GARAGE WEEKLY

If there’s any space in your home that can quickly become a room full of junk, it’s the garage. It’s the room that typically holds general household clutter. Once you start using the room to store a slew of things, things can quickly get out of hand.

Thankfully, there are a couple of items that can organize your garage and keep things in order. Putting an organization system in place means you won’t have to look, or worse, trip, on the clutter in your garage.

It might not be the place where you sleep or eat, but you still visit your garage pretty often. So why not give the room a facelift and organize the space to make your life easier and less stressful?

How to Begin Cleaning Your Cluttered Garage

Practicing a few organization methods will keep your garage space cleaner and avoid unsightly, anxiety-inducing junk. The ultimate challenge, of course, isn’t looking for the most aesthetically pleasing and elaborate ways to organize your garage. It’s motivating yourself and finding the time and energy to clean and organize the notoriously cluttered part of your home. 

How to begin cleaning your garage

1. Schedule at least an entire day to go through your garage to start cleaning and organizing stuff. A weekend would work best, so you have enough time to get the job done. 
2. On cleaning day, start by taking inventory of everything you have in your garage. Group them by purpose and set aside the things that shouldn’t be there and needs throwing out. You can sort your stuff into three piles: keep, toss, and donate or sell. 
3. Enlist the entire family to help with cleaning and organizing the garage. It will make the job done much faster.
4. Schedule a yard sale or donate giveaways to get rid of your castoffs as soon as possible. Pack those you want to throw away and schedule a disposal service right away, so you don’t have much trash lying around anymore. 

Cleaning and decluttering your garage sounds like a lot of work, but it’s all worth it. You’ll see. Before you know it, you’ll be wanting to hang out in your garage, and finding things you need will be more convenient. 

Putting these systems and storage ideas is one step closer to decluttering your garage and making the most out of the space. 

Our 7 Top Reccomendations For An Organized Garage 

Set Up Slatwall

When looking for simple ways to clean up and organize a disorderly garage, Slatwall offers a stress-free and valuable option. It’s a long-term safekeeping solution that has the durability to save you from potential expenses of damaged equipment and missing tools. Slatwall systems are also ultra-versatile, allowing flexible storage that can grow as your storage collection grows. 

It may take some investment and time to install Slatwalls in your garage, but once it’s there, garage storage will be a breeze for you. 

Pro Tip: Plan your Slatwall layout so you’ll have a better direction for your design. You don’t have to install Slatwalls all over your garage. Having them on one or two sides is often enough to give you ample storage space. 

Once you have Slatwalls, the next you need to do is plan your accessory collection for your brand-new storage space. Your must-have Slatwall accessories and fixtures include:

• Industrial Hooks – These are for storing bulky recreational equipment like bikes and skateboards. They can also do the heavy lifting for your canoes, kayaks, tires, and lumbers.
• Deep utility hooks – These are great for hanging hefty objects like power cords and garden hoses. You can also use it to hang foldable patio furniture in your Slatwall. 
• Baskets – They are convenient to house objects that you can’t hang on a good. They come in assorted sizes and heights and can be deep or shallow, depending on your storage needs. 
• Tool organizers – are a convenient solution to organize your tools and keep them within reach. It can be a rack system or a magnetic toolbar to store your pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, and other hand tools.

Storage Container

Another item that should be in your garage organization checklist is storage containers. They are highly convenient for organizing and storing all kinds of items, so they don’t litter around the room. 

Pros of Storage Containers For Your Garage:

1. They are sturdy enough to hold whatever you want them to.
2. There are plenty of container sizes and styles for storing whatever you have in mind.
3. Plastic storage containers can hold heavier items like books and tools. But there are also soft-sided containers that you can easily fold down when not in use. 
4. Plastic storage containers are water-resistant, and you can lock them if needed. They can also include wheels that make it easier to take them out and around the room. 
5. They are secure enough to keep pests, dust, and dirt at bay from your delicate items in storage. 
6. You can stack storage containers and take advantage of your garage’s vertical space.
7. They can come in translucent colors, so you have an idea of what’s inside without opening the containers. Meanwhile, opaque bins are great for storing necessary but not-so-pretty items in your garage.  

Open Shelves

One of the benefits of using the garage for storage is it offers a lot of vertical space. You can place so many odds and pieces on them. Shelves are fantastic for holding bins and baskets filled with all types of things. But not all shelf types are great for your garage storage system. 

Why are open shelves better for organizing your garage than closed cabinets?

• Open shelving units are cheaper and easier to set up than closed cabinets. 
• It lets you quickly scan what you’ve stored and where to find things conveniently without opening cabinet doors. 
• Cabinets with doors give you a lot of excuses to stay cluttered because you can hide the evidence. 
• Open shelves can give you a customized fit where cabinets can’t, like in small spaces around doors or in odd corners. 

Pro Tip: Choose durable shelving like metallic shelves over ones made from plastic. Plastic shelves may be cheaper, but they get pretty flimsy and won’t hold heavier items without breaking down quickly. 

Lockable Cabinets

If you store delicate items in the garage that you need to protect from dust, dirt, and pests, lockable cabinets work great. It is perfect for locking up things you need to keep out of your children’s reach or pets. Since it’s lockable, you can also store valuable items in there or any expensive tools and equipment, as long as they fit inside. 

Some of the stuff in your garage that might require a locking cabinet includes:

• Small, handheld tools, batteries, and standard handyman supplies
• Medicine, first-aid kits, and other unique medications
• Flammable and combustible materials
• Personal items and sensitive materials and documents

Setting Up A Pegboard In Your Garage

If you’re eager to clean up and organize your garage without paying for an expensive Slatwall, pegboard can do the job. It might not be able to hold much heavier items than a Slatwall, but it gives you all sorts of ways to stay organized. 

Pegboard offers a kind of versatility to come up with different storage patterns. Your imagination is the limit. 

Looking for ways to declutter your garage using a pegboard? Check out these pegboard organization hacks that will make your garage smile.

• Standard Pegboard Panel

Nothing beats the old, standard standby pegboard mounted in your garage wall. It’s a traditional way to hang your often-used items and tools, so you’re ready to take them out whenever you need them. 

Pro Tip: Stock on those metal hooks so you can hang anything from a screwdriver set, hammers, or your skateboard in the pegboard wall. 

• Custom Shelving on Pegboard

Standard pegboard hooks can’t accommodate most items in your garage. Sometimes, you need an extra special place for things you can’t hang, and that’s where a custom shelving on your pegboard wall works great. 

Pro Tip: Instead of typical metal hooks, use L-hooks to attach plywood shelves on the pegboard. 

• Pegboard Panels

If you have a tool collection, storing them in pegboard panels will save you some serious wall space. You can even designate the boards for each category of your tools. One panel can hold your wrenches, while the other is for your screwdrivers.

Finding The Perfect Workbench

If you like tinkering stuff, a workbench is a must-have to make the most out of your garage space. You can always use a regular table for that, but building a workbench lets you design it, so you have extra storage for your tools as well. 

You can build your workbench with a built-in tool drawer or add a pegboard on the sides to hold your gear. It can also be a fold-away workbench that you can tuck away when not in use, a perfect option for minimal space.

Setting Up An Overhead Rack

So far, you’ve taken advantage of the wall space to organize everything in your garage. But what about the ceiling?

That’s a lot of space to add to your garage storage solution. An overhead rack gives you extra room to mount items you don’t use often. It’s also a great space to store bins and containers filled with non-essentials or seasonal items.