The lawn or garden shed is one of those places that doesn’t get a lot of attention until there is a problem. All of a sudden you find yourself dealing with tangled rakes and extension cords that are snarled in shapes that cannot be described by our modern understanding of geometry.
Chances are you’ve found yourself in a situation like this and you decided to roll up your sleeves to spend an industrious Saturday getting the garden shed back in order. Only to turn around a week or two later to find it has descended back into a haphazard mess. It can be an even bigger problem in the winter when you want to just put the shovel or snowblower away, as fast as possible to get back in the nice warm house.
Ultimately, the problem with this trend isn’t your efforts, but the lack of having thoughtful organization systems in place. If this sounds like a scenario you’ve found yourself in a time or two in the past, you might want to try some of the following genius garden tool storage ideas.
Keep Salt, Gravel & Granular Items In A Sealed Bucket
Salt, kitty litter, sand, gravel, and other granular materials are frequently used in the wintertime to help melt ice and improve the traction on slippery surfaces. Though they are also very easy to spill and even the strongest plastic bags seem to get a hole in them at some point. Storing these loose, granular things in buckets with a lid, or just an old kitty litter tub helps prevent catastrophic spills.
Shovel Holders Near The Door
Chances are good that you have a favorite shovel or ice scraper that you prefer over the rest of the tangle. Though simply leaning them up against the wall usually leads to catastrophic tip-overs and the very real risk of tripping on a handle when you go looking for them in the dark.
Simple holder racks can be attached to the walls and can handle the weight of three or four shovels at one time. It’s a great option for keeping your favorite shovel. If you have young children who like to help with their own special shovel, the rack encourages them to put it back where it belongs when they are done.
Pegboard Is Your Friend
Chances are you remember your grandfather’s workshop as a place with a small section of pegboard with all kinds of tools hung from nails and other random hooks that may or may not have been designed to work with a pegboard system.
Well, you’ll be glad to hear that modern innovation has come a long way in reinventing the age-old pegboard, with a lot of creative ways to hang all manner of hand tools, lightweight power tools, and extension cords. It’s a great way to get summer’s tools and handyman equipment in a proper place so they don’t get intertwined with the winter tools you need to use every few days.
Pallet Rack Storage Bins
If you don’t have a garden shed that lends itself to wall hanging racks and shovel handle holders, you could just as easily repurpose a pallet or two. This creates a slotted bin that lets you stand up shovels and other long-handled hand tools to keep them from sliding out to become a serious tripping hazard.
Garden Rake Hand Tool Holders
If you have an old garden rake lying around, especially one that managed to separate itself from the handle, you might be able to repurpose it as hanger hooks. This lets you hang up all manner of hand tools with holes in the base of the handle or loops.
Repurposed Fishing Rod Holders
Avid anglers have been trying for decades to come up with innovative ways to suspend their favorite rods and fishing poles. When you consider the high value of a good fishing rod, it’s no wonder why they’ve put so much effort into engineering them to hold long items with confidence. This also means you can repurpose one to hold summer’s long-handled tools and other warm seasonal items.
Door Hanging Bins & Shelves
The backside of a garden shed door is often a disused and often-ignored space that can be used to hold a variety of lightweight items. This is a great place for small hand tools, snowblower keys, and ice cleats. Even if you can’t hang a pouch system over the door, you might still be able to install contact adhesive hooks or install wire shelves.
Get Lazy Susan
Lazy Susans are commonly used in kitchen corner cabinets to make the most use out of the space. It lets you keep lesser-used pots and pans deep in the back, yet easy to access with just a spin of the table. So, nothing is keeping you from buying one of these heavy-duty lazy susans for the lawn shed. With a little creative carpentry or perhaps some PVC sleeves, you can create a rotating cavalcade of some of your most popular shovels, rakes, brooms & chisels. This way you can grab what you need when you need it, with just a simple spin of the dial.
Installed Battery-Powered LED Lights
It might not seem like a big deal until you find yourself ferreting around in the dark of night or the early morning before dawn looking for what you need in the garden shed. More than one person has given themselves over to an unnecessary swearing spree while trying to find the right tool in a pitch-black garden shed.
Fortunately, LED technology has come a long way. They are now available in small battery-powered units that can be activated with a simple touch. Since they are so energy efficient you don’t have to worry about them dying any time soon. LED lights are best for garden sheds where an extension cord or a power line from the house just isn’t feasible.
Hose Reels For Extension Cords & Holiday Lights
Holiday lights and extension cords have a magical ability to tangle into unsightly snarls that can be more than just frustrating when you want to use them. Getting them untangled usually means taking your gloves off, which causes your hands to freeze, robbing you of the dexterity you need to untangle them in the first place. Using old hose reels to carefully spool up your extension cords and holiday lights helps prevent snarls while also keeping them from accidentally falling on the floor.
