How much larger would a garage need to be so most people parked inside?

I’ve heard a 2 car garage with 2 doors instead of one big door for a two car garage is bigger.
(I hope that made sense)
I walk in a subdivision across the road from my house and I’ve noticed that some people have so much junk in their garage that they can barely close the door. In my opinion, if you have so much junk that you don’t know what’s in there, you don’t need it. Pitch it or sell it.
Also, I don’t know dimensions of garages. Mine seems small but the house was built in 1958 and it’s a one car garage. People didn’t have 2 cars back then.

@chyna Two doors is bigger, because the doors are usually a minimum of 8 feet wide, and then you have a foot between, so usually that’s 17’ rather than 16’. Some single doors are 9’ wide, even better. What’s nice about a double door 18’ wide is you don’t have to negotiate the smaller space where the garage door is. More flexibility.

One car garage is a different story. People with two cars have no choice except to park at least one car outside.

Lots of us use our garages as basic sheds for outdoor stuff. My garage houses all my yard work stuff and my gardening stuff, and my firewood and some lumber and my bicycle and some general stuff stuff. There isn’t room for my car, but that’s OK, my car does fine outside where it gets to hang out and socialize with the neighbor cars, so it’s happy. Although, sometimes my neighbor’s Subaru gets a bit too excited and its alarm goes off.

I would not be willing to give up the square footage on my property to have a larger garage.

ETA: To actually answer the question as asked, I don’t think the size of the garage really matters. People who want to park their cars in the garage, will. People who don’t care will use that space for other purposes.

4 or 5 cars total. I’ve seen 3 car garages STUFFED with stuff! (Not cars.)

(With the danger of electric vehicle fires, all electric vehicles should be parked outside AWAY from the house!)

Was it George Carlin who said something like “only in America do we keep our junk stored in the garage and the very expensive car parked in the driveway outside the garage?”

If people had extra space to store their stuff e.g. big storage shed, they could park their cars in their garages.

Yup, I have a 24 X 20 garage; two work benches, 2 industrial file cabinets, 8 mounted tires, assorted fishing gear, ten bags of lump charcoal, three ladders, lawn mowers & garden tools and ten boxes of Christmas decorations.

I would another 24 X 20.

My parents cleared out the garage for my (then) band to practice.
You say two car garage, I say band practice. Jazz.

My mom parks outside because the garage has so much stuff in it. I think families acquire too much junk and never give it or throw it away. I like the idea of a car in the garage to keep it out of the weather. I don’t really know how big it should be but 20×20 sounds like a good size.

A related question: If you built a free, garage-sized workshop/storage shed the same dimensions as the existing garage for everyone, would they start parking inside? fill both the new space and the existing garage up with crap? or are the dimensions still too small for large vehicles?

@gorillapaws It depends… does the workshop have a girlie calendar pined up?

@gorillapaws My husband’s truck is 19’6” so if the garage is 20×20 and the door has those metal things that stuck out a few inches, forget it! Too tight. Even just 21 feet makes it so you don’t have to be so exact. If the workshop or barn is bigger, then I’ll park the truck there if there is pavement to the house.

@WhyNow Pinup calendars would be optional.

@JLeslie My parents also have a tight squeeze in their garage. One extra foot of length would make a massive difference. I can’t imagine the cost being that much more. Strange.

Thanks every body. I found the answers informative. Some things I hadn’t thought of.

@gorillapaws It’s so frustrating. It’s such a small amount more in the scheme of things, and makes a massive difference. Even houses that are 5,000 sq ft often have 20×20 garages. It seems crazy to me. Or, 30×20 if it’s a three car, but that doesn’t help with my big truck.

For most people it doesn’t matter if it was 2 feet or 200 feet. The would still fill it with SH*T and park outside.
Many townhouse homeowners associations in the NorthEast are not mandating that your vehicle be parked inside as opposed to in the driveway.
I have always parked my car in my garage. Period the end.

The advantage of parking in the garage is the car is not hot from sitting out in the sun, and the car is not covered with snow when it snows, so you don’t have to clean it off or shovel it out.