Garage Organizing

If you live in a wintry climate, you may not want to spend much time in your garage, if you have one, but now is a good time to think about how well your garage is organized.

The first, and most impactful, solution is to declutter and purge. It is obviously easiest when the large objects (such as cars) are removed first. Next, clean what’s left. Then you can think about storage and placement of items. Moving like items together allows you to see what you have, and natural categories emerge. Think zones: place categories in logical areas within the garage, with all the storage together, if possible.

Here is an article I found* with 5 quick tips:

HANG THINGS FROM THE CEILING...Garages usually have plenty of HEADROOM, so that leaves many cubic feet of space you can exploit. Is your family full of sports fanatics? You can buy ceiling-mounted racks designed specifically for outdoor recreational equipment, everything from snowboards and bicycles to canoes and kayaks. You can also get PLATFORMS that go up and down with a crank of a lever. These allow you to tuck hundreds of pounds of junk -- er, valuable family heirlooms -- up amongst the rafters.

MAKE USE OF WALL SPACE...You've probably got at least one pegboard in the tool area of your garage, but there's no reason to limit yourself. You can attach your own homemade HANGING solutions -- brackets, nails, and pegboards, or you can buy special panels designed to support hooks, baskets, and shelves.

CABINETS ARE FOR GARAGES TOO...Most garages have enough room on the sides or in the back to accommodate BANKS of cabinets, while still leaving enough space to get in and out of the car. Even if there's only enough room for 12" deep cabinets, that's still a lot of extra storage if you run them from floor to ceiling. Also, cabinets look nice -- all your clutter gets HIDDEN behind the doors, where you don't have to look at it every time you drive inside.

IF YOU HAVE TOO MANY VEHICLES, TRY A CAR LIFT...You've got a good 10-12 feet of height in your garage, right? And the average car is less than five feet high, right? Well, there are systems out there that let you STACK them. Granted, these are pricey, and raising and lowering the top car can be a hassle if the vehicle is driven every day, but if there's a car you don't drive that OFTEN but that takes up space, it might be something to look into. Car lifts can make a lot of sense in houses with one-car garages.

THINK GARAGE SALE...If you've tried your hardest to find storage space for everything, but you're still tripping over stuff, it may be time to CLEAN the garage out. Chances are you have toys, boxes, tools, etc. that you bought many moons ago (and which your family probably hasn't used in almost as many moons) that you don't NEED to keep around. So, clean it out and throw it out, or better yet, have a garage sale. At least then you make some money and are rewarded for your efforts. – *TC Thorn on OnlineOrganizing.com