The biggest challenge when organizing your garage is deciding what to do with all the “stuff” you’ve accumulated over the years. These prized possessions don’t have to be tossed, donated, or sold at your next garage sale: they just have to be organized. Once this is accomplished, the garage can be a refuge for your car, motorcycles, bicycles, hobbies, sports equipment, or in the extreme, it can be your man-cave. It can be your ultimate sanctuary out of the weather.
First item of business is assigning space. Garage walls provide more storage area than the floor, so this is the place to start. Wall mounted shelves and cabinets can be ideal for storing all those cans, bags, boxes, bottles, and buckets you don’t need that often. Many of these items you may want out of sight behind cabinet doors, while others you may need to be more visible and within reach for easy access. Smaller items can be organized in drawers or trays, like all those nails, screws, nuts & bolts that you can never find when you need them. You will literally add usable square footage to your home.
Whether your favorite hobby is woodworking, home improvement, gardening, automobile or motorcycle mechanics, this can all be accommodated in a well-organized garage. A practical workbench is essential to provide control over all the equipment and tools that support each of these hobbies. Surround the workbench with shelving and cabinetry that can store all your supplies, while keeping your more popular tools easily accessible on wall-mounted racks. While little gardening actually goes on in the garage, all the shovels, rakes, hoes, weed eaters, and hoses can be conveniently stored there. A tool strip on the wall can easily accommodate these items.
Whatever sport your family favors: baseball, football, lacrosse, golf, skiing, cycling, or other favorite pastime, you need a place to store all the required equipment. A neat and tidy look can be obtained with organized storage displayed on the walls instead of settling for having it all scattered on the floor. Cubbies and bins can provide space organization for all your favorite hobbies and sporting goods, while specialty hooks can accomodate a bike for every member of the family, and let’s not forget all those golf bags and fishing rods.
Where do you keep your trash and recycling bins in anticipation of your neighborhood’s curbside collection day? Normal practice may be to hide these in your garage, taking up valuable space. Parking these bins against a wall will allow for overhead cabinets or storage racks to maximize the vertical space above the bins.
A cluttered garage may become a combat zone as you attempt to maneuver around assorted items, hunt for objects you know you have, and steer your vehicle through tight quarters. Safety is a very important consideration when it comes to garage organization.
The solution is not to move the items from one place to another as you create a path, it is not to go out and purchase items you need right now but can’t find, it is not to leave your vehicle parked outside in inclement weather because you have no space for it in the garage.