How To Tip: Organizing Your Garage

Now that you have a new home, isn't it great to have a garage? Not only is this a great place to park the cars, but it becomes the catch all for everything from gardening supplies, bikes, and holiday decorations to anything else you can think of that you need to store. How can you get the most out of your garage space and still try to have a safe haven for your car? The following are some great organizing tips to de-clutter, clear and maximize your garage space. Hooks and Hangers: Depending on the size of your garage, you may not want to give up valuable floor space to items that needs storing. By creating spaces with hooks, hangers and peg boards you can take care of organizing items from bicycles to garden tools and make them easy to grab, easy to locate, and easy to organize. You can create wall mounts for extension cords, garden hoses, and other items that otherwise can get out of place and out of control quickly. Here is a great resource for both ideas and products when it comes to garage wall organization -The Garage Store.Shelving Units: Right now you may have boxes covering coveted territory in your garage. One simple sturdy wall unit with adjustable shelving can allow stacking organizing and creating a better visual for seasonal boxes of decorations and clothing. You can create a shelving section for paint cans, and other hazardous materials such as propane, gasoline, and other products and place them well outside the reach of the kiddies. Sturdy shelves are the key, check out Shelving 24/7 for products and ideas. Overhead Storage: Take back the area in your garage with space saving overhead storage systems. These are great for keeping items out of the reach of kids and pets and can provide a handy organization system of less used items that can be safely stored year round. With everything from electric hoists to fixed overhead storage Potomac Garage Solutions has some great ideas and products. When deciding the best approach to organizing your garage take inventory of all the things you need to store. Rate each item as far as frequency of use, need and accessibility, level of hazard, weight requirements and other important factors when deciding where the best accessibility spots will be. For instance if you are an avid bike rider, think about using hooks to store the bike and equipment on the wall, but make sure it's more accessibly near the garage door and not on the back wall of your garage. On the other hand one time per year use items such as holiday decorations could reside in overhead racks or on high shelving systems. Likewise if you need easy access to hedge clippers, garden tools, rakes and hoses, consider storing those on walls close to the exit. While items that are meant for the house yet can't find a home inside like vacuum cleaners, overstocks of cleaning supplies, or paper goods are better on racks, shelves and hooks near the entrance to the house. Consider drawing a diagram and making a list of all the items you routinely store within your garage. This is almost like a treasure map that will serve you well in organizing before you purchase organizers or do the heavy lifting. There's no reason why your car and all the things you need to store can't share the space your garage has to offer. With careful planning and a little bit of ingenuity you will create an amazing storage environment. Image source: ©PhotoXpress.com