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Safe Use and Storage of Holiday Décor

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We look forward to beautiful holiday light displays at this time of year. However, holiday decorations cause numerous residential fires each year, most of which could be prevented. So before you plot your head-turning holiday display, let’s review some best practices for installing and storing holiday décor.

Electrical Requirements

house garage christmas xmas white snow winter lights holiday decorations snowman electrical safetyVerify that all outdoor electrical outlets are working. It’s best to plug lights directly into outdoor ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlets. When extension cords are required, it’s safer to use a longer, heavy-duty cord than to string together shorter extension cords. The extension cords used must be rated for outdoor use by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) – ground fault circuit interrupter.

Don’t overload electrical outlets. According to the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, no more than three standard-size sets of lights should be used per extension cord. If your garage and outdoor outlets are on the same circuit, you’ll need to take the lighting, garage door opener, outlets and other items plugged inside your garage into the equation as well. Lay out your holiday display with the location of electrical outlets in mind to reduce the temptation to use too many extension cords.

Examine Holiday Lighting for Damage

Examine each string of holiday lights for damage sustained during previous use or storage. Dispose of lighting with cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires and loose connections. Test each light string, then replace burned out bulbs. When buying new holiday lights, consider LED lights, which burn cooler and use less energy.

Safely Install Lighting

To reduce fire hazard, secure lights with insulated tape, insulated staples or hooks. Don’t use nails or tacks. Do not attach lighting over, under or along metal eavestroughs.

Securely fasten lights to the walls of the house or garage, trees, or other stable structures to avoid wind damage. Point bulbs toward the ground to keep moisture out of the sockets. Hang lighting and extension cords high enough above the ground so they won’t sit in snow and puddles.

Don’t block exits with holiday decorations. All exits must remain easily accessible, in the event of a fire. For added safety, turn off the lights at night or when you are away from home.

Storing Holiday Decorations

made to measure tall spaces open mezzanine access via custom electric elevating staircaseSafely storing holiday décor is the best way to ensure that lighting and other décor remains in good repair. Clear, stackable plastic containers provide excellent storage space for holiday décor.  Contents remain visible, making it easier to find items. As you dismantle holiday light displays, note the length of each string of lights and where it was used. Include this info on or in the storage container. Eliminate tangling, which can damage wiring, by using a holiday lights storage reel or wrapping each string around a clean, empty cylindrical can or a piece of cardboard.

Dead space in the garage provides an ideal location for storing seasonal items like holiday lighting and decorations. How can you make the best use of what may seem like unusable space in your garage? Here are three options:

  • Overhead Storage Racks: Installing overhead shelving can be tricky, so consult a garage renovation specialist if you’re unfamiliar with how to safely install weight-bearing overhead shelving. Garage Tailors Garage offers metal storage shelving to make underutilized ceiling height functional. Metal storage units are made of durable steel and the largest units support up to 700lbs. Store lighting and other holiday decorations in stackable bins on overhead storage racks in the garage. Access the space using a step ladder.
  • Install a pulley-based storage platform. Accessing seasonal items stored on overhead storage shelves can be difficult for those with physical limitations. A pulley-based platform uses a crank to lower the items to the floor where they can easily be loaded or unloaded. This type of system is ideal for storing artificial trees and large outdoor displays. Consult a garage renovation specialist to determine whether this option is feasible for your garage.

Made-to-measure solutions. Made-to-measure shelving, platforms and mezzanines provide additional storage space for stackable plastic bins and large holiday displays. Made-to-measure garage shelving can be installed high on a back or side wall. Made-to-measure platforms provide additional vertical storage space high on a back wall. Tall garages with lots of wasted overhead space can accommodate made-to-measure mezzanines which provide considerable storage for holiday décor and other seasonal items rarely accessed.

Need additional storage space in your garage for seasonal items? Request a consultation with a garage renovation specialist and discover how Garage Tailors Garage can transform wasted vertical space into functional, attractive storage space.

 

Five Ways to Maximize Garage Storage

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There are a few basic steps that will help you create a neat, organized garage. Last time we discussed the first step, creating related zones in your garage. We discovered why it makes sense to create separate zones for auto accessories, household supplies, garden tools, garbage and recycling bins, tools and workstations and sporting equipment. Now let’s discuss how to keep the items in each zone neat and organized by using a variety of tools and accessories designed just for this purpose.

Slatwall – The Key to Getting Everything Off of Your Garage Floor

1_5-car-garage-etobicoke-overhead-platform-storage-garage-cabinets-slatwall-organization-system-camlock-camlok-hooks-polyaspartic-floor-cement-block-coating-afterMaybe you’ve never heard of slatwall, but you’ve probably seen it in your local retail store. It wasn’t the item being sold. However, it was likely used as the base for the baskets and hooks that held merchandise. Slatwall (also called slotwall and slat board) isn’t limited to use by retailers anymore. It is frequently used in garages as a hanging system that enables homeowners to get everything off of the garage floor.

Slatwall comes in panels which are installed on the walls of the garage. The grooves in the slatwall hold hooks, baskets and other organizational products and give the homeowner the freedom to easily move these items as needed.

Your local big-box store might sell a basic slatwall system. However, slatwall sold there is typically composed of MDF. It doesn’t have the durability and weight-bearing capacity of sturdier, PVC-based slatwall available to professional garage renovation specialists and other contractors.

Getting professional-grade slatwall installed provides the base for organization in each zone of your garage.

Baskets and Hooks

Once professional-grade slatwall panels are installed on your garage walls, corresponding baskets and hooks can be inserted into the grooves. These baskets and hooks will provide wall storage for everything ranging from garden tools and sports equipment to snow shovels and bicycles.

Just think of all of the possibilities!

Rather than the garage being a dumping ground for everyone’s in-line skates or softball equipment, each item can be hung neatly in its designated spot. You won’t spend half an hour searching for your snow brush when the first snow of winter hits unexpectedly. Instead, you can walk right over to the automotive zone in your garage and take the snow brush of its hook.

Best of all, since the hooks and baskets can be easily moved, you can adjust the configuration to better accommodate the items you’re storing at various times of the year.

Shelving

Slatwall can also accommodate shelving. Like the corresponding baskets and hooks, the shelving used with slatwall can also be relocated at any time. This provides endless possibilities for storage on your garage walls.

Shelving can be particularly useful when it comes to storing window washing fluid, automotive fluids, household chemicals or flower pots. Create shelves high on the wall to store items that should be kept out of the reach of pets and children. Create low shelves for items that should be easily accessible to children.

Overhead Storage Solutions

One area frequently overlooked for garage storage is the space overhead. However, with a bit of imagination and essential expertise, the overhead space in your garage can safely store household items that aren’t frequently accessed, like seasonal tires, holiday decorations or roof racks used for carrying luggage or sporting equipment. Bicycles, kayaks, leftover wood or siding and other large, bulky items can also be stored overhead with the right custom solutions.

Overhead storage solutions can be tricky to handle on your own. A variety of factors must be considered: height, clearance and weight-bearing capacity, to name a few. If you aren’t completely confident about designing and installing heavy overhead storage solutions, contract a professional garage renovation specialist to handle a job of this magnitude instead.

Custom-built Storage Solutions

You can purchase any number of pre-built storage cabinets, workbenches and overhead shelves for your garage at your local big-box store. However, you’re limited to the sizes and configurations that they have available. If you have unique challenges in your garage, like curved walls or odd spaces, you might find it difficult to incorporate pre-made storage cabinets into your space. However, a garage renovation specialist can assess your space and custom-build cabinetry and workbenches to perfectly fit your lifestyle as well as the unique spaces of your garage.

An organized, functional garage is only a few steps away. Start by creating related storage zones. Then, give everything a specified place within its zone. And finally, be sure to return items to their designated spaces after each use.

Want the gorgeous garage, but don’t quite have the time to make it happen? Contact a professional garage renovation specialist to explore the possibilities.

Organize Your Garage with Dedicated Zones

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2 car garage oakville overhead storage platform slatwall organization system hooks camlock baskets tire storage racks afterThis time of year our garages can easily descend into a den of chaos. The kids are digging out the bikes and rollerblades. You’re sifting through sleds, snow shovels and Christmas decorations in search of your garden tools. Meanwhile, one (or both) of your vehicles is stuck outside because there’s never enough room to squeeze it inside the garage.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Creating some level of organization in your garage doesn’t need to be a complicated or costly affair. Optimize the space in your garage by creating related storage zones. Why are dedicated zones essential to a well-organized garage? Let’s reconsider the scenario above.

If your winter tools and sports equipment, holiday decorations and garden tools are all stored in the same area, it makes life difficult, especially when the seasons change. You’ll have to search through the winter items in order to reach the garden tools which are now in the back. This type of system breeds chaos and makes us less inclined to do the yard work.

Now, close your eyes and envision your garage as a well-organized space with separate zones for related items. The effect is similar to what you experience when you go to a hardware store. The shovels and winterization items are in one section. The garden hose and tools are in a separate location. You can easily find either type of item with minimal fuss or confusion. With that in mind, let’s apply that same system to your garage.

Like that hardware store, there are a few basic zones into which the items in a garage can typically be categorized. Let’s examine each zone and what items would best fit there.

Automotive Accessories

Create a small section to store items used to maintain your vehicles. In this zone, organize items like car wax, motor oil, windshield wiper fluid, a bucket and chamois cloths for cleaning the car. Group tools used during winter months, like snow brushes. If you keep an additional set of tires in the garage for the winter weather, these might require a separate tire storage solution.

Household Supplies

Perhaps you keep items like household cleaners and paint thinner (but not paint!) in your garage. First, be sure to safely store household chemicals in your garage. Create a dedicated zone for these items. Use a cabinet or shelf that will keep these items out of the reach of your children and pets.

Garden Tools & Supplies

Homeowners often hire a company to maintain their yard and keep it looking beautiful. Others find great pleasure in maintaining their own yards. Planting flowers and shrubbery requires lots of hard work (and tools). The last thing you want to do before a long day of work in the yard is to spend an hour raking through your garage to find your garden tools.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Instead, create a zone in your garage dedicated to storing your yard essentials: hoes, shovels, trowels, fertilizer, garden gloves, flower pots, potting soil and other yard accessories. Then you’ll be able to put your time and effort into making your yard gorgeous, rather than searching for your gardening tools.

Recycling & Garbage Cans

Garbage cans and recycling bins are frequently stored in the garage. It might be necessary to keep these items in your garage. However, if not stored properly, waste bins are open invitations to vermin. They can also detract from the aesthetics of your garage and cause unpleasant odors.

Keep recycling and garbage cans together in a single zone. Store waste in cans with lids that fit tightly. This discourages smells from escaping and pests and vermin from entering the waste cans.

Tools & Workbenches

The garage is often home to a workbench and a variety of tools. Perhaps you’ve always wanted a workstation in your garage, but don’t believe you have the room for it. Even smaller garages can accommodate a custom-built workbench or workstation. Keeping tools organized is made simple with the right toolbox, pegboard or more sophisticated storage solutions. However, recycled items are also useful. For instance, an old muffin tin makes a good place to store nails, bolts and screws. You’ll be helping the environment and organizing your garage.

Sports Equipment

Most garages are brimming with sports equipment: bikes, skis, kayaks, rollerblades and balls. If you have school-aged children, you know how quickly these items accumulate and overtake the space that was once reserved for your car. When spring comes everyone starts digging out their sports equipment. Any semblance of organization you once had descends into chaos.

That’s why sports equipment requires its own separate zone in the garage. Use hooks, baskets or other organizational tools (which we’ll discuss more next time) to organize sports equipment.

Bicycles are large and bulky, usually requiring a separate storage solution. There are a variety of solutions for bike storage ranging from a traditional school yard-style bike rack to sophisticated overhead pulley systems.

It’s clear why separate zones in your garage make life easier. Now that we’ve reviewed each zone, you might be wondering how to keep the items in each section neatly organized. In the next post we’ll discuss all of the neat solutions that will keep each section of your garage looking its very best.

Do you want an organized garage, but just don’t have the time to do the work yourself? Consider hiring a garage renovation expert to organize your garage.

Make Your New Year’s Resolution a New Year’s Reality

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As the clock strikes twelve, signaling the New Year, our enthusiasm burns bright. We’re excited about the possibilities ahead of us and all of the positive changes we’ve resolved to make.

If you’ve ever been in a gym during the first week of the year, you know that it’s brimming with people eager to achieve their New Year’s resolutions. By the second or third week, the crowd begins to thin. That’s because it doesn’t take long for that glittery excitement to fade.

2 car garage willowdale showcase - garage door, clutter, painted garage floor, slatwall organizer, shelving, drywall finished walls, drywall finished ceilingsMaybe you’ve begun to experience this, too. Your intentions were good, but you no longer feel motivated. Suddenly, those resolutions feel less like an opportunity for growth and more like a burden. One simple change will bring you closer to achieving your goals. Rather than making a broad resolution, like wanting to lose weight, travel more or make more money, create a step-by-step plan for reaching very specific goals. 

The goals mentioned above are indeed worthwhile. However, my expertise lies with another common resolution—the desire to get organized. Let’s look at a few ways to ensure that you realize your intention of getting organized this year.

Get Clear About Your Objective

Start by getting crystal clear about what you want to achieve. Set SMAC goals. Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Compatible. A goal like, “I want to get organized,” is admirable, but not specific or measurable. It is therefore less likely to be achieved. So be specific.

“I’m purging my closet of anything I haven’t worn in the past year.”

“I’m donating all of the toys and clothing my children have outgrown to a local shelter.”

“We’re going to organize the garage so that we can finally park the car inside.”

Now you have specific goals that can easily be measured. If the project still seems overwhelming, don’t panic. My three steps to ideal organization will help you simplify the process and achieve your desired results. Let’s apply those three steps to organizing your garage.

Step One:  Get rid of everything you don’t want or need.

This is the step that sometimes hurts. Many of the items stored in your garage have some sentimental value. They represent special memories from your past or optimism about the future. Approach each item logically. Ask yourself if you’ve used it in the past year. If you haven’t, chances are you’ll never use it again. It’s simply clutter, and it’s standing between you and your ultimate objective of organizing your garage.

Don’t be afraid to let go of unused items. If anything is broken, outdated or unsafe, dispose of it. For items that are still in good shape and may be useful to someone else, arrange for a spring garage sale or donate them to a local charity. Don’t hold onto things because maybe one day you’ll need them. Recall the frustration you felt when you made your resolution to get organized. Stay focused and be ruthless. Purge, purge, then purge some more.

Step Two:  Divide your stuff into manageable chunks.

Have you ever tried to do a small house repair only to discover that your hammer, wrench and screwdriver were in three separate places? It makes what might have been a simple job frustrating and time-consuming. That’s why it’s important to group all of your tools in one central location, like a toolbox.

Now, take the same approach when it comes to organizing your garage. Separate items by category. Group holiday decorations, gardening supplies, power tools, sporting goods and automotive products. You’ll save valuable time (and prevent needless aggravation) throughout the year.

Step Three:  Organize your things according to themes, seasons or purpose.

Organize the garage in a way that makes accessing items intuitive. Place items used frequently where they are easily accessible. Seasonal items like Halloween or Christmas decorations don’t need priority placement. Such items are good candidates for high shelves or overhead storage racks. Winter weather equipment like shovels, ice melting products and antifreeze should be placed near the garage door and given a priority space during the winter.

Once you’re done purging and organizing your garage, you may discover that your current storage options don’t accommodate everything you own. However, a well-designed garage, tailored to fit your lifestyle needs, will provide the storage you need. Simply contact a garage organizational expert to find out how quick and affordable a custom garage transformation can be.

Getting organized requires time, effort and a lot of hard work. However, when your space is organized and clutter-free it will be well worth it.

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Seasonal Garage Anxiety Disorder

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seasonal garage anxiety disorderFor most of us, the garage is likely the largest room in our house.  Our cars are probably our second largest assets.  It makes sense to use this space to house and protect our vehicles.

During spring and summer, however, we leave our cars on the driveway to have easy access to things like lawn mowers, bicycles and gardening tools.

It’s during the first cold snap of the year as we’re putting everything away that we look into our garages and wonder how two cars are going to fit.  Seeing everything that’s filling up the garage, we experience paralysis.  Often, there’s no clear way to start the clean-up process, so it doesn’t get started at all.

I call this Seasonal Garage Anxiety Disorder (SGAD):  All the stuff  is preventing us from using our garages for what they’re meant for and it causes concern.

In the next two blog entries, I’m going to help you cope with your SGAD!  But first, we have to think about motivation:  how badly do you want to get your car in that garage and why?  

If the garage is de-cluttered to make room for vehicles, we can:

  • say goodbye to scraping ice off the windshield before the sun comes up
  • get into a warm car – in the middle of winter
  • worry less about security, especially for those who spend much of the winter down south

One of the main objections to cleaning out a garage is the amount of decision making that has to happen. It requires some tough choices about what to keep and it’s usually a full day’s worth of work.

I’ve encountered garages that were full of furniture – both from parents who have downsized and children who were moving out, seasonal decorations, winter tires, garbage and recycling bins.  Some of the clutter has value, but there is only an emotional attachment to the rest.

The feeling of relief that’s experienced once all the stuff you’re not using is gone, will give a sense of release and freedom necessary to move forward with new activities and projects.

How great would it be to have shelving and storage systems that allowed garden tools, holiday decorations and toys to be found without digging through boxes?  Easy access and storage for seasonal items like paddles, kayaks and canoes and tires?  A discreet space for your garbage bins?

Garage storage systems, whether it’s cabinets, wall organizers, shelving, or a combination, can keep the garage organized all year round.  So when next fall comes, we’re not standing in front of our garage doors, wondering where we’re going to park our cars, we simply drive them in. 

Stay tuned for the next blog:  How to get Started.

GARAGE VIEWS FROM NUVO

Garage Tailors INC.
51-3176 Ridgeway Drive
Mississauga, Ontario
L5L 5S6

416.617.7551
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