We have finally gotten serious about organizing the garage. Or, our GARAGE OF DOOM as I like to say. It’s awkwardly built to begin with, with not enough space to easily park two cars and have any kind of equipment in there– or even space to open our doors wide enough for me to strap the kids in or lock in the baby carrier back in the day. So instead it became our space full of crap– strollers, trikes, bikes, tools. Piles of things to get rid of. Old paint. You know, DOOM. After years of continually ‘decluttering’, we’d had enough, and decided to get serious about organizing it to fit our changing needs as the strollers go out the door to be replaced with hockey sticks and scooters. With a small $150 investment, I think we’ve finally found the key to garage organization, and it’s flexible so it’ll grown with us as our needs change.
PROBLEM: Needed Vertical Storage to Organize Yard & Gardening Tools
We’ve been using the old wall rack the previous owners installed, and it’s almost totally non-functional and dangerous. See how the screws are pulling out of the wall? Horrendous. We’ve kept it for 10 years! What. in. the ever. loving. heck.
BEFORE:
There is a great solution for this, and I’m mortified it took 10+ years for us to fix. I purchased an Elfa rail and a few accessories (not to be confused with ELSA products, much to my daughter’s chagrin) at the Container Store. Bonus is they’ll cut it to whatever size you need, but we ended up using the entire rail. It was easy to install, and you can customize the hooks for whatever specialized storage you need. And LOOK! The screws aren’t pulling out of the wall! Safety first.
When you’re hanging the rail, be sure to use wood screws if it’s going into the studs, or drywall anchors if going into… wait for it… drywall. They have them right at the store.
Then we customized it with various hooks. We used a ladder hook, equipment hook for the brooms, and utility hooks for the smaller items. I also purchased a hose/cord hook but ran out of room so it’s going on a second rack on the other side of our garage.
Problem: Boot and Shoe Storage
With sloppy winters and slippery springs, we keep our messiest shoes by the garage door. On a boot tray. Can you see the boot tray, buried under this pile? Ain’t no tray big enough for this pile of boots! Time to fix it.
BEFORE:
I picked up shoe storage at the Container Store (on sale as well!) and used the handy dandy comb trick to hold those tiny nails upright while attaching the back of the unit.
A few minutes later, STORAGE! I have to say, the box is a little misleading as it states it holds 12 pairs of shoes. Um, no. Twelve pairs of kiddie shoes maybe, but certainly not golf spikes or boots. The big boots sit on top and we placed my husband’s larger shoes in their own individual cubbies.
The last thing we tackled were the buckets of kids’ stuff hanging around. Tubs of outdoor toys, sports equipment, beach items, you name it. It makes it hard to find what you need or get around the garage. The tennis rackets were in a Barbie pool. Not sure if it was multitasking or insanity.
BEFORE:
The kids have gotten really active in terms of sports, so we have it all: hockey sticks, soccer balls, tennis rackets, cricket paddles. Okay, no cricket paddles. Abby and I set up this organizer in minutes flat, and suddenly we were in organization heaven! She kept running out to the garage to play different sports just to experience the joy of putting everything back in the right spot.
Three major issues, three awesome and easy solutions! We’re adding another rail on the other wall for our heavy equipment like the weed whacker, and possibly also our bikes. Wouldn’t want to go tooooo crazy, though. I mean, no one would recognize the house if we actually started parking in the garage.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
We still need to paint the floor, but that’s a project for another day. So,what organizational challenges do you face in your garage? Are you living the dream of parking a car in there?
Well, our garage challenge is that we don’t have one! But we have a lot of clutter in our basement that needs to be organized and purged.
I love the sports equipment organizer! I was looking at something similar for laundry.
Do you find the Elfa rail from Lowes….or Wal Mart?
My garage gets so dirty…….dirt and leaves collect in here…just as soon as I sweep and wipe things off…it is back. any suggestions………I am thinking it must be the location of garage………no cement on that side of house and a dirt/grass parking lot just 50 feet away. any suggestions would be appreciated
HOW do I know when my thougts have been answered? do I receive an e-mail?
thank you
peggylee.
Hi, I got the Elfa rails at The Container Store. They weren’t too expensive but the accessories tend to add up. Not sure how to help you about the leaves accumulating, my best advice is to get as much as you can off the floor so you can do a quick minute with the leaf blower every week instead of having to sweep it all out. 🙂