When you organize your garage you don’t want to have to redo it in a couple of months. You want a system that works and keeps you from treading old ground. Don’t just put things back where they belong. Make that space work for you! Here’s how you can organize your garage and maximize your space!
- Clear out your garage
- Use shelving and baskets
- Use hanging racks
Clear out your Garage
One of the first steps to organize your garage actually requires you to not organize at all. Rather, you need to clear out your entire garage. Why though? Doing this can help you achieve a couple of things.
You can clean the space
One of the most important tasks when it comes to organizing anything is to start with a clean slate. Oftentimes, people will try cleaning and organizing a garage by just adding some shelves and calling it done. Except, in a couple of months they find that their garage is dirty, cluttered, and not as useful again. Starting with a clean slate helps you identify where items need to go. It can also help you re-think the space to best fit your purposes. Many homeowners don’t do this and end up wasting time whenever they organize their garage, as Smart Family Money points out.
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You can identify what items need to be in the garage
Pulling everything out of the garage can help you spot items that don’t belong. Every garage serves a different purpose. Whether that’s a mechanic shop, hangout spot, or a place to store your football equipment, you need to maximize its use. To do this, sift through your belongings and pick out items that do not belong, and store them somewhere else. Once you’ve cleared out your garage, now you know exactly where items belong
You can categorize items before placing them in the garage
Before moving your items into the garage, start grouping similar items together. That way you can start planning your storage ideas around how to group items in a certain place. Additionally, you won’t waste money on storage containers that you may not need. Now you’ve cleared and cleaned your garage, identified what does and does not belong in the garage, and now you have grouped your items together. What’s next?
Use Shelving and baskets
Since most garages have room for a car or two and not much else, you’re going to have to get creative about how you organize your garage. Most people recommend shelving that gives you space to store items vertically. Now that you have your groupings of items, you can start buying and storing items by their group. Plan out where items will be stored before moving them. Think about things like:
- Walking space
- How often do you use an item?
- Do you plan on building a table in your garage?
- Are there any items that a kid must not be able to reach?
- …Or, alternately, are there any items that a kid needs ready access to?
When it comes to placing items together, consider using storage baskets. Now, many people may be tempted to run down to a big box store and spend money for inflated pricing on storage containers. Don’t do that. Instead, hit up your local Dollar Store and see if you can find baskets or cases in which to store items for a fraction of the cost.
Use Hanging Racks
Last but not least, certain items are too big to fit on a shelf or in a basket. For those items, you’re going to need hanging racks. Garage hanging racks come in a variety of sizes and conditions. For example, you can get bike hanging racks or you can store multiple containers on a ceiling hanging rack. When you organize your garage, you want to use hanging racks mainly to allow walking space around vehicles.
Again, try to keep similar items together when using a hanging rack. It’ll be easier on the eyes, and easy to navigate when you come looking for an item.
Are you interested in learning more about organizing your garage? How about your home? Don’t worry, we can help! You can find an expert here to help you with your home. Want to find out more about top-quality organizing from the pros in-person? You can! You can find pros at the Lake Houston Home & Outdoor Living Show on March 20-21, 2021, and Cy-Fair Home & Outdoor Living Show on March 27 & 28. Special guests will appear such as: KonMarie Professional Organizer (trained by Netflix’s Marie Kondo) Ashley Barber, Professional Organizers Ellen Delap, and more! Find out more information including highlighted speakers and vendors here.