If you own a home with a garage, and if you are like most people you will find that it is usually used for storing everything except your car.  And of course all of those things are things that you just can’t seem to part with.  Usually when you need to find one of these articles you have no idea where it is.  Yes, you’re pretty sure you kept it for that rainy day, and now that that day is here where did you put it… because there has been no organizational practices put to work!

You would be surprised what a difference some shelves, plastic containers, and hooks could make in organizing your storage space in your garage.  It is highly recommended that you clean out your garage at least once a year by removing everything in it.  By doing this, you would be surprised how easy it is to decide what to keep and what to trash.  This might be a good time to think about having a garage sale!  You could probably make enough money on the things you no longer want or need to buy those containers and shelves!   Once you have decided what to keep, put everything according to its kind in a container and label it and either put it up on a shelf or you can easily stack them on one side of the garage up against the wall.    It is a good idea to keep an inventory of everything that is in each container making it easier to find when needed.

You can purchase premade or prefabbed cabinets for your garage as well. These cabinets usually come with doors, drawers, shelves, peg board, durable formica countertops and all the hardware needed to put them together and hang them. Formica countertops are great for garages because they are cheap, dont scratch to easily and are light weight allowing them to be installed by one person as apposed to two or three when dealing with other countertops.

Like most of us , you probably have a collection of screws and nuts and bolts and nails.  an easy way to store these small items is to put them in jars so that you can easily see what is in each jar and then label each jar.  If you want to get it a little crafty you can get a piece of plywood  and screw or nail the lids of each jar to it and then nail the plywood to the wall and you can screw each bottle on and off whenever you need it.

Of course by using large hooks you can easily hang any gardening tools such as rakes, hoes, brooms, etc.   If you have children with bicycles a good idea here is to get extra large hooks which are made precisely for this and hang them from the ceiling.  (The bicycles of course).   You can find these hooks at just about any hardware store and they are fairly inexpensive.

If you have cans of paint,  bottles of pesticides or cleaning supplies it is a good idea to put them in a cabinet with a lock for safety purposes.  Now that you have everything up and off of the floor it should be easy to get your car in with plenty of room to walk around without stumping your toes on all that clutter that used to be there.  Not only will this give you a feeling of satisfaction but you will also be proud to invite your neighbors over for a back yard cookout and have them come through the garage entrance and see your work of art.