With the coming of fall and winter, your garage may have to store different items – including sports gear, holiday decorations and automotive needs – than it did in the summer. Whether you’ve made new purchases, pulled things down from the attic or retrieved belongings from your rented storage unit, you’ll have to make room for them in your garage now.
The good news is you can stay organized and clear enough space to accommodate your cars by installing storage systems and tools.
Hooks and Slat Walls
Hooks and slat walls are simple to hang, and they help you get your garage organized quickly. Plus, they give your space a neat and tidy look.
Maybe the easiest organizing solution to add to your garage, hooks enable you to take advantage of unused wall space to hang yard tools like rakes and snow shovels, as well as extension cords to help you light up those holiday decorations.
Slat walls also make the most of your garage’s verticality and let you hang smaller items like trowels and paper towels, as well as larger items such as ladders and shovels.
Whichever you choose – or you can use both, if you have the available surface area – will hold a lot of your equipment and create more open flooring in your garage.
Shelving
While shelving also goes on the walls, it may be more suitable to your needs than hooks and slat walls. Perhaps you have bulky sporting goods or cans of paint to store. That’s where shelving shines.
Stack heavy-duty shelving up to the ceiling, if necessary, to stash your seasonal items. Roll up sleeping bags to keep them off the dirty garage floor. Store lanterns, coolers and other camping gear on a dedicated shelf. Place smaller holiday decorations in bins or boxes to contain and protect them.
Smaller shelving kits can fit above your workbench to create a gardening or woodworking zone.
Racks
Fall and winter sports probably don’t involve bicycling or tennis where you live. You need a safe spot to protect that gear from the elements and your vehicles. That’s where racks come in.
Hang a bike rack on the garage wall to hold up to four bicycles and three helmets. Out of vertical room? A bike stand might be the solution. It can accommodate three bikes and other types of sports equipment.
By using a combination of hooks, shelves and racks, you can arrange your garage so that it’s orderly and everything your family needs is accessible. Plus, you’ll have room to shelter your vehicles from the elements this fall and winter.
Prepare your garage