Garage organization, those are two words that don’t usually go together! Ha!
When we moved into our new home last fall, I knew one of my first priorities was to get our garage organized and more importantly, organized with a user-friendly system. Our double car garage is on the smaller side and because we wanted to park two cars in the garage, we desperately needed a way to store all of the garage stuff.
We decided to use the shelves from our old laundry room since we didn’t need them in our new home and because they were the perfect size to line one side of the garage. Here’s how we organized our garage – DIY style.
We put two shelves together on one end of the wall and the other two shelves on the other end of the wall. They end up making one long row with a space in between for the sprinkler system and the hanging snow shovel. We installed the shelving by screwing into the studs on the wall through a small piece of wood (this was my Dad’s idea – genius!). This makes the shelving level against the garage foundation and also keeps them secure.
The first set of shelves holds mostly sporting things and our lesser used items. I basically categorized and organized things by shelf. One shelf for tennis rackets, one for skateboards, one for cleats/roller blades, etc. Nothing fancy, just a simple system.
The piece of foam was added to help avoid car door dings. These are pieces of foam you usually purchase to insulate plumbing or sprinklers, or in our case – car doors!
Now, what you need to make note of is the three red canvas bins on the top shelf. Aren’t they pretty?
These three pretty bins are my donation bins. This way whenever I run across something we no longer need and want to donate, I just toss it into one of these bins. When the bins are full I know I need to make a trip to Goodwill. It helps that they are up high and not drawing any attention.
The second set of shelves which are closer to our garage door entry are used primarily for our shoes. My hubby and I each have two shelves and my kids have one each. Our children also each have a designated shoe basket in the entryway closet. Having our shoes stored in the garage (or in the entryway) help to encourage a shoes off house.
I love that we were able to repurpose shelving and create something so functional. And that we are able to park both cars in the garage! This is truly how the shelving looks the majority of the time because anyone (neighborhood kids included) can simply see where things go. User-friendly, check!
How is your garage organization? Does it need a little TLC? A little DIY? A more user-friendly design? Remember organizing should be simple, clutter is complicated! 🙂
Happy Organizing!
