5 Tips for Organizing a “Real Life” Garage

Is your garage cluttered and overwhelming?  Has it become a dumping ground for anything that doesn’t have a home anywhere else?

That’s pretty common. But sometimes we avoid organizing the garage because we can’t afford the fancy garage organizers we see online.

There are some beautiful garages out there and I’m happy for those people who have them.  But most of us have plain ole’ ordinary garages.  Sure, we can do some things to pretty them up, but they’re never going to be magazine worthy.  

But do our garages need to be beautiful?  We don’t live in our garages.  We store things in them.  And hopefully have space to park a vehicle in them.  If we have limited funds for organizing, more often than not we’d rather spend those dollars inside our homes, where we spend more time.

Don’t let having a real life garage give you an excuse to be unorganized though! I’ve had my share of pretty basic garages. But I do my best to keep our garage organized. And I just use basic stuff to do it.

If you have a real life garage, but struggle to organize it, here are some tips to help you!

Real Life Garage Organizing Tips

1.  Use the studs to hang tools. In this garage we have a few nails or heavy-duty screws in several places in the studs along one wall or in one 2×4 that’s attached to the studs. It works great for storing our gardening tools, snow shovels, brooms, etc. If you have limited hanging space you can swap out the items you hang each season.

You can also use the space between the studs to contain tall, narrow items. You can see in the picture an old piece of paneling in front of some of the studs and it helps hold in things like umbrellas, ice scrapers, and a bike pump.  I’ve also seen people use bungie cords between studs to do the same thing.  This is also good for sports equipment like hockey sticks, baseball bats, etc.

2.  Use any kind of containers you can find to keep like items together.  On our shelves we have old fridge drawers, an old fruit basket, a pail from an old citronella candle, and some dollar store bins. Sure, they don’t match. But it’s a garage so my goal to be able to find what I need quickly and for anyone in the family to be able to put things back easily.  Yes, I could buy matching bins, but I’d rather spend our organizing budget on areas inside our home.

3.  Maximize vertical space by hanging things from the rafters that you don’t use very often. Large S-hooks are great for this.  We’ve always hung lawn chairs, often a bike, and sometimes a hose from our ceiling. It really helps keep the garage organized when there’s less on the floor.  Especially in a tiny garage where floor space is needed for parking a vehicle and having space to get in and out of that vehicle.

In the above picture, you can see we have a 2×4 hung from the rafters and then we use s-hooks to hang things from it.  But, you can also just hang items directly from the rafters too. 

4.  Store off-season items out of the way.  This way you can maximize your space for the current season’s items.  How you do that will depend on your space, but it’s good to switch things around in your garage at least in the spring and fall.  We exchange summer things like golf balls, camping gear, and summer “toys” (pictured on the back shelves below) with winter items like sleds, snow shovels and ice scrapers.

5.  If you don’t have shelves (or enough shelves) buy a set of sturdy stacking shelves.  You can find these at thrift stores or on Craigslist, Kijiji, or Freecycle if you’re lucky.  Or they go on sale at department stores or home improvement stores regularly. If you have limited height, you can split them into 2 shorter sets like the picture below.

So are you ready to organize your real life garage? It doesn’t have to be beautiful. It just needs to be functional.

If you’d like other tips for organizing your garage check out my Garage / Attic / Basement  Organizing board.

Do you have a garage?  How do you organize it?  I hope these tips will help you get your garage organized!

If you need help decluttering or organizing, contact me for in-person services in the Mississauga area, or virtual services anywhere else.

Happy organizing!