Your garage is one of those areas where you store extra items and park your car. However, if not kept up to date, it can easily become an unorganized and messy area. You do not want to spend hours digging through piles to find the item you need or never be able to place your vehicle inside. Instead, keep things in tip-top shape by looking at these garage organization tips you need to know.
Draft a Plan
Before you start rolling things out, you need to come up with a plan. Figure out the areas where you want to place everything, the type of items you want to keep or give away and how much room you have for storage bins, shelves or cabinets. Once you have a game plan, your organization will go swiftly and smoothly. Plus, if you have anyone else helping you, they will know what you want to do.
Keep Things Off the Floor
Walk around freely by keeping things off the floor. If not taken care of, your garage can quickly get full of items all over your floor. To keep your garage organized, you will need to keep things off the floor. That means placing the item back in the place it needs to go. It also means that if you use the area to store items, you will need to cycle out how long things belong there. We cannot give you an exact time estimate because every home differs, but if it stays in the same spot for more than six to eight months, then it is time to get it out.
Clean Out the Garage
One of the easiest and fastest ways to organize your garage is to clean it. During your cleaning process, you will find trash that needs tossing out and start creating a donation or giveaway pile. Once everything is clean, then you can start thinking of ways to store items and where things should go. Depending on how messy or unorganized your garage is, this can be the longest step.
Install Wire Shelving
If you want to keep more things off the floor, you can install wire shelving. This shelving can easily go on any wall and works swimmingly as a means to hold items. You will want a mix of shelving — baskets, hooks, etc. The more shelving you have, the more organizing you can do.
Have Storage Cabinets
Sometimes we have too much stuff and cannot store it in cabinets or shelves — that is where storage cabinets come in handy. Storage cabinets are great if you need to lock up specific items like chemicals, tools, weapons and anything else dangerous or valuable. If you go with this option, make sure to have a lock so you can keep people out.
Store Overhead
If you want to truly maximize your space and do not have big vehicles, then you need to try out overhead storage. Typically, people store large items like sports equipment or storage containers overhead. But before storing anything up there, make sure to read the instructions manual. You do not want to go over the maximum weight. If you do, you have high chances of it falling, which could damage your items or even yourself.
Place a Tool Rack
Your garage is one of the main places you will store tools like hammers, shovels, rakes, wrenches, etc. Instead of letting them layout everywhere, make your life easier by having a tool rack. On this rack, you can organize all your tools, so you know where to find them each time. We recommend going smallest to biggest or most used to least used. This way, you can find it all faster.
Never let your garage get chaotic. Instead, follow these tips above. And, if you need help installing any items or repairing anything, give Valor Home Services, your local handyman team, a call.