Are you constantly running out of room in your garage?
It isn’t easy to find everything you need when you have thousands of things lying around. But there is one simple solution to solve this problem for good – organize your garage. Below, we have put together a list of our top tips to give you some helpful ideas on creating order out of chaos and properly organizing your garage. Instead of dumping everything haphazardly in the space, you can use our guide to arrange everything logically, making it easy to store or access anytime.
Tips To Organize Your Garage
1. Clear Out the Junk and Declutter
If you live in a typical American suburb, your garage is probably full of more than just cars and bikes. It may hold old furniture or your children’s old toys that haven’t seen the light of the day in years. It might have never-used power tools or even Christmas decorations. But one thing is for sure: there are tons of things in there that your garage is too small to contain.
Thus, there is no way you can successfully organize and make more space in your garage without first getting rid of everything you don’t need. For starters, begin by tossing out old and worn-out belongings.
Remember not to spend too much time dwelling on any individual item before deciding whether to throw it away. Store items in designated bins for future projects if they are broken or outdated but workable with a little love and care. And when you come across things that you’re not sure about, remember to get rid of them if you don’t regularly use, need, or want them.
Here are a few ways you can free yourself of all the extra things in your garage, other than sending it off to the junkyard:
- For items that are in good condition, give them out to a local charity, resale store, or homeless shelter.
- Distribute your old and unused items to your friends and family members, who might benefit from them.
- Sell off your spare possessions and make some money in a garage sale or by selling online.
Also, don’t forget to have plenty of empty bins and bags on hand to store all the items you plan to throw away or donate.
2. Split Items into Categories
One of the best ways to organize your garage is by storing similar items together. Dividing things into categories this way can make it much easier for you to find anything in the garage while also keeping clutter at bay.
Think about grouping items together in small batches to execute this idea successfully. And to make this even simpler, here are some basic categories you can sort your belongings into:
- Power tools and equipment
- Car and other automotive-related supplies
- General home storage items
- Sports equipment
- Spare parts and recyclable materials
First, sort all your belongings into these five categories (or others of your choosing) and then branch out into smaller ones, as needed. Organizing in this way will provide you a good picture of how much room each category will take so that you can assign it the most appropriate location in your garage.
3. Plan Before You Act
Before you plan to organize your garage, be sure to take some time for this project, so you don’t feel rushed. Set aside an entire day, if need be, and schedule it in advance so you can prepare everything else accordingly.
By now, you already have a good idea about what items you have on hand. So, go ahead and map out how you want to organize everything within the space. Take a pen and paper while going through your ideas in your head and start to draw out some basic plans. This is the best time to think about where everything will go. Make sure you pick out the optimum places to store your power tools, sports equipment, home supplies, and other items while leaving enough space to park all your vehicles.
4. Keep Easy Access to Frequently Needed Items
One of the biggest benefits of having an organized garage is that you can conveniently locate anything you need without spending ages looking for it. For instance, you can store all your yard equipment in one corner of the space so you know exactly where to look for your shovel when you need it. If you’re working on a home project, you can save yourself time and energy when making repairs around the house by placing your most frequently used items at or near your workstation.
5. Use Handy Storage Solutions
Do you think organizing your garage means spending a lot of money? Think again! While sorting out and properly arranging your garage items is a big task, it is certainly not an expensive one. Here are some storage solutions that’ll help you tremendously in creating more space:
Drawers and Cabinets
These are quite useful for holding smaller tools and items such as screws, fixtures, and arts and crafts materials. You can even dedicate each section of the drawer or cabinet to house specific kinds of items.
Storage Boxes
From cardboard boxes to plastic containers, stackable storage units make it easy to store away items by utilizing more of the vertical space.
Shelves
You need shelves installed in your home to keep the place neat and organized. So, why not do the same for your garage? Adding a long shelf along the length of your garage is a great way to make the most of the small space that you have to work with.
Storage Pegboard
Pegboards make great use of the wall space for storing tools and other equipment. Plus, they make it convenient to place everything so you can easily find what you need. All you require is a piece of pegboard, some drywall screws, and a few other common household items, and there you have it; your pegboard is ready for organizing!
Hooks and Hanging Storage
If you feel your garage is too small, try adding hooks to the ceiling or walls to create hanging storage options.
6. Keep Up the Maintenance
While organizing your garage makes it tidy, the real challenge is maintaining this system for the long run. Make it a habit to always put things back in their proper place after you’re done using them. Try to keep a regular maintenance check on your garage, and even get the family involved so the space always looks spick and span.
Say Goodbye to Your Messy and Unorganized Garage
Finding space and storing belongings in the garage may be a problem for others, but not for you! Now you can make your unorganized garage space a thing of the past. With our handy tips, your garage will soon be looking good and be organized top to bottom, leaving you extra space to properly store your belongings and even more parking space.
