Top Ideas for Garage Organization

Embarrassed to leave your garage door open? You’re not alone. The garage tends to be the most cluttered space in a home. Thankfully, you don’t have to spend a fortune to make home improvements like organizing your garage. To help make your life easier, we’ve rounded our top ideas for garage organization you can try today.

Check out these tips to transform your garage from a notorious dumping zone to a more functional space. Here’s the plan…

Top Ideas for Garage Organization

Get Started by Decluttering

According to a Braun Research survey, 82% of realtors surveyed said that a disorganized garage has a negative impact on a homebuyers first impression. Whether you’re getting ready to sell your home or simply want to enjoy your garage more, start by removing the junk.

Depending on the size of your garage and how much stuff you’ve accumulated, set aside a day- or even a weekend – to get this job done. Make it a family project. The more hands you have on deck, the faster you’ll get done.

Pull everything out and sort every single item into four piles: keep, donate, sell, toss. Not sure what to let go? Ask yourself this question: “Have I used this in the past year?” If the answer’s no, it’s time to donate, sell or toss. Pack up any items that you’re doing to donate and drop them off at the nearest donation center before you change your mind. If you’re planning to sell your item online, take a picture of the item and post it right away.

Sort Even Further

Once you’ve sorted everything into those four piles, take stock of what you’re planning to keep and organize what’s left into four more piles: frequently used, partners, bulk, and rarely used.

• Frequently Used- Any items that you use frequently, such as your pet leash, should be kept within easy reach. Sort these items together.
• Partners- Group items that you use frequently together, such as tools, gardening tools and auto care. These will be stored together as well.
• Bulk- Save the back corners of the garage for the big bulky items, such as the lawn mower.
• Rarely Used- Seasonal items should be stored on sturdy shelves, even ceiling storage to keep floor space as free as possible.

Picture It

Once you have everything pulled out and sorted, picture how you’d like your garage to look. Divide your space into zones to ensure you have enough space for all your things. Consider a car parking zone, workshop area zone and storage zone. Realize that only so much stuff will be able to fit into your space, so as you organize, consider how all of these items you’ve decided to keep will actually fit.

Find Creative Space

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of storage ideas out there. Here are a few of our top favorites.

Garage Ceiling Track Storage

Don’t waste ceiling space! Get those big storage bins off the floor and onto the ceiling. Although they’re not prime real estate for frequently used items, this is the perfect place to store lightweight seasonal items like decorations, fishing poles, bikes and camping gear.

Pallet

A transformed pallet is the perfect place to store rakes, shovels and other lawn tools.

Corners

Who couldn’t use more shelves? While you probably already have shelves in the obvious locations, don’t forget about the corners! Taking advantage of existing studs, it’s super easy to install and perfect for smaller items such as shoes and bottles, which tend to get lost on big shelves.

Corral

Have an athletic family? When your kids want a ball that’s at the bottom, don’t worry about them unloading everything on top! This sturdy ball corral holds plenty of balls, helmets and other sports equipment.

Pegboards

There’s a reason pegboards haven’t gone out of style. They’re simple, affordable and incredibly useful. With the right pegs, you can hold just about any tool you need for your garage.

Surprising Garage Facts

The garage is not just for parking the car. Though most of us don’t park it in there anyway. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 25% of people with a 2-car garage don’t park in them at all. A third can only park one of their cars largely due to clutter in the garage.

Did you know that five famous companies that started in the garage: Apple, Amazon, Disney, Google, and Harley-Davidson.

According to an Impulse Research survey, 80% of home buyers factor in the garage when making their purchasing decision. In fact, for homebuyers, a garage tend to rank higher as a desirable storage space than a basements or attic.

The most important step for garage organization? Repeat this process once a year. Purge what’s no longer wanted or needed, sort, organize and store. The best part?  You don’t have to be an expert handyman to get the job done.