While most of us have the greatest hopes for keeping common areas in our homes clean and organize, such as our garage, hectic schedules over the course of the year can often prevent us from keeping our homes free of clutter. Fortunately, you may finally tidy your garage with a little effort and planning. Follow our expert advice on how to store your tools, gardening supplies, sporting goods, and more, as well as how to keep everything permanently organize.
Design the Layout of Your Garage
Use the free space planning services offer by the majority of garage-organizing system manufacturers while you look for places to store all of your equipment. Before making any purchases, measure your garage, and record the size and location of the doors, windows, switches, and receptacles, how much space your car occupies, and the dimensions of your garage. As you give items a home, keep in mind the following general guidelines.
- Tools for gardening and lawn care should be place close to each other since they are items that you use frequently together.
- Lawnmowers and other large items should be place in corners, away from the path of your automobile, to prevent them from being trip or damage.
- Keep commonly use objects, such as bicycles, near the garage door.
- Store seasonal or infrequently use things in the most difficult-to-reach places.
Keep Items Away from the Garage Floor
Whenever you can, keep things off the floor. You will make considerably more area for your automobile and stay away from messy stacks that are difficult to sort through. If you buy pre-made cabinets or storage units, make sure they are mount on legs so you can easily sweep up the dirt beneath them.
Garage Storage Items You Must Have
- Clear plastic stackable boxes with lids.
- For categorizing hardware and tiny objects, use clear jars in various sizes. Food jars can be reuse after being thoroughly clean.
- A lock cabinet for storing items you do not want your children to access, such as lawn chemicals.
- A small label maker
The Benefits of Open Shelves Over Closed Cabinets
Shelves are more affordable, and easier to reach (you do not need extra clearance to swing open the doors), and they make it simple to scan the items you have store. Doors on cabinets provide you with a reason to maintain your disarray because you can conceal the evidence, thus they can easily degenerate into a mess. Use them sparingly, such as when the items you are storing require protection from being shield from dust and grime in the air.
Construct a Workbench
A wall-mount fold-down variant provides a strong base and nestles away in a convenient way when not being use, making it ideal for the sporadic DIYer.
- Tool drawer-equipped benches can be quite expensive. Instead, add shelves to the sides of a straightforward worktable and pegboard to the top to house your equipment.
- Any table can be converted into a moveable workstation with a set of casters; just be careful they do not make the table too tall.
- To finish the look, add a cosy stool that can be place beneath the table.
Prevent Air Leaks Between the House and the Garage
Check for cracks in the wall that connects your garage to your residence and in the roof, if there is a room just above the garage, before installing organizers. These are the places where warm or cold air will seep inside, along with the moisture it carries. Caulk can be use to fill tiny gaps; expand spray foam can be use for larger ones.
Purchase Window and Door Locks
Break-ins frequently occur whenever the garage entrance is left open or the front door is left unlocked. Keep the garage windows secured and always lock the entrance door with a deadbolt. Install a garage door lock that fastens the doorway to the sidewalls and makes use of it while you will be gone for a while. And regardless of whether you are mowing the lawn in the backyard, always shut the garage door.
Make Use of an Epoxy Floor Coating
Once you have cleaned up, that dirty concrete slab will appear even more unappealing. Furthermore, the color chips and paint cover up any flaws. An anti skid floor finish repels grease stains and wipes clean just like a kitchen countertop does.
Choose all-inclusive equipment and schedule the project for a few days of moderate, 50- to 80-degree temperature to allow for ample drying time. The preparation is the key to success, and the slab should be dry and clean.
Enclose The Threshold
In case the bottom of the garage door does not sit level with the floor, rain, wind-blown leaves, bugs, and rodents will get inside. You can reduce cleanup time by creating a tight fit and gluing a rubber sheet to the surface where the door falls.
Invest in Better Lighting As Well As Adequate Electrical Systems
It will not have bare bulbs over each car bay. Use 4-foot fluorescent bulbs with electronic ballasts for ambient lighting because they provide flicker-free illumination and function well in cold temperatures. Use as many as necessary to see clearly at night, spacing them 4 feet apart. Replace outlets with ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs), which turn off the electricity when a system short occurs.
What Should Not Be Kept in the Garage?
You should not keep these things in your garage for safety reasons:
Stock of Paint
Excessive temperatures can damage it. Cans should be kept in a cooler environment.
Stock of Propane
The gases might ignite with a spark. Tanks for propane ought to always be kept outside.
Paper Products
They attract roaches and other pests like a magnet. Place them in the pantry.
Refrigerator
In areas without air conditioning, it consumes a significant amount of electricity.
Animal Feed
Animals like possums and others will find it and enter. Keep it inside a closed container.
Maintain Organization in the Garage
The next step is to maintain this organization strategy by performing a fast sweep at any time you need to, regardless of whether it is annually, monthly, or perhaps even weekly. You should reorganize your garage at least twice a year as a decent basic timetable. Because garages receive a lot of traffic, organizing them more frequently will result in shorter cleanup times. When space is structured, cleaning it does not require as much time.
Conclusion
All in all, if you can devote a whole day to your garage, you will find that the process of organizing a garage goes swiftly, especially if you have a strategy in place. In addition to the tips provided above, remove everything that is in the way and designate zones for objects that may be thrown or recycled, donated, or items that need to be organized and restored to the area.