Rick Scully, Author at Garage Tailors

Home organization ideas from your garage organization expert

October 12, 2010 by Rick Scully

Congratulations. You survived September! The academic year is now in full swing and you’re back to shuffling the kids between school and extra-curricular activities. While proper garage storage will certainly help you and the family get in and out of the car more efficiently, organization inside your home is essential at this time of year.

Because we know how busy you are, we thought we’d point you to a few online sources so that you can stock up on handy storage bins and other great things from the comfort of your home! Check them out.

The catalogue for the last site (Solutions) is currently under construction but it’s a great store, so bookmark the site for a future visit.

In our next post, we’ll be offering a few tips on how to put some of the goodies you find to good use in your garage. Until then, stay organized!

Clear your garage of old batteries, pesticides and other hazardous items

September 21, 2010 by Rick Scully

Since our last post, in which we pointed you to Rona as a great drop-off point for old paint, we came across a fantastic site that will help you clear your garage of everything hazardous – from aerosol containers, oil filters and antifreeze to gas canisters, batteries, pesticides and more.

Orange Drop is a Stewardship Ontario initiative that helps Ontarians recycle way beyond the Blue and Green Bin, and their site is really user-friendly.

Here’s what we suggest. Head out to your garage now with pen and paper in hand. Write a list of any hazardous items you’ve been meaning to dispose of. Then go directly to www.makethedrop.ca.

Once you’re there:

Click on the button that reads “Where do I go to make the drop?”

Enter your postal code in the space provided.

Use the drop-down menu to select the waste category of the first item on your list.

Browse the results page and choose the most convenient location for drop-off.

It’s that simple, so no more excuses. Clear out your garage day. Your car will thank you!

Discarded paint doesn’t belong in your garage

September 7, 2010 by Rick Scully

Paint Can Recycling Programs In our last post, we talked about ways to restore order to your garage so that you can get your vehicle back inside before the season turns. The long and short of it was purge what you don’t need; organize what you do. Following that post, a reader dropped us a note asking how to dispose of leftover paint responsibly. Here’s an easy solution.

Remember the saying “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure?” Well, last January Rona launched a new initiative under Ontario’s Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste Program. Under that program, you can now drop-off old paint at Rona stores across Ontario. They recondition about 80 percent of what they collect.

Who knows whose walls your old paint will turn up on, but we think you’ll agree that anywhere is better than a landfill.

Does your garage have a purpose?

August 19, 2010 by Rick Scully

Floor Cabinets - Garage When you ask the right questions, you’re more likely to find the right solutions. So, what can your garage do for you? If you don’t know, don’t read on. If, however, you believe your garage can protect your vehicle from the elements, not to mention vandalism, keep going.

Picking up where we left off last post, for weeks your garage has been a hard-to-navigate maze of bicycles, garden supplies and more. How do you restore order?

Purge! If you no longer need it, let it go. Give it to a neighbour, sell it at a yard sale, take it to a charity store, or, if it’s broken, send it straight to the dump.
Dispose! In the interest of safety and space, get rid of empty or near-empty containers of paint, pesticides, motor oil and other hazardous substances by following municipal guidelines.
Organize! With excess items removed, you’re ready to clear the floor by maximizing the walls and ceiling for storage. For some, a two-by-four and a nail work wonders but if you’re looking for a little more functionality, check out our selection of shelves and cabinets.
Park that car! It’s what your garage was designed for, after all!

Do you suffer from Seasonal Garage Anxiety Disorder?

August 10, 2010 by Rick Scully

suspending shelves Labour Day will soon be upon us, which means summer is drawing to an end … but that’s not all. Any day now, thousands of Canadians will be hit with a common ailment that we at Garage TailorsGarage like to call Seasonal Garage Anxiety Disorder.

What are the symptoms? Anxiety. Will the former glory of your garage ever be restored following the care-free months of summer? If you’re like most individuals, there are kids’ bikes, hose pipes, shovels, rakes and planters strewn across your garage floor. I’d even venture to guess that a few of you have a pile of top soil sitting on a blue tarp in the very spot you once parked your car.

All of this is very well, but the seasons are-a-changing. In just a few weeks, the leaves will begin to fall upon the beautiful, waxy finish of your vehicle. If cars could talk, yours would be saying, “I’m worth a lot. Protect me. Please let me reclaim my space!”

Clearing out the garage is a daunting task – we understand – so to make it easier we’ll be sharing a few tips in our next post. Be sure to check them out.

Custom garage cabinets: what a difference a makeover makes

July 20, 2010 by Rick Scully

In our last post we compared the average garage to an oversized junk drawer. Serving as a catch-all for every item that doesn’t have a proper place, many garages are so disorganized, homeowners have to park their cars elsewhere!

Ken was highly organized in every area of his life and home – with the exception of his garage. He, his wife and two teenage kids are runners, skiers and bikers. Due to their active lifestyle, their garage was a high-traffic area, but it wasn’t working well.

Tired of coming home to the chaos day after day, Ken engaged us to create and install custom cabinetry to optimize garage storage and organization. Following an initial consultation, we designed a plan, Ken and his wife selected colours and hardware, and we got to work.

Today, large custom cabinetry accommodates patio cushions off-season. A locker houses ski equipment while bikes hang safely out of the way. Tools reside in a functioning work bench area and, most importantly, the car still fits!

As the after shot below shows, cabinets are an aesthetically pleasing method of garage storage and organization.

Check out our selection of cabinets here.

Garage storage system or oversized junk drawer? You choose.

July 6, 2010 by Rick Scully

If you’re like most homeowners, you probably have a junk drawer in your kitchen that houses all the twisty ties, rubber bands and other miscellaneous items you can’t find a better home for.

Chances are you also have a junk drawer that houses sports equipment, gardening gear, tools, bicycles, camping equipment and more. Granted, this junk drawer is much larger than the first. It’s big enough to house a car, in fact. Yes, I’m talking about your garage.

While few would consider tossing an expensive piece of jewellery into a messy kitchen drawer, most of us park our second most expensive asset amid total chaos, and dangerous chaos at that. Poorly stored garden rakes, skis, bikes, and more not only put your car at risk of dings and dents; they put your family at risk of injury.

In our next post, we share how custom garage cabinets helped one family bring order to their over-sized junk drawer. If you’re interested in doing the same, check out our products soon because we’ve decided to cover the HST on the first 25 garage makeovers we book following the release of this post!

Garage Wall Coverings: A Practical and Safe Way to Create Storage

June 15, 2010 by Rick Scully

Slatwalls Garage Organizing In the last post, we left you precariously hanging on the garage wall with a two-by-four, a nail and a pencil outline, waiting to fall on top of a car or a kid.

Not a good place to be.

Because not only is such a garage organizing system dangerous, but it doesn’t take advantage of the wide expanse of possible storage available to you on the garage wall.

And that’s where a slatwall system comes in handy. When you cover your garage wall with a slatwall system, you create an infinite number of storage combinations that use the space effectively – and more importantly – without risk of things crashing down on top of someone.

With a slatwall, you can create organized zones in your garage dedicated to specific tasks. Hang off season bikes up off the floor, suspend toxic substances out of reach of children.

And of course, secure dangerous tools to the wall without fear of them accidentally harming anyone or anything.

Want proof? Go check out our Transformations. You’ll be amazed at the difference.

A Board and a Pencil Are Not A Safe Organizing Solution: Risking Damage to Cars & Kids

June 8, 2010 by Rick Scully

Do the two photos in today’s post look familiar to you? I see it all the time in garage after garage. A board nailed to the wall with outlines of what tools hang where.

And with that most of us would call it garage organization.

Take a look at the first picture again, the one of the whole wall. What’s supporting that tool? A single nail? Someone brushes by it and the whole thing will fall down, possible scratching your car or worse causing some major damage to your kids.

While this garage organization system might work for a few tools in a large garage where few people enter, it doesn’t work in a high-traffic zone that also acts as workshop, garden shed, and sports equipment storage.

So what to do? Check out our next post to find out how installing a modular storage system can turn those little-thought-of walls into valuable and SAFE real estate.

(If you’re impatient of course you can go take a look at what we offer for walls.)

Build a Strong Foundation & Organize from the Ground Up in the Garage

May 22, 2010 by Rick Scully

So, we’ve looked at how if left untreated, the garage floor will develop cracks and corrosion which will encourage you to ignore the space and will demotivate you from maintaining an organized garage.

Plus an untreated, uncovered garage floor is just down right ugly. You’ve worked hard to coordinate the whole house – time to bring the garage into the picture and make it beautiful.

So, what can you do? Easy.

Coat the floor with a polyaspartic garage floor coating.
This better-than-epoxy low VOC option creates a strong seal that resists cracks and corrosion, stops dust from rising and adds a decorative touch to the space. (Low VOCs mean breathing easier in and around the house.)
Lay floating PVC garage flooring tiles.
Tell the world that you take good care of the biggest room in the, with a solution that many of our clients have chosen.

Once you get the floor cleared and covered, you’ll likely find yourself driven to organize and beautify the rest of the space. Stay tuned! We’ve got more tips coming up!

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