A garage is probably one of the most cluttered areas of your home. Garages are generally crammed full of tools, garden equipment, outdoor equipment, and sports apparel, never mind all those ‘don’t know where else to put it’ items. Not only that, but your garage should also serve as a home for your vehicles. Today we chat about the best solutions for garage storage and organisation.
Getting yourself motivated to organise your garage is hard. After all, why clean out your dirty, dusty garage when there are so many other areas of your home that need your attention? However, decluttering your garage can make a huge difference to your psyche and ease your day-to-day living. Think about being able to move easily around your garage. Avoid damaging your car each time you attempt to remove a bike. Avoid repurchasing the same set of screws repeatedly, even though you know you have some lying around somewhere.
Cleaning out a garage can be a whole weekend job. Of course, not everyone has a weekend to devote to that. Perhaps a better strategy is to put aside a few hours over consecutive weekends to get the job done. A step-by-step plan also helps. Here are some tips on how to go about the best garage storage options and organising strategies.
1) Declutter what you have.
The first step is to go through the contents of your garage and throw out anything that you absolutely don’t need anymore. Things like old paint tins, ruined paint brushes, broken or rusted tools, appliances that don’t work, or furniture you don’t know what to do with. If you have many duplicates of tools, select the best ones to keep and donate the others. The most important first step in any organising project is to reduce your contents to what you really need.
2) Get as much off the floor as possible.
With everything decluttered, get as much as possible off the floor. Use as much of the vertical space as you can. This is particularly important for garages because it frees up floor space for your vehicle. Additionally, it will prevent your belongings from getting damaged in the event of a spill or minor flood.
3) Install proper garage storage cupboards.
Putting as much away and out of sight as possible is the most effective way to declutter and organise your garage. Many items in a garage are dangerous, such as handyman tools, garden tools, pesticides, paint, and pool chemicals. Especially if you have kids, keep these items out of sight and from reach. From a security point of view, you also don’t want certain tools easily accessible.
Fineline Solutions produces built-in cupboards suitable for anywhere in your home, including garage storage. Fineline’s cupboards are custom-made and made-to-measure. We will design our cupboards to precisely fit your available space. We can design the cupboard’s interior to meet your specific needs. For instance, if you require numerous shelves at specific heights, or if you desire a section that precisely accommodates your leaf blower, we can incorporate it into the design.
Fineline Solutions only uses sliding cupboard doors across our cupboards, which is perfect for garages as sliding doors don’t take up any floor space. When opened and closed, sliding doors slide across the cupboard. This eliminates the risk of hinged doors colliding with vehicles and maintains clear walkways. Lockable Fineline sliding doors ensure that all potentially dangerous items remain hidden and inaccessible.
4) Consider other off-ground garage storage options.
Some other off-floor storage that can be very handy are ceiling-mounted racks and pulley systems. These are great for storing large, odd-shaped things such as canoes, surfboards, and Christmas tree boxes.
Wall-mounted racks for hanging non-dangerous items like brooms and rakes are also useful, as are wall-mounted bike hooks.
5) Organise your items.
Now that you have set up your garage storage, it’s time to organise all your items into their designated spaces. The general rule for organising items is to group similar items together and avoid having similar items scattered all over the place. Storage containers and bins of various sizes are most handy. Small stackable containers are excellent to keep nails and screws in. Larger storage bins are ideal for organising similar items, such as extension cords. Consider keeping all bike helmets and safety gear in one large storage bin and all sports balls and equipment in another.
It is pointless to keep old paint tins; they are messy and never close properly, resulting in the paint drying up. Rather, store leftover paint in mason jars and label them clearly. Label absolutely everything. Even if you know the size of those screws now, you might not know it in a few months.
Once you have taken these steps to set up your garage storage and organise the space, you will feel a great sense of relief. We humans are naturally inclined to find comfort in the predictable.Organising our space means we know where things are without searching, and this makes us feel at ease. So don’t procrastinate! Take the steps to sort out your garage storage and clutter.
If you are looking for the best solution for a garage storage cupboard, give us at Fineline Wardrobe Solutions a call today.
For more creative tips and ideas, look at our trendy blog.
