What a privilege it is to own a garage! You have a private shelter for your car and assorted equipment. If large enough, a garage hosts creative projects. For some dads, it’s a refuge from the pressures of life. For a garage to best serve these purposes, it must be organized. Below are some creative garage organization ideas.
Zoning
Begin de-cluttering by creating separate zones for what to keep, donate, and eliminate. Evaluate everything visible, plus what’s tucked away in cabinets and drawers. While sorting objects, group similar items together.
Downsizing
To distinguish what to save, determine:
- what objects you may need in the future
- unnecessary duplicates
- what’s outdated
- what still works
- whether broken items are fixable
- things to keep for sentimental reasons
- what you can recycle or re-purpose
If you’ve amassed a large inventory of marketable items, reserve them for a garage sale or posting on eBay.
Cleaning
After you’ve finished downsizing, transfer all remaining objects outside. Then, clean the floor with a de-greaser and brush or pressure washer. Scrub painted walls with a solution of warm water and dish detergent. Clean all the objects you’re keeping either by dusting, wet-wiping, or hosing them down. Next are clever ways to restore order to your cloister.
1. Pegboards
To install a pegboard, first mark wall studs with a pencil. Then, mark the height from which to hang the board. Using wood screws and a drill, mount wood strips horizontally over the studs. Affix three strips, at the top, middle, and bottom wall sections of where your board will be.
Next, place the pegboard against the wood strips, and align the edges. Secure the board to the strips with wood screws. Lastly, insert hooks and brackets, giving your tools a new home. Another pegboard option is building a four-sided caddy. First, buy a large piece of pegboard, and cut it into four panels. For the inside seams of your tower, obtain four long strips of wood. Also, purchase four caster wheels.
Apply wood glue down the lengths of the wood strips. Then, stand the pegboard pieces upright. Affix the wood strips to the insides, where the pegboard edges meet. Then, further secure the wood strips to the panels with screws. Turn the tower upside down, and install the casters. Add hooks to the pegboard, and your caddy is complete. If you like shiny finishes, install steel pegboards. A mobile option is a rolling pegboard stand.
2. Shoe Hangers
Suspend an over-the-door shoe organizer from its top metal grommets. Then fill the pockets with small items, such as cans of spray paint, bottles of cleaners, and tools with blunt edges.
3. Bins
Maximize your shelf space by lining them with bins. Plastic tubs are ideal for stashing sports accessories, toys, and seasonal items, such as beach gear and holiday decorations.
Are you short on shelves? If so, brace containers against the wall with scrap wood. Create a lower ledge with a narrow wood strip, on which to rest the base of the bin. Secure another wood strip along the top edge of the bin, as shown above. Then, overlap that wood strip with another, sitting flat against the upper inside edge of the bin. Recycling bins suit this purpose nicely.
Use plastic bins with open troughs to organize nuts, bolts, and screws. If you buy troughs with an accompanying rack kit, you can hang them from the backboard. Mobile options are bins on rolling racks and wheeled containers. Be sure to label each bin on the outside, and store similar objects inside. With chalkboard labels, you can easily change the contents.
4. Filing Cabinets
Set up a series of two-drawer filing cabinets. Then, lay a heavy wood plank on top. Now, you have a work surface plus storage space. If you buy filing cabinets with locking drawers, you have a secure place for tools and other valuables. Designate one drawer for filing manuals and warranties.
For layout flexibility, buy filing cabinets on wheels. Attach metallic rods to cabinet sides. Then, slip on several “S” hooks, and suspend your garden tools from their looped ends. You can also re-purpose a filing cabinet to store long-handled tools. Remove the drawers, and lie the back of the cabinet on the floor, drawer side up. Now, in the open compartments, place your rakes, shovels, brooms, pitchforks, pruners, and mops.
5. Magnetic Strips
Outfit garage walls or pegboard with horizontal magnetized bars, to hold tools with metal handles. Also, stick cleaned paint brushes on the magnets, to air dry. Affix empty soup cans as unique ways to store writing instruments and thin paint brushes.
Shipshape!
Are you primed to give your garage a thorough makeover? Five nifty hacks are pegboards, shoe hangers, bins, filing cabinets, and magnetic strips. Once all is reorganized, take photos of your shipshape layout. Then, invite your family inside. Have your camera ready to capture their awe!
