These days a lot of residential properties have some sort of garage or enclosed carport area. While they’re initially meant to hold vehicles, they also need to house things like lawnmowers, snowblowers, shovels, and other lawn care equipment. A few even double as a handyman’s workshop.
Unfortunately, they also tend to be placed for quick storage. Things that clutter up the house tend to get dumped in the garage, where they quickly clutter up the garage. More than one family has ended up with a garage so cluttered with improperly stored items that they started parking the cars in the driveway.
Fortunately, the world of modern organization systems has evolved to now include a lot of innovative garage organization solutions. In this article, we’ll take a look at a dozen of the most effective things you can do to get your garage decluttered and organized.
Add Adjustable Shelves For Vertical Storage
Shelves are a great way to move things off the floor and hang them up on the wall. There are track systems that let you adjust the height and spacing of the shelves as need-be. There are even heavy-duty options that let you stack things like lumber.
Install Heavy Duty Free-Standing Shelving Units
Engineers and material manufacturers have been hard at work over the years creating free standing garage shelves that can handle an incredible amount of pounds per shelf. This is a great way to take heavy items splayed across your garage floor and give them a vertical home. You could also install dividers to help hold power tools and lawn equipment.
Install A PegBoard System On One Or More Walls
Pegboard systems used to be arguably plain. The old-fashioned ones tended to do little more than holding some lightweight tools. Yet they were also very versatile, which kept them from completely going out of style.
Today pegboard systems are enjoying a vigorous renaissance thanks to robust improvements in durability and accessories. Now they can be used to hold a wide range of tools, as well as small bins to keep your hardware and fasteners organized. There are even some heavy-duty accessories that let you hang brooms and lightweight power tools like string trimmers.
Install A Dedicated Work Bench
If you have a handyman in the family, or you’ve simply been using the garage as a project workspace for cutting boards and putting things together, you might want to get a dedicated workbench. Not only does it give you a place to mount things like a bench vice or a grinder, but they also tend to have their drawers and cupboards to keep tools neatly stored away.
Install Cabinets With Locks
Just like heavy-duty garage shelves, garage storage cabinets have also enjoyed a robust evolution. Many are made from metal but might also have stout wooden shelves that are capable of bearing some serious weight.
You might want to prioritize a garage cabinet with lockable doors if you have curious little ones in the house. When you’re done using that power saw or rotary tool you can lock it up to keep it safe.
Install Fold-Down Shelves
If you occasionally need a workspace to put things together or just help you kids with their school science project, you might not want to make the full investment in a commercial-grade workbench. In a scenario like this, you can install a folding shelf made from three-quarter-inch plywood, with locking hinges and fold-down support legs. This gives you a viable working countertop, without having to lose precious square footage to a permanent workbench.
Install Ceiling Storage Bins
Most garages have a lot of available unused overhead space. This is a great place to hang shelves or heavy-duty baskets to store seasonal items. Even heavy-duty storage hooks screwed into stringers can give you a convenient place to store your kid’s bicycle during the winter months.
A Pull-Down Attic Storage System
The garage attic above the typical ceiling space offers a lot of unused square footage. In recent years, many homeowners have taken to using this attic space to store seasonal items. If you have an access door, you can slip the Christmas tree box up there. Though you might also want to have a heavy-duty pull-down system installed. Most are spring-loaded, making it easy to move even heavy items up and down.
Hang Garden And Lawn Tools On The Walls
Even if you don’t want to invest in a pegboard system, you can still find clips with heavy-duty fasteners to hold brooms, shovels, rakes, and string trimmers
Install Heavy Duty Shelves In Your Basement
There’s a lot of cross-contamination between the basement and the garage. Taking a day to get your basement organized gives you space to move things out of the garage. Christmas tree boxes, seasonal clothing, tote bins with loose items can all be moved to the basement to give you back some precious real estate in the garage.
Invest In Stackable Tote Bins
The floor is prime real estate in the garage. Loose items and lesser-used tools tend to take up a lot of square inches on the floors and shelves. When you move these things to heavy-duty stackable totes, you get back a lot of valuable space. The totes can then be stacked one on top of the other to minimize their overall footprint. You can then label each tote to make it easy to find what you need later.
Install Magnet Strips On The Walls
The magnets available on the consumer level have gotten powerful. Some are even strong enough to hold a hammer! You can screw assorted magnetic strips onto the walls to hold a wide range of tools and knives. Placing one or two near a workbench or countertop can also give you a convenient place to hold nails, screws, and other fasteners while you work on a project. This is much better than having one roll-off on you and you spend the next week worrying about your car’s tires every time you pull into the garage.
