Fall In Love With Your Garage
Chances are your garage is one of the largest, if not the largest open space in your house. These days a two or three car garage is often used to keep the vehicles out of the elements. There’s also room in a lot of modern garages to store seasonal items and overflow from the house.
A home with a three-car garage, detached garage, or just a spare garage stall can sometimes get the creative storage juices flowing. For some people, a garage is a workshop. In a situation like this, organizing tools, materials, and equipment make a major difference in how easy the workshop is to use, as well as improving safety. A well-designed wall organization system will spare you the eternal frustration of wondering where you left the tool you need when you need it now! The possibilities for this extra space can be tantalizing. Making the most out of it usually requires the experienced eye of a storage and closet space designer.
Cutting Edge Wall Organization For Garage & Workshop
At Closettec we have access to a staggering number of organization systems designed to maximize wall storage in a garage or workshop. Our designers have years of experience assessing client’s needs to find the system that will work best for them in the here and now, as well as any plans for the future.
The first step typically involves a thorough assessment of the space and what you have currently stored in it. This might include recommending other organization systems in the garage to move storage items out of the way. Sometimes something as simple as an overhead hanging basket or shelving system can get seasonal items up and out of the way. Workbench storage and organization might also help house tools and equipment that would take up too much space on a wall organization system.
Even if you don’t have an extra open stall in your garage, chances are there is some extra space in their for storage. You might even have existing items stored in there that are getting out of hand, or that need more than just some basic manual straightening.
At Closettec our designers have years of experience transforming disorganized or under-utilized garage space into a well-organized system with everything in its proper place. The system and components that are right for your garage will depend on the available space, as well as what you intend to store there.
We can then factor in the tools and equipment you have now, while also accounting for space should things expand in the years to come.
Garage Wall Organizers
Another prime location to consider for garage storage space is the walls. If your vehicles are already packed in tight, upper cabinets or a tasteful heavy-duty basket system might provide you with the added space you need to hold some basic tools, boxes, and other seldom used items.
If your garage also doubles as a workshop space, you might be interested in a heavy duty pegboard and hook system to hang tools near or above a workbench. Many people with an open stall in their two or three car garage, will transform that space into a workshop.
Overhead Shelves & Basket Systems
Floor space is often at a premium in a garage. Especially if you are going to be parking vehicles there. The last thing you want to do is pull into the garage only to bump a pile of disorganized boxes. Not to mention if a box or a stack of something comes down on your vehicle, or you accidentally run it over.
Being able to take seldom—used items and seasonal items and securely store them in overhead shelves or a basket system helps alleviate floor clutter. It can also improve overall garage safety.
The Garage As A Man Cave
As the name suggests, the concept of a man cave started out as a way to use some empty space in the basement for a husband, or father to get away from the noise and bother inside the house. It’s meant to be the sort of place, where a guy can get away, put his feet up, relax, and maybe even watch the game with his friends.
Today the concept of the man cave is moving out of the basement to find a new home in the unused sections of the family garage.
The Reverse Man Cave Playroom
The idea of a man cave is to give yourself a place to get away from the noise and bother of the house. This usually means the children that you love so dearly, and you would love them even more if they could just be quiet. Rather than evacuating your home to get away from the noise and mess of the children, you might also consider turning an unused stall in your garage into a children’s playroom or craft room.
If you think about it, there’s probably already a floor drain. The walls and floor in a garage can be easily repainted. A lot of garages are even close to the laundry room and other than perhaps a throw rug, for their comfort, there are no plastic toys hiding in the hall carpet for your bare feet.
Closettec’s designers are well-versed and experienced in a wide range of playroom options. We can set it up to an extra spot in the garage to match where your child is right now, with the versatility to suit their changing needs in the future.
At Closettec one of our areas of expertise focuses on transforming an area in the garage into a man cave that can serve many purposes.
This could include turning it into:
A wood shop or other type of craft room
A place to recline and watch your TV shows undisturbed
A home gym or weight room
A home bar
A game room with things like a pool table or dart machine
Chances are if you are thinking about a wall organization system for your garage, then you are looking for more than just a bunch of pegboard with a few stainless steel peg hooks. While this tried and true system might be popular and could even be a part of your garage organization system, there are many other options to consider.
Making The Material Choice
Let’s face it, tools and equipment can be heavy. Put a bunch of them together on a shelf made from poor quality materials and you might start seeing it bow or warp. One important priority to focus on in the early stages of designing a wall organization system is the material choice. Some of the popular options to consider for shelves and wall storage cabinets include:
- Solid wood
- Heavy duty laminated or bonded wood
- MDF or heavy-duty plywood
Heavy Duty Cabinets
Cabinets are a popular way to get tools and equipment off the floor and away from the workbench space. The shelves inside them typically need to be pretty strong, if they are going to hold a significant number of tools, fasteners, and hardware.
Of course, just having a door to access a box hanging on the wall isn’t necessarily going to help in terms of organization. Without some type of organization and possible labeling system inside the cabinet, it is bound to get disorganized. There are a variety of systems we can help you explore to find the right one to keep your tool cabinet organized and well maintained.
Durable Drawers For Tool Storage
At first glance, a drawer might not seem all that complicated. Yet if you take one that just slides wood on wood and fill it with heavy tools, fasteners, and hardware components, you will find it can be quite an ordeal!
A heavy duty drawer also needs smooth slides for easy access. This might include slides that run on bearings, as well as a strong drawer face with a firm or flush-mounted handle.
Shelves And Baskets That Can Bear The Load
Shallow shelves can have a potential place in a garage wall storage system. Many of these shelves hold small items and they can also support small jars or other containers to hold nails, screws, and small hardware components.
Deeper shelves might also be incorporated in a wall storage system, or built into a custom workbench. When designing a shelving system, it’s important to factor in the weight. This will influence the type of supports and fasteners that are necessary to support it. A shelf or shelving system that is meant to bear a modest amount of weight might be secured to the wall with drywall anchors. A shelving system that will bear a significant load may need to be secured directly into the studs.
Accents And Accessories
Of course, a garage wall storage system needs more than just shelves, hooks, hangers, and cabinets. There are a lot of other seemingly minor accessories that can make a major impact on how you use your garage-workshop.
Extra Garage Accessories
Without a well-designed organization system, the average garage has a tendency to collect more items than it can hold on its own. In many of these situations, the clutter can build up to a point where one or perhaps even all the vehicles are parked outside.
Fortunately, Closet Tec we have access to a wide range of sophisticated garage and storage space organization systems. Our designers can help you find the one that is right for your family and your available space.
There are a lot of optional extras and accessories that can be included in an effective garage organization system.
This includes things like:
Workbenches vary in size, shape, and storage capability based on their intended function. In a residential home, they are most often found in craft rooms, home workshops, and garages. Though there are some other places where you might find a workbench for example in the private home library of a book collector or someone who restores books as a hobby.
Wood and metal shops tend to be larger places where eight-foot long pieces of wood can be ripped on table saws, or long thick gauge metal can be manipulated or welded. This type of workbench needs to personify the phrase “Heavy-Duty.”
Some need to be able to be secured to the floor to prevent the torque generated by mounted power tools. Worktops also need to be stout and may require a bolted shop vice to hold material. While these requirements are certainly functional and critical for safety, there is still some room for storage available in the lower areas of the workbench.
This can be a great place to keep safety equipment as well as basic tools you need on hand for a current project. There are several workbench organizational systems that Closet Tec’s designers might recommend. This could include basket systems, built-in shelves, or adjustable cubbies. A flush mounted or sliding cabinet door might also be nice in a woodshop to help keep things like sawdust from getting into the storage space.
