If you’re lucky enough to have a garage attached to your home, you know how much extra storage space it provides you and your family. However, as big as they might seem, most American families easily fill their garage with stuff, especially if they’ve been living in the same house for many years. Then, as the years go by, the stuff keeps piling up! If your garage is filled to the rafters or looks like it was hit by an indoor hurricane, and you’re gung-ho on getting it organized and looking good, the information below was written just for you! It’s a list of the top 7 tips for garage organization, brought to you by the folks at Hide-Away. To learn them all and get your garage looking good, read on!
7 Tips for Organizing Your Garage Like a Pro
1. Start Early on a Clear, Dry Day
Organizing a 2 or 3-car garage is not a task you can accomplish in an hour or two. In most cases, it will take you the better part of a day, if not 2, to get everything out, arranged, put aside, sold, given away, trashed, etc. For these reasons, getting up as early as possible and tackling this task on a clear, warm (but not hot) day is essential. That way, you won’t have to worry about inclement weather bringing your well-laid plans to a grinding halt (or sweating like mad due to the heat).
2. Sell, Donate or Trash As Much as You Can
The average American garage is filled with stuff the families don’t use, need, or even want. If that’s you, the first thing you need to do before you begin to organize is to sell, donate or trash as much of those items as possible.
Here’s the thing; there’s no sense organizing stuff that you will never, ever use. Doing so might end up costing you more money on shelves, plastic storage bins, and more, which truly defeats the purpose of keeping them. In short, donate, trash or gift that stuff and get it out of your way while you organize the rest.
3. Consider Purchasing Several Shelving Units
There’s no denying that one of the best and easiest ways to organize any space, especially a garage, is to purchase and use several shelving units. Shelving units, whether plastic or metal, give you the opportunity to use a lot of vertical space that you lose with items that don’t stack like boxes stack. (That’s a lot of stuff.)
Shelving units also help you find things more quickly, one of the tenets of good organization. Lastly, many metal shelving units have shelves that can be arranged in variable positions, allowing you to store short things on one shelf and tall things on another.
4. Use Clear Plastic Bins
If you take a look around your local big-box retailer, you’ll notice most have an entire aisle of large, clear, plastic storage bins for sale. You can find them in a wide variety of sizes also, making them perfect for storing small things or large things.
The best reason to purchase clear plastic bins, however, is the ability to see what’s inside them at a glance. With cardboard boxes, it’s necessary to either open the box or label it well in order to know what’s inside. With clear plastic bins you can see the item from outside the bin without opening it and simply reach in and grab it(with the benefit of added protection). It’s a genuine time saver!
5. Invest in a Tool Organization System
Of all the items Americans store in their garage, tools are probably #1 in popularity. The problem, however, is that tools come in many different sizes, shapes, and weights, which means you must have a good tool organization system.
In some cases, that might be a simple toolbox, while in others, it might be a matter of putting up a pegboard, purchasing an extra-large toolbox, and using other tool organization products. If you have a large tool collection, keeping them organized allows you to access and use them more easily and helps your tools last longer.
6. Create Specific Zones in Your Garage
This simple, but effective garage organization tip involves creating specific zones for different types of items. For example, keeping all of your automotive tools and parts in one part of the garage, while keeping gardening and lawn tools, sports equipment, outdoor furniture, and other items in their own designated garage areas also.
The benefit of doing this is that you will know, more or less, exactly where something is in your garage, rather than having everything mixed together in a big jumbled mess. This also can help in a household with children, as it lets them know exactly where to put things when they are done using them, which can help with keeping your garage organized over time.
7. Maintain an Organized Garage when You’re Done
One of the biggest mistakes most folks make after organizing their garage is to rest on their laurels and let the stuff start piling up willy-nilly yet again. However, organization experts agree that keeping an organized garage looking good with a little proactive attention is much easier than organizing your entire garage after a few weeks, months, or years of neglect.
Let Hide-Away Help You Organize Your Garage
For many people, the items stored in their garage are items they want to keep, whether for their grandkids, the future, or whatever. If that’s you, but you’ve run out of space to keep everything you treasure, Hide-Away can help.
At Hide-Away, we rent safe, secure storage units that are surprisingly similar to your garage! Even better, with security cameras, fully-fenced and well-lit locations, plus on-site managers, your treasured belongings will be safe and sound. When you’re ready, you can easily reserve a storage unit online with Hide-Away, and it will be ready when you arrive. Until then, we hope the 7 top garage organization tips we’ve provided today will help you organize your garage just the way you like it!