Despite most homes having a garage, many of these spaces don’t actually serve as useable spaces for storing vehicles. Instead of car parking, most homeowners find their garage is a mass of unorganized storage for old boxes, seasonal decor, home improvement tools and lawn and garden equipment. While cleaning out your garage may seem insurmountable, you can easily reorganize the space back into a garage in only a day or weekend.
To begin, sort through all of the items currently stored in your garage and begin placing them into three categories: keep, donate and throw out. Regardless of sentimentality, toss anything that the kids have outgrown or no longer play with along with broken items, expired chemicals and anything you haven’t used in the last two years.
Once you’ve donated and tossed the items you no longer use, you can begin organizing and cleaning.
Garage Organization
To begin finally organizing your garage, measure the dimensions of the space — including the size and location of windows, switches and doors — to help determine what type and size of storage you need. Also, take down the amount of space your car needs. To properly organize your garage, keep these garage organization tips in mind:
- Categorize similar items: For items you might use regularly that are similar, like yard tools and gardening chemicals, keep these close together.
- Use corners: The corners of your garage can become dead space, but they’re great for tucking large, bulky items like lawn mowers. In the corners, they can stay out of the way and avoid being knocked by the car.
- Frequently-used items: For items you use every day or very frequently, like recycling bins or bicycles, keep these near the door for easy access.
Tips for the Best Garage Storage Options
It’s beneficial to keep some garage organization ideas in mind. Once you’ve cleaned the space and determined which items are must-haves, decide on the best place to store everything:
- After categorizing similar garage storage items like yard tools, sports and recreational equipment, camping gear and seasonal decor, determine where each category should be stored. Think about how often you use those items and the space available.
- Use built-in cabinets and clear, modular storage instead of cabinets with doors. With open shelving and clear storage, you can quickly scan the items housed in each space. Plus, you’ll be discouraged from being disorganized by just hiding mess and clutter behind closed doors.
- For vertical storage, use a wall-mounted pegboard or wire grid, ideal for organizing tools, sports equipment and gardening tools.
- Don’t just let your overhead space go to waste. Instead, install overhead garage storage shelves that are mounted to the ceiling. This underused space on the ceiling is perfect for keeping infrequently-used items like camping equipment or seasonal outdoor decorations.
- Keep any items or storage containers off of the floor. This way, you can free up foot room and car space and avoid sloppy piles. If you purchase short shelves, make sure they’re on raised legs so you can easily keep the floor free.
After organizing your garage and properly storing all of your items, create a quarterly or biannual schedule to maintain your organization efforts. Also, after using items, make sure to quickly put them back in their storage location.
Benefits of Keeping Your Garage Organized
Even before you start your residential garage organization project, it can help to look at all the advantages so you can have some motivation going forward. You’re not just organizing your garage for the fun of it, after all — you’ll also be improving the safety of your garage, eliminating areas for pests to live and improving your garage’s overall appearance.
Know Where Everything Is
Organizing your garage will create an area that you’re familiar with. You’ll be able to find those old items you’ve been searching for and put them in a specific spot. Once you have everything in its rightful place, you can save a lot of time and energy that you otherwise would have spent searching for these hidden items.
Improve Safety
Garages can be home to tools like shears, saws and other sharp, potentially dangerous objects. By emphasizing garage door organization safety and moving those tools to one area, you can improve the safety of your home.
Enhance Your Garage’s Appearance
Once you’re done organizing, you can sit back and admire the clean, inviting atmosphere you’ve created in your garage. You’ll be proud of the job you did and will be happy to show it off to guests and neighbors.
Items to Avoid Storing In Your Garage
It’s easy for your garage to become a storage area for all kinds of different objects and materials. Try to resist the urge to throw anything in your garage — some of those objects could bring potential issues. Here are some items to avoid storing in your garage:
- Fridge: The large, roomy space of a garage might seem like the perfect spot for a fridge. Since the temperature is always changing in garages, however, you might be spending a lot of energy running that fridge to keep what’s inside cold.
- Paper and cardboard: Items made from paper or cardboard will easily break down in the climate of a garage. The remnants of these objects, aside from being a fire hazard, could also provide the perfect materials for rodents to start building a home.
- Food: Moisture is present in garages, making them poor places to store canned goods. Extreme temperatures will freeze and refreeze these products, forcing them to become inedible after a time. These wavering temperatures and humidity are also reasons why other goods like wine should not be stored in your garage.
- Hazardous chemicals: Be careful keeping hazardous materials in your garage. If they’re unneeded, it’s best to dispose of them promptly at your local hazmat disposal facility.
For All Your Garage Door Needs, Call Best Overhead Door Today
For nearly 30 years, Best Overhead Door, LLC has been helping residents of the Portland Metro area and Vancouver, WA, with all of their garage door sales, design and remodeling, repair and maintenance needs. We offer the finest and largest selection of Clopay® residential garage doors in the area and we welcome you to visit our storeroom to view our entire catalog. Schedule your garage door services today by filling out our online form or call (503) 620-1205 to speak to one of our specialists.
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