Garages

Most people use their garages for other things besides just their vehicles. In fact, without proper organization techniques, sometimes you can get to the point where you can't even fit your car into the garage, because of all the clutter.

The main thing you want to avoid in a garage is storing things on the floor. This not only uses up valuable floor space, but it increases the chances of damage to your items, as well as damage to your vehicle. Some of your best storage space in a garage will be the wall space.

Using wall cabinets and wall shelves will help you organize your garage neatly, without using the floor space. These cabinets and shelves can be positioned high enough so that they don't pose a risk to vehicles that are being parked in the garage. Having your shelves and cabinets at this height also make it easy to reach your items, without having to stoop.

You can also use a pegboard on one wall of your garage, to help organize small items. A pegboard works great for small hand tools, because you can keep them visible and handy, as well as up and out of the way. You can even draw an outline around the tool on the pegboard, to help encourage the return of the tools to their proper location.

Ceiling storage options also shouldn't be overlooked when organizing your garage. This includes the space between the rafters, which can be useful for items that are infrequently used. Another option is using racks or hooks that are installed on the garage ceiling. Again, this helps to utilize space that is out of range of vehicles.

Another item that can be very useful when organizing your garage is a tall freestanding cabinet. While this does use floor space, it gives you one location to store things such as garden tools with long handles, brooms, and other items that can cause disorganization in a garage. You can locate the cabinet in a corner that is out of the way of vehicles and foot traffic. You are able to easily relocate it to a different area of the garage if the need arises, making it more useful than a built-in cabinet.

Before deciding what types of storage facilities makes the most sense for your garage, it can help to do an assessment of what you currently have stored there. Do you use most of the items that are stored in your garage on a regular basis? If so, do you actually use them in the garage, or are they used elsewhere? You can waste a lot of time retrieving items that aren't store in a location close to where they are actually used. Organize a spot in a closet inside the house to store these types’ items, which will make using them more convenient, as well as freeing up garage space.

Are some of the items in your garage rarely if ever used? If so, you might have fallen victim to using your garage as a trash storage facility. If you haven't used some of the items in a long time, and don't need the items, you could benefit from either selling the items in a garage sale or online, or by giving them away to a charity. This will clear space in your garage for the items that you really are using.

Do you have a number of smaller items that are related to each other, but that don't lend themselves to being placed individually on garage shelves? If so, investing in some plastic tubs and bins can help. You store items that are used together in one bin, such as decorations for a specific holiday, which not only keeps them well-organized, but also clean and protected.

Organizing your garage makes a good weekend project. Choose a day when the weather will be nice, since you will probably want to empty the garage and store your items outside temporarily while you work. Depending on the size of your garage, and how much stuff is stored in it, you could choose to remove everything, or perhaps just work your way around the room in quadrants.

After the items are removed, you will want to install any new shelving or storage options that you are adding, and then organize your items neatly into your new storage facilities. Have several boxes ready to gather up trash, or items you will be selling or donating. Once you have everything sorted and organized, you can finish the job off nicely by sweeping the floor and dusting. Adding some floor mats at the doorway entrances can help keep things clean. You'll now find it easy to be able to use your garage for both storage and vehicle parking, because you're now using your space efficiently.