The dream of most homeowners is to have a garage capable of holding all of their stuff. Ideally the space should be used as everything from a storeroom to a place to work on a car or various personal projects to an exercise room and place to work with potted plants and store related gardening implements. Too often, however, this is not the case at all. In reality most garages are little more than a dumping ground for any possessions which do not have a designated home. This general messiness makes it difficult to find important items but it is possible to reclaim your space. In order to double the effective storage space in your garage and make everything easier to find, simply follow these steps:
- Get Rid of Clutter:
This is often the most difficult part of the process but it is a necessary step in proper organization. After all, there is no point in finding a place for something that you are never going to use, it will just sit there collecting dust and you will run out of space for the things that do matter, resulting in a messy drop zone all over again. This step will also free up a lot of extra space and give you a better idea of what kind of storage solutions will best suit your needs.
- Create Zones:
Divide all of the items you wish to keep into different zones of your garage. Place gardening items all in one area by the door to the garden, for example, and use vertical storage to keep important, day-to-day items accessible while tucking away seasonal or infrequently used possessions. Camping supplies or seasonal decorations can go up top while frequently used sports equipment can be kept near the bottom in easy reach.
- Make the Most of Your Space:
Overhead storage is a fantastic way to get light, large items up and off the floor. Camping equipment and bicycles can be placed on hanging racks or hooks to allow for easy access while keeping them out of the way.
When placing shelving, don’t neglect the top portion of the walls: A small step ladder can make it easy to retrieve items stored out of reach. Consider which items will go on each shelf and space them accordingly to save space. You may also want to add hooks to the bottom of some shelves in order to hang brooms, mops, and large gardening tools like hoes.
Pegboards are an excellent way to store and organize hand tools and gardening implements. Hang them above a workbench or by the door to the garden and outline each tool with a white line so it is easy to see exactly where each item belongs, and what items are missing or out of place.
The most important thing to remember while doing garage organization is to organize everything as much as possible and make sure that every single item has a home. This will prevent another messy pile from building up and make it easy to tackle some cleanups when necessary.
Author Bio:
Anne Flemings is an enthusiast homemaker who lives in Toronto with her husband and two kids. She loves interior designing and is always in pursuit of the latest changes and trends in home improvement. Her other interests lies in cooking, painting and blogging. She work as an interior designer and renovation adviser for Garage Living. You can follow her on twitter @AnneFlemings.