Garage Storage Tips and Getting Started

Garage Storage Tips

Since you have decided to organize things in your life, you can use this opportunity to walk through your garage and make your mind up if you really want to park your car in here. If you do or do not, remembering that the garage is generally one of the largest rooms in our home, you know that organizing this space will yield great benefits for your storage problems. So let’s go over some garage storage tips to get you started.

Before getting started, you need to answer this question honestly: “Can you see the walls in your garage, and can you touch them?” If the answer is yes, you have a head start on most folks. Many can’t even find the walls.

If your answer is no, take a deep breath – I am sorry, but there is a lot of work to be done before you can even begin to take advantage of the many options available for organizing your garage storage. Nonetheless, everyone starts somewhere; taking the first step is what is important.

Getting Started

I’m sure your garage is not as bad as the one above, but this may be the perfect time to order that roll-off dumpster. Or, you can start smaller, with a recycle bin to start discarding items. Throwing away those priceless items that have gathered dust for the last twenty years or so can be a liberating experience.

If you have boxes that are designated tax returns from the early seventy’s, it is time to throw them away. Really, bank records and pay bills from the twentieth century do not require safe haven. Besides, your kids will not want to see what you spent your money on when you were their age.

In case you are holding on to books and magazines from yesteryear, and they are in no way valuable, your public library would like to take all of them. The thing is, they actually use aged materials, magazines, and catalogs as well as books. Just remember not to throw away old personal photos, or you might be shot.

Plastic Storage Boxes

Begin the process by selecting the things that you’ll end up keeping. You probably should start with clear plastic storage boxes. Select the well-built containers that are going to get the job done, just to start off arranging. Tag the outside of your boxes so that, if you have helpers, anyone can easily tell where to put things.

After the initial separating process, when you know what size containers you will need and how many, that is when you can go ahead and buy more plastic storage bins with sealable lids to hold the contents dust-free.

Carport Canopy

After you have pared down to the things you want to actually keep and store in the garage, you are in a position to decide your actual goals for the space. Exactly where is your vehicle going to be parked?  Remember, if you really want to use your garage for something other than parking your car, you can get an outside canopy for your car(s). These are great additions for extra space and you can add sides for weather-proofing the area.

I have seen these used as an additional sun porch for a small house. It was pretty awesome with all types of flowers and potted plants everywhere.

Play or Work Areas in Garage

Do you want to have space for a treadmill or even a dart board? Do you have tools to organize and a workbench where you work on projects? All of these questions should be answered, once or even before, you have cleared away the accumulation of items that you do not want or need. (Do not forget Good Will or Salvation Army when you find all those stacks of clothes that you no longer want to wear.)

If you decide that your garage should be primarily for vehicle parking with just wall storage, then the decisions are usually easier to make as to how to store things. Closed closets work nicely for any type of item and make a considerably neater physical appearance but can be pricey. The open chrome wire shelving that moves is particularly good overall racks. You can stack those racks up with nearly as much as they can carry and still roll them around easily.