The Best Items to Help You Organize Your Garage
The garage is a strange place where you store everything from bikes to screws to boxes of stuff you vowed to donate last year. (You might even have a second refrigerator.) Cleaning it out can easily be put off since it’s still industrial clutter that doesn’t necessarily have to look good, but you should really organize the space. Think how much easier your next project will be if you can actually find a screwdriver.
First: Clean up your garage
You should treat the garage like any room in your home, decluttering it and getting rid of things you don’t really need. You can use any of a variety of decluttering methods , but I’m going to recommend Andrew Mellen’s Organizational Triangle as a starting point for this task. It relies on just three important principles: every object needs a home; keep like with like; and take a “some in, some out” approach. For this you will also need a lot of storage boxes .
Move in small sections throughout the space; Don’t try to do the whole garage at once. Start with a desk, a shelving unit, or a pile of stuff, and then take it all out onto the floor. Sort like with like—put all likes together. The screws go together. Bike tools go together. Outdoor equipment such as leaf blowers and mowers can be used together. Make piles of all the same items, then go through each pile and get rid of anything you don’t need or use. It’s tough no matter what you’re cleaning, but the garage is a real danger zone because it’s so easy to say, “I haven’t needed a screw this size in years, but what if I do?” Refer back to the proven 20/20 rule by asking yourself two questions: “Can I replace this item for less than $20?” and “Can I replace it in less than 20 minutes?” If you answer yes, get rid of it. The space you save is more valuable than the $20 you might spend three years from now if you really need the item.
If something is useful and still works, feel free to donate it, but be sure to do it right away so it doesn’t continue to take up space. From there, once you’ve cleaned everything out, place the things you’re storing into containers. Every item needs a home and should be stored with similar items.
The Best Tools for Organizing Your Garage
First, purchase peg boards. Large shelving is great, but it can become very cluttered over time, and pegs can help you make efficient use of vertical space.
The beauty of using a peg board is that you can buy all sorts of accessories for it: hooks, hangers, slots for certain tools, and containers can all slide in and out of holes in the board, giving you the ability to designate storage areas. places for any type of garage equipment. Take this set.
Shelving is also important, but you may want to upgrade to shelving with doors so you can store rarely used items out of sight. It doesn’t have to be expensive or massive.
That being said, you should still use small containers to organize less bulky items. Remember that everything should be kept together with similar things, and everything needs its own home. Try simple baskets for this .
Lastly, I said you should maximize vertical space, and I meant it. Any items that aren’t secured somewhere run the risk of crashing into your car or tripping you, which is especially dangerous in a garage, so they should be kept out of the way. Consider installing a top shelf for large trash cans, bicycles, and other large items such as shovels. Store out-of-season items on the top shelf, replacing them every six months.