 20 percent of new Western homes were equipped with three-car or larger garages. Last year, it was 31 percent. Only 16 percent of new Midwest homes were equipped with three-car or larger garages in 1992. By 2004 that had risen to 32 percent.

The growth in demand for larger garages coincides with NAHB's consumer preferences findings--home buyers are after more space, not necessarily traditional larger, more-house kind of space, but better defined, more usable, specialized spaces.

NAHB says home buyers want the kind of space found in kitchen islands and pantries and built-in shelving and cabinetry elsewhere.

Take the garage. Please.

The problem with garage space is its yawning, gaping emptiness calling out to homeowners looking for somewhere to quickly toss stuff when company's coming, the holidays are ahead or they just want to keep the rest of the home neat and organized.

Typically, any motivation to organize the home's clutter catch-all--the garage--just gets tossed into the heap.

"[Organizing] is more a goal than a reality. You have to have discipline," said Dena Mentis, new-home expert from Novato and co-author of the Homebuyer's Kit (Dearborn Trade, $15.95).

Drive down any suburban street on a warm summer day and you get the idea. Most "yard" sales are actually "garage" sales designed to air out the home's storage facility. Left at the curb, pricey status vehicles are at the mercy of ultraviolet radiation while junk is protected in the garage.

It's no wonder garage remodeling and organizing will be an estimated $2.5 billion business this year, according to the NAHB.

"At first it might seem like you're fighting a losing battle, trying to get your garage organized, but by following some simple suggestions and using some of today's best storage tools, you can transform your garage from a disorganized storage shed into a fully functioning room in a matter of days," says the guy who wrote the book on garage-guilt, Bill West, author of Your Garagenous Zone: The Complete Garage Organizer Guide and a partner website Garagez.com.

"It's either that or small animals will turn your heap into a network of nests."

West and other experts advise:

* Let go. Sort through the rubble, toss what you haven't used in six months and can't sell. Chances are you'll never use it again. Donate useful items to charity. Hold a garage sale. Price it to move. You don't need a profit. You need space.

* Organize it. Divide what's left items into categories--toys, tools, tires, bottles, books, baby items--to help you visualize and plan the space you'll need for each category.

* Zone out. Divide the garage into designated zones for categories of items to make sure there is enough room for the stuff you are still hoarding. At this point you'll discover, if you ever want to fit your car back into the garage (or even a cat for that matter), you've got more stuff to lose.

* Shelve it. The end-all, be-all storage device has several uses in the de-cluttering process. First, shelves give you space to temporarily place stuff out of the way, while you chase out the small animals and clean up behind them. Later, use the shelves in the sorting and organizing process. Ultimately they are part of your storage system, if the weight of all the boxes and cases and bins doesn't rip them from the studs.

* Bin it. They go on the shelves. Toss into transparent to translucent, stackable bins stuff you won't need on a daily basis (or probably in your lifetime) so you can watch it not collect dust. Label the bins so you (and archeologists) can find all the stuff you won't use, don't need, but can't, for some deep-seated reason, part with.

* Rack it. You can purchase racks that hang dozens of tools from weed whackers to hedge trimmers and leaf blowers to Christmas light extension cords. Wheeled racks are easy to move about.

* Air it out. Space above where your car used to park can be outfitted with systems for hoisting bikes, surfboards, kites, fishing gear and other stuff. Likewise, use space high on the walls to hang, rig, hook or otherwise store.

* Remember. There's always an out. Real self-storage facilities abound. You can dump your stuff, visit it whenever you please and give your car the garage-respect it deserves.

Real estate writer Broderick Perkins, executive editor of San Jose-based DeadlineNews.Com, writes regularly for this newspaper.