Garage Organization Made Easy

If the only thing in your garage is your car, you have a lot of wasted space. Worse yet, you might’ve actually used that space to collect items that were never organized. If you reclaim the space in your garage, you reclaim one of the largest open areas in your entire home, and that can mean getting a lot more enjoyment out of your property.

Start by Sorting

Your first job is to sort through all of your items. Organize them by use. For example, if you have a hoe, a rake and other garden tools, those would logically be grouped together. The same applies to all of your household tools, your sporting equipment and all the other items that you probably have stored up in your garage. You want to put all like items together so it’s more convenient to get to them whenever you need them and so that things can be found in logical ways.

Storage Options

Some of the best storage options are actually very inexpensive. Crates and bins are indispensable for properly organizing items in a garage, and you can find them in just about any home improvement store.

For larger items, you want to look into pegboards, hooks and other types of storage devices that make it easy to store these away without taking up a lot of shelf space. The shelving units will be used for your smaller items. The smallest items of all can be grouped together in crates and bins, with labeling providing an easy way to find them. Remember that you should always organize items so that those items you use the most are the most easily accessible.

Use the Crates and Bins Right

Using your crates and bins correctly offer some real benefits. You want to take all of the items that belong together, put them in a shared crate or bin and then label them. When you put the crates and bins on the shelf for storage, make sure you turn them around so that the labels are visible. This makes it easy for you to know what’s in the bins, even from across the room.

Be sure to store your sports equipment in this way. It’s the best way to store it and it prevents damage. Balls and other awkward items can be stored in crates and are very easily found, as they’re visible. For longer items, like bats and clubs, you can find specialty trunks or bins or just use ones with longer dimensions. You’ll find that all of your sporting equipment lasts longer when you start this way.

Maximize Your Wall Space

Pegboard is an incredibly versatile storage tool that you can use for many different types of items. When you are planning where you’re going to locate your shelving, remember that you’ll have some items that just will not lend themselves to being put on a shelf. You’ll want to use longer shelving for larger items but, at a certain point, you want to use hooks and other pegboard options to store tools and other items.

Garages tend to have some dangerous materials in them, so be sure you put these in a locked cabinet. You also want to do the same for your power tools, to protect them and keep them away from people who shouldn’t be handling them.

Use the Ceiling

Your ceiling space is a great storage resource. Open your garage door and see where it moves so that you can tell where any items you store won’t interfere with it. You can find products that help you to store items in your ceiling space easily.

Label Everything

The labeling scheme you use is vital to whether or not your organizing efforts are going to be successful. Make sure you label every bin in your garage correctly, and make sure you position the labels so that they are easily visible. You should use a permanent marker or printed labels for the best results.