Organizing the garage

Starting to feel like you're running out of storage space in your home? Is every closet, cabinet and drawer completely crammed? Well, the solution to your storage problems may be as close as your garage. Sure, it already houses your tools and gardening tools, and maybe even your car, but the average garage can fit more boxes and bins than any other space from the house. It may be a messy mess right now, but with planning, you can turn your garage into an efficient and well-organized outhouse for household storage.

If you're worried, even considering the prospect of dealing with a foreclosure in your garage, take heart. This won't be a piece of cake, but with the help of professional organizer Donna Smallin, author of The One-Minute Organizer: Storage Solutions from A to Z, we've broken down the task into a series of discrete, manageable steps. The process starts with de-cluttering and ends with implementing smart garage storage ideas to suit your needs. Chaos Coraling Begins Right Now!

STEP 1: Visualize the possibilities

Avoid the common mistake of hastily throwing organizational products in the trash and instead start with a specific strategy. "Imagine what the space will look like when it's cleaned and how nice it will feel to drive into it every time you come home," suggests Smallin. "Hold this image in your head for inspiration."

Then list the areas you want to see in the space to organize items by activity or interest. "Pots, fertilizers and garden hose should be grouped together for a gardening area," says Tim Keaton, head of brand and product marketing for Gladiator/GarageWorks. "And golf clubs, soccer balls and baseball bats should be kept together for a sports area." Other logical groupings of areas include holiday decorations, baby stuff, and a workshop area with room for a sturdy bench, plus sideboards or cabinets.

Once you've determined which areas you'll need, work logically to identify where they'll be easiest to access. For example, are there certain household items in your garage that you may need on a regular basis? If so, locate these items near the door so retrieving them requires only a quick and painless trip. The garden equipment and lawnmower, on the other hand, make more sense placed by the door leading to the yard. Meanwhile, hide seasonal items like holiday lights in higher, harder-to-reach spots.

In fact, vertical thinking is the key. "Look up and you'll find a lot of wasted space," says Keaton. "The use of vertical space leads to the creation of a more usable space. In addition to hanging weights and tools, consider locking up bikes and wheelbarrows. ” Hoists and overhead racks maximize space near the ceiling.

STEP 2: Remove everything

Start by emptying out the garage. Carefully remove everything from the garage and place it in a staging area, either in an unused part of the house or on the lawn or driveway if clear skies are in the forecast. Smallin says to "group things into categories," right out of the getgo. "All the garden tools together, for example, or all the sporting goods." Being organized in taking items out will make it easier to create those areas when you bring your belongings back.

The broom cleans the entire space, taking care to get any leaves that might have blown in and any cobwebs that might collect in forgotten places. And while you have a good view of it, consider whether the space could benefit from a fresh coat of paint (on the walls or floor).

STEP 3: Get and implement what you need

Whatever smart organizational products you don't have on hand, you can purchase them with a quick trip to a local home improvement store and, thanks to your inventory, in the exact amount you need. This strategy will ensure that you don't buy so much stuff that you and your overcrowded garage are back at square one.

While there are plenty of garage storage ideas out there - from chrome hooks and shelves to custom, professionally installed systems at flat prices based on thousands of organizations. As you choose the last storage space, choose cabinets and shelves of the same color and type. Look for metal, plastic or wood systems specially treated for garage use. And remember that bigger is not always better. You need a garage storage system that allows you to find your things and still leave room for your car.