As the years go by, the garage has become more to many homeowners than just a place to park their cars. For many, it’s also become a storage space, art studio, exercise area, or anything else a homeowner can dream up. If you’re thinking along those lines, you may have to work to maximize the space, and good design and smart storage will be necessary. If your garage has become a clutter trap as of late, consider these organization tips to avoid the mess and make an area of which you can be proud.
Make The Garage More Appealing
Making the garage an oasis in your home is possible, and organizing the space is only one way to begin that transformation. If you know you’ll spend a lot of time there, consider some modern garage design elements, like windows and furniture. Folks who do a lot of woodworking or a hobby like art often choose to add a floor coating that makes the garage easier to clean. Someone who exercises or does yoga in the garage might add a large mat to the ground so it’s easy on the joints and easily cleaned if car fluids leak.
Of course, you can’t do any of this if your garage is full of clutter. The first thing you need to do is to go through everything you have in there and decide if you need it all. You may have some old construction materials or athletic equipment you no longer need that you can dispose of or donate. Avoid simply pushing things into a corner so they're out of the way because you’ll still find that you’re taking up more space than you’d like.
Once you remove that visual clutter, you can feel better about the area and use it as a starting point to organize the rest of the garage.
Although you may want to use your garage for other activities, you’ll still likely use some of that space for storage, and that’s okay. You just need to design and organize in such a way that things look neat and everything has its place. For instance, the garage is a common place for cleaning supplies. A good way to store chemicals and keep them out of the way is by putting them in drawers or on shelves and then adding labels so you can find anything you need without a hassle. If you have cabinets in the garage, store things there and then put a label on each door that lists everything that can be found within.
Storage Hacks For Smaller Garages
There are many smart ways to organize your garage so you can fit all of your belongings, and what you do depends on your specific situation. While oversized garages may provide more space, there are plenty of ways to organize your smaller single-car garage, and you still have plenty of room to do what you like.
The easiest thing to do is to utilize your vertical space. Take advantage of your walls by installing a vertical organization system where everything from rakes, shoves, and tools to kids’s toys are hung from hooks and placed on shelves. When in doubt, continue building upward, and you can leave more space to get around and park the car. Don’t forget also to add some storage to the back of the door that leads from the garage to the house. You can hang shoes, nuts and bolts, and other items there as well.
That’s just the beginning of the many garage hacks and storage solutions for smaller spaces. When the walls are full, look to the ceiling. Add overhead garage racks that attach to the ceiling to store items you don’t use all year around, like pool toys and winter outfits. You can also hang wires between the ceiling joists.
You can also add better lighting to a small garage by using recessed lights that fit into the ceiling. Then, you can do everything you want in the garage without bulky fixtures.
Organize Your Often-Used Sports Equipment in Smaller Garages
Many garages are home to various pieces of sporting equipment that can take up a lot of space if you’re not careful. Luckily, you can try many clever storage tactics to keep your fun things organized. Start with the bikes. You can buy a bike rack and attach it to a wall or ceiling or affix the bikes to the walls using hooks. You can hang the bikes flat against the wall to maximize the space.
If you’re an avid sports enthusiast, you may want to install a bike rack, cargo box, or ski rack on your vehicle. Roof mounts are great because they keep the gear away from the exhaust and won’t block the windshield. You can also opt for a suction mount if you need an option that is easy to remove. When you get home, you can store the rack in the garage by purchasing a pulley system that you can use to easily get the rack off of the car and into a storage area in your ceiling.
Maybe camping and outdoor exploration are your things. If so, you can use handy storage hacks for your gear, including sorting everything, putting equipment for specific sports on the same shelf, and labeling each area. Also, think about what you no longer need when the season ends. If you have larger equipment, like soccer nets or weight lifting equipment, you might consider a storage locker to avoid creating too much clutter in the garage.
Conclusion
You can move things around in many ways and create new storage options in your garage to maximize the space. What may first appear to be a cluttered area can come together very nicely with these tips, so see what you can do to create your ideal garage.