Until the snow got bad this winter, we have never parked a car in the garage. I will say, it is quite a nice experience. Now I am itching to kick them out again to get some space back. The lift is down and my car is in the middle until I get some time to do my wifes snows. She was grumpy with her cold snowy car this morning.
Almost any garage capacity needs to be minus one for stuff. A two car garage is one at best for the vast majority of people. A one car garage (especially a modern one car garage that barely fits a car with nothing else in it), forget it, it's not for cars. That being said, my wife bought a cheap bike trailer/stroller (costco chariot knockoff) from a guy that was super upset about how cluttered his garage was. He opened the door and that stroller was literally the only thing in the double garage. Amazing.
Where I located the lift, I need to back up, close the garage door, then roll forward to park and open the door. There is ~1" from my license plate to the door and the beam won't let the door come down in its final resting spot. Sometimes less than an inch if the car isn't dead nuts straight. If I was building my own house, definitely wider garage doors and probably segmented area (eg. two car garage for the daily drivers, a separate space for the toys/tools). Oh well, not likely to happen.
Still working out a toy shed design that can pass architectural control, by-law and maximize volume. Also need to add a driveway and culvert unless I access it from my neighbours so that is probably the biggest obstacle. Accessing it from my side has a 4' wide choke point in stone.