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How to Organize Your Garage

Step by step guide with free planner on how to organize your garage with the best garage storage solutions.

If you’re like most people, your garage is probably full of clutter and junk that has accumulated over time. Read on for tips on how to organize your garage by efficiently utilizing the available space.

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Have a Plan

Before you start organizing your garage, visualize how you want it to look at the end of it all. That will help you know what to keep, trash, or donate. Planning also helps ease the decision-making process when arranging items in your garage space. We offer free printable garage storage plans to plan your garage layout and garage organization plans.

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Declutter the Garage

If you’ve dumped stuff into your garage over time, there’s probably a lot for you to sort out. Take a day or two to clear all the clutter systematically.

Any items that you’ve either stacked up in boxes, containers, or piles should be sorted out one by one. Also, clean as you declutter to avoid ending up with a bigger mess.

You can come up with three zones: keep, donate, and trash, and put each item in its category.

Organize What You’ve Decided to Keep

Now that you have what you’ve chosen to keep, categorize them into specialties such as lawn/garden equipment and supplies, tools, spare parts, sports gear, and seasonal items, among other supplies.

Next, for all the categories you’ve created, designate a storage area for each of them. Use containers with lids to store small items such as nails, screws, nuts, and bolts.

Use Garage Storage Solutions

Freeing the floor area not only makes a garage appear clean and tidy, but you can also use the free space to park your car(s). Nonetheless, your garage floors will need some protection in order to serve you right. You can install matting or rubber tiles to help extend the life of concrete floors and give your garage a showroom look.

Once you’ve settled on what to keep, you are going to start looking for garage storage solutions to store everything. These include shelving, plastic containers with fitted lids, boxes, and storage bins. Use these to store some of the items such as chemicals and cleaning solutions, sports equipment, tools, and then arrange them in the shelves and cabinets.

Before you start planning, make a list of what you have to store and the storage solutions that you already have. List the new items you will need to purchase to store everything you have.

Garage Storage Ideas

Here are garage storage ideas that can help free the garage floor:

Garage Shelving Ideas

Garage shelving can be either stand-alone or attached to the wall. Lighter items can be on stand-alone shelving but when you place heavier items on shelves it is better to attach the shelving to the wall. It will be sturdier and it will prevent the shelving from accidentally falling on someone which could be disastrous. Don’t take chances.

In-built shelves and cabinets:

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Garage Storage Cabinets

Cabinets are useful when you need things stored in a closed environment to protect items from dust or kids then closed cabinets are perfect. When my kids were younger, I used to store chemicals in closed cabinets rather than open shelving so that I could lock the doors. I love the fact that these cabinets are on wheels so you can move them around within your garage if you want to change your layout. You can even move it to another room if you decide to do so at a later stage.

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Bike Storage Ideas

Bikes can take up a lot of space. The best way to store them is to hang them on the wall. There are many different bike storage solutions available. You can choose one according to the number of bikes you will need to store. If you have young kids then think long-term and get more racks than you currently need.

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Garage Tool Storage Ideas

Tool storage and organization are one of the biggest challenges in a garage. You want everything to be accessible yet it needs to be organized and stored so that you can find everything without looking. Categorize tools so that similar items are stored together. Hang small items in the same category on pegboards or on hooks.

Pegboards

Install pegboards on your garage walls and attach hooks and pegs where you can hang gardening, hand tools, and hardware. Pegboards help save space as you can install as many as necessary.

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Slat wall

This is a system that’s usually grooved on the walls. It involves attaching heavy-duty hooks and brackets to the grooves to hang bicycles, pumps, and other bulky items. These hooks enhance accessibility, safekeeping, floor freeing, and space management.

Heavy-duty hooks

You can use these hooks to hang so many things. It is a great way to utilize wall space and keep things off the floor.

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Ladders can be a risk if left leaning up against the wall: It may seem like a logical way to store a leader, but you risk it tipping over and injuring your loved one or damaging your car. The best practice is to lean it horizontally against the wall at floor level, or better store it on hooks.

Wall Mounts

Wall mounts with hooks are perfect for garden tools, brooms, and other long items

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Overhead Garage Storage

When wall and floor space is tight then overhead storage is the perfect solution. Store seasonal items that only need to be accessed once a year. It is also useful to store dangerous tools that you don’t want kids to have access to.

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Set Aside a Storage Area for Kids’ Toys: Dedicate a portion in the garage for children’s toys and teach them how to clean and organize. You can also buy an organizing Junkie to help with organizing.

Arrange Items On The Cabinet

While you can use the cabinet in a way that makes sense to you, your garage becomes more functional if you put the least used items on the bottom and top shelves and those that you frequently use on the middle shelves. Besides, you can add baskets or cabinet dividers to help utilize the space better and enhance the curb appeal.

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About the Author
Photo of NicoleMy name is Nicole and I created this website to share the tools that keep me organized and productive and help me reach my goals. I hope that you will find them helpful too.

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