Tips for Organizing Your Garage

Is your garage floor still covered with the past summer’s pool toys, flip flops, garden tools and bicycles? Are you parking your car outside while the clutter builds up inside, where your car is supposed to be? You’re not alone. Follow these helpful tips to get your gear organized and your car inside before the arrival of the wet, snowy weather. (featured image via Better Homes and Gardens)

1) Hang it up: There’s a lot of unused storage space in your garage – but it’s not on the floor. Take advantage of the walls and ceiling to get your garage organized. Bikes and garden tools can easily be hung from sturdy hooks anchored to the walls or the ceiling. A peg board or lattice screwed to the walls can provide an easily accessible home for hand tools that you use often. And I love this idea from the Family Handyman: If your garage has exposed joists, attach wire closet shelving to the joists to create overhead storage cubbies.

Keeping your stuff off the floor also means less chance of anything getting ruined when the garage floor is covered with wet winter slush from the car.

2) Box it up: Small items that you won’t need for the winter (balls, sports gear, gardening supplies, etc.) can be put into clear plastic storage bins and put on shelves or stacked in a corner. Using clear bins means that there’s no need for labeling because you can see what you’ve stored away!

3) Recycle it or give it away: While you’re organizing everything that’s in your garage, it’s a good time to evaluate each item you come across. Do you really need to keep saving that broken shovel handle? Or how about the bike your daughter has outgrown? And how much space do you want to devote to a towering stack of empty plastic plant containers? Lighten the load and make your organizing task easier: whether you toss it, recycle it, yard sale it or give it away, get rid of the items you just don’t need anymore.

Now that your garage is organized, how about tackling the kitchen? Or need even more garage organizing tips?

 

Julianne Puckett is the creator of Yankee Kitchen Ninja, a blog about what she calls “stealthy homemaking” — healthy recipes that are quick and easy to prepare, DIY gardening tips and the occasional craft project. A designer, writer and former suburban-dwelling IT professional, she lives in rural Vermont, where she struggles to balance the siren call of her inner farmer with her love of cute shoes and cocktails.