Organizing Your Garage
by Kelly Huckaby
As featured in FamilyCorner.com
http://www.thefamilycorner.com  

I must admit that this is one column where I will write about what I would like to do, instead of what is actually done, in our garage.

Many of you reading this will be nodding your heads in agreement. For those of you who can actually fit your car into the garage, you can stop reading here. But, if you have a two-car garage and have trouble fitting a motorcycle into it, I hope I can offer some useful suggestions.

For years I have avoided organizing the garage because I thought my husband would do it. I grew up with the mentality that the garage is a "male domain." For the most part, that’s fine with me. But, in the far corners of my mind, I can envision a neat, orderly garage, with just "garage stuff" in it. My husband works long hours during the week, and he also travels at times. This leaves him little time for organizing the garage. We’ve discussed many ideas of how we’d like things to be, and these are the ideas that I will share with you.

Hooks

A row of hooks along a side wall will hold all of your shovels, rakes, bikes, sleds, lawn chairs and anything else you care to hang. If your garage has a side door, you may want to put these hooks on the same wall where this door is located. This allows you to get to the shovels, or the kids to get their sleds, in the winter without opening the main door. It also allows easy access to the rakes and lawn chairs. You won’t have to carry them from way in the back of the garage and risk scraping the car. If your garage has rafters, use these like hooks. Store seasonal items like lawn chairs, ladders and sleds up there.

Shelves and Bins

You can purchase sturdy plastic shelving units at most home improvement stores. Use these to hold gardening supplies, tools, and spare auto supplies. Use tool caddies and storage bins to organize your various supplies. They come in a range of sizes from two quart to 45 gallon. Use the smaller ones to keep the shelves organized and put the larger ones on the floor next to the shelves.

Out-buildings

If you have a shed, or some other type of out-building, your garage will be much less cluttered. Lawn and garden equipment, such as rakes, mowers and garden hoses, are easy to store in sheds. This way they are already out in the yard, where they will be used. Sleds can be stored in out-buildings during the warmer months, and children’s wading pools during the cooler months.

Designate Areas

Use shelving units to create work areas. One set of shelves along one wall for auto accessories and tools, one set of shelves along another wall for gardening equipment, and so on. Use yellow electrical tape to mark off parking spaces for bikes. Use a storage container on wheels to hold outdoor toys (your child can roll the container around the yard to pick up toys.) Be sure to designate parking spots for wagons and toy boxes, too.

If you don’t have a workbench in your garage and you’d like to put one in, be sure to put it against the wall closest to the house. This will save you the expense of excess electrical wiring, since it will be close to an existing source of power. It will also be the warmest wall of your garage if it is attached to your home, so the work area will be warmer as well.

On a final note, unless you have room, don’t use your garage for "temporary" storage. So often people will store something in the garage just until they find room for it in the attic or basement. Six months later they find it still in the garage, taking up space that could be used for the second car. Anything that can sit for six months to one year and not be used should be carefully considered for selling or throwing/giving away. There are exceptions, of course. You may have a generator and be lucky enough to not need it for over a year. But, if you have broken machinery or tools that you never seem to find the time to fix, consider throwing them away. It is cheaper to buy a replacement than it is to be stressed about when you’ll have time to fix it. If these items are sitting for months while you work without them, maybe you don’t really need the tool to begin with. Less stuff equals less stress!

Kelly Huckaby is a Christian/Wife/Mother/Writer who homeschools her four children in Wisconsin. She has been married to Jef for 10 years and their children range in age from 8 months to 8 years old. She is active in her local homeschooling support group, (as the Resource Librarian for the past two years and a House Group Leader for one year) is the moderator for two homeschooling e-mail lists, and has a web page that offers support for families using The Weaver Curriculum. Her goal as a writer is to be an encouragement to other mothers.

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