Garage Organization Strategies for Any Garage

Any size garage can easily become cluttered since many people use this area for more than simply housing cars and trucks. If your garage is also used as a workshop or a storage space for miscellaneous items that do not fit into the house, here are some tips on how to make your garage a much more functional room.

Before you can begin creating order from the chaos that currently holds sway in your garage, it can be beneficial to start by emptying it completely. This allows you to get a sense of the size of the room and the amount of space in which you have to work.

Once all of your belongings are out of the garage, you can begin the next step. This involves sorting through everything and discarding what is no longer needed. It is quite common to hang on to items that have not been used in years and this is usually the main cause of clutter. Why waste valuable space on something that you may never use again? A good rule of thumb to remember is to throw away anything that has not been used in several years.

Here is an easy way to decide what stays and what goes. Set up three areas on the lawn. After these locations are chosen, you can designate the spot closest to the garage as the area to place everything that you would consider trash. This may include those old worn out tires, hoses with the holes in them, and anything else that should have been thrown out years ago.

Use the second area for unused items that are still in good condition. These may include old books, out of style clothing, appliances that are no longer used, and even your camping gear, if it has not been used lately.

The last area should consist of often used items. These may consist of your bicycle that you ride in the summer, the fishing gear that you use every spring, or the tools for doing maintenance work around the house. Note that the "to keep" area is situated further from the garage than any other section. This is to give you a little extra time to change your mind and drop each item into the "no good" or "good but do not need" sections instead of keeping it.

Everything in the first area goes in the garbage. The items in the second section can be sold at a yard sale, or donated to a local charity. They should not be placed in the garage. For all practical intents and purposes, these items no longer exist.

With all the clutter out of the way, you can focus on organizing your garage to maximize the space available. Take a good look at what fits best into each corner of the garage. If you have workbench and tools to place back into the garage, consider investing in overhead shelving. This shelving can store your tools and other various building supplies in one corner of the garage. By placing a container on each of the shelves, you can group your items properly and it helps you quickly find what you need. Keep in the mind the shelves can go all the way to the ceiling if necessary, so you can also store any boxes with holiday ornaments and other rarely used items on the upper sections of the shelving.

When storing your bicycle, you should consider investing in wall-mounted brackets that make it possible to hang the bikes when not in use. Do the same with the camping equipment like canoes, fishing rods, and other things that normally take up valuable storage space. Making better use of your vertical space can give the garage a more organized look. This can also save time because you may not have to look for items that would otherwise be buried under a pile in some obscure corner.

Assuming you want to keep the car in the garage, make it a point to utilize the back wall of the interior as you possibly can. This leaves more room on each side of the vehicle for people to get in and out. You may find this to be easier when hauling groceries into the house as well as leaving plenty of room to take down a bike without scratching anything.

Many types of stacking units are available that can be used to create the ideal storage space in your garage. Some are open, while others come with drawers that make it easy to store and retrieve items with ease. Spend some time researching different storage options and you may find something that is perfect for your garage. A clutter free garage can make your life much easier since everything can be found with ease.

Jeremy Foster is freelance writer and blogger who writes about organization, often discussing specific products such as garage organizers.