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This 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.

Last time we talked about items that should never be stored in your garage. However, care must be exercised with another group of materials that often find a home in our garages—chemicals. Quick, think of all of the chemicals currently stored in your garage. There are probably household chemicals like cleaners; chemicals for the maintenance of your car, like anti-freeze and window washing fluid; and gardening chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizers. If you have a pool, you have a host of additional chemicals stored in your garage.

While all of the chemicals listed above are commonly found in garages, they can be the source of household accidents if not stored properly. Let’s consider a few precautions needed to protect your home and family when storing chemicals.

Keep Hazardous Chemicals Out of Reach

Animals and small children are notoriously curious. This can serve a child well in many ways. However, a child or pet’s natural curiosity combined with improper storage of chemicals in a garage can turn deadly. Therefore, all chemicals should be stored well out of reach of children and pets. Consider not only a child’s height, but children’s propensity to climb. Make sure that chemicals aren’t easily accessible if the child climbs on a shelf or nearby crate. This is especially true of chemicals like window washing fluid and antifreeze which resemble colorful drinks.

Keep chemicals off of the ground and well out of reach of children and pets to ensure their safety and prevent accidental poisoning.

Store Chemicals in the Proper Containers

As a general rule, chemicals should always be stored in their original containers. However, there might be an occasion when you need to store a chemical in another container. For instance, you might borrow paint thinner from your next door neighbor. Rather than taking the entire container, you pour a few ounces in an old water bottle or some other discarded food container. When you’re done with the project, you store what’s left of the chemical on a shelf in your garage. Doing so could potentially lead to accidental poisoning if a child mistakes that paint thinner for what’s actually on the label.

Additionally, certain chemicals can only be stored in particular types of containers. For instance some chemicals will corrode a metal container or eat through a thin plastic one. Read the label and store the chemical according the manufacturer’s instructions.

Properly Label Chemicals

Let’s say that you stored a clear liquid chemical in a suitable jar or bottle, but didn’t bother to label it. Now it’s two years later. You’re looking for paint thinner and you happen across the unmarked container. You think it’s paint solvent, but you’re not sure. Maybe it’s something else altogether. While many household chemicals have fairly distinct smells, others do not. Besides, sniffing a noxious chemical isn’t the safest way to determine what it is. Labeling all of the chemicals stored in your garage ensures that you know exactly what you’re dealing with.

Invest in a Lockable Chemical Storage Cabinet

Earlier, we talked about keeping chemicals stored out of the reach of children and pets. A high shelf can work well, but a lockable storage cabinet works better. It doesn’t have to be huge, or take up valuable garage floor space. There are a variety of options available, from cabinets with a small footprint to those that can be installed on a wall.

Poisonous, highly-flammable chemicals are found in most homes and garages. They play a critical role in keeping our homes clean, our cars well-maintained and our gardens lush and green. However, to protect your home and family, you must safely store such chemicals. Keep household and other chemicals out of the reach of children and pets. Store chemicals in appropriate containers, preferably the container in which it came. If the label on the original container loosens, secure it with tape. If you must store the chemical in another container, ensure that it is properly labelled. If possible, invest in a lockable cabinet suitable for storing chemicals.

If the configuration of your garage, or the volume of items you currently have stored in it, makes it difficult for you to properly store chemicals, contact a garage organization specialist who can help.

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Organize Your Garage with Dedicated Zones