Top 15 Clever Ways to Organise Your Garage Over the Weekend
A garage can be one of the messiest and unorganised spaces in our home. Tidying and organising it is a job that we always say we will do, but never actually get around to doing it and the more time goes by, it slowly gets messier and messier.
Before your garage becomes something which you can’t even step foot in, set aside some time and follow our list of clever ways to organise your garage over a weekend.
You may have a vision of what you want your garage to look like? Perhaps you have a few ideas which you’re interested to see in action, or maybe you have no clue where to start when it comes to getting organising and need help with some garage storage solutions. Whatever position you’re in right now – don’t worry! Take a look at our tips for the best things to do when you’re organising your garage space, then take matters into your own hands when you have the spare time. Here’s our list how garage storage ideas where we break down how to organise your garage UK.
Before you start
Remember that although these tips don’t take days, some of them may take a lot of hard labour so you may want to ask someone to help you if you’re building big storage racks or moving containers.
Whether you can use some of the ideas depends on the size of your garage, so before you start building things or organising your garage to get through the clutter, think realistically if it will fit in the space you’re working with.
Garage storage ideas:
Create a pegboard tool organiser
You can buy pegboards from a lot of craft shops or online, and although they’ve been used for many things in the past, a good idea is to make your pegboard into a tool organiser. You can place hooks on the board and place your tools wherever they best fit. For very heavy tools that you want to store on the pegboard, you will have to use multiple hooks.
It is a great way to utilise your wall space and means you no longer have to worry about where your toolbox is when you’re looking for a tool or two!
Turn your chest of drawers into a workbench
If you’ve got some old chest of drawers lying around that are no longer being used, or if you want to buy some cheap ones then you can get creative and make them into a workbench, perfect for your own garage workshop. Professional workbenches are really expensive and its unnecessary money when you can simply store everything you need in the drawers and then use the top of the surface as a workbench.
You may even want to add some personal touches such as adding a blanket over the top to preserve the drawers. Here’s a great example of of chest of draws come work bench:
Hang bikes from the ceiling
Having a number of big bikes and scooters in your garage can really take up a lot of room. If you’re struggling to find room to store the bigger items on the garage floor, you can hang bikes from the garage ceiling instead. It may seem like a crazy idea but plenty of people do it!
You’ll need good quality large hooks and suitable mounting points (such as joists). Make sure you test that the hooks and fixings can support the bike weight as well. Utilizing the space by putting things in higher up places and making more room in your valuable floor space will make the garage feel like a bigger and more organised space. Depending on the height of your garage you may also need to look at getting a pulley system that can help you get the bikes up and down.
Install garage storage cabinets
These can often be one of the best garage storage solutions when trying to free up space, get organised and ultimately have a nice, tidy garage. They will often vary in size and can be customised around your garage space. Wall cabinets are great as they give you a number of places to store different things such as a cabinet for sports equipment, another for garden tools and can also encompass shelving units if you want open shelves that you can access easily.
Conserve space with a fold up table
If you have a work table in your garage then here is another opportunity to save some space. Consider buying a fold up table or even making your own to attach to a wall or to store in a small place. Tables that fold down are a lot handier when it comes to making use of the space you have.
One of the worse potholes that people tend to fall down when organising their garage is not thinking about flat furniture that can help to create a lot of useful space. Whether you chose to buy a fold up table to store like this one or you decide to make your own and screw it to the wall, you won’t regret your decision!
Stack plastic storage boxes on top of each other
Organising your garage can be a lot more fun than it seems, and plastic containers are a lot more useful than you may initially think. They’re extremely cheap and it doesn’t matter if they get dirty and dusty.
Look out for storage boxes that stack on top of each other as these can save a lot of space and are one of the best small garage storage ideas. They may be big in size but the more you get, the more you can stack to give you more storage space. They’re great because you can put an endless number of things in them, from old toys, sports gear and so on.
A fun weekend project can also help organize your storage containers in your garage. With the right tools like a table saw, you’ll be able to cut wood with ease and get them set up in a way that will hold your containers so you don’t have to pull them out one by one.
DIY Ceiling track storage
If you don’t fancy storing bikes and scooters on your ceiling, then you can make use of the ceiling space in another way. Buy some drawer tracks and screw them in securely into the ceiling of your garage in parallel to each other (making sure you use suitable fixings that will hold the tracks and drawer weights). Then buy some big plastic draws and slot them in. You can really store anything in them and they take up hardly any space. This is also ideal for anyone who has low ceilings or small garages and can’t store the bikes up there. It doesn’t require much DIY equipment to put up and once complete everything stored there is still easily accessible.
Build corner shelves
Often, the corners of the garage (and any room) aren’t used for anything in particular. It can also be annoying when a storage unit or some specific shelving won’t fit because of the corner. The best thing to do is to build your own custom corner shelves which you can then store things on.
The shelves won’t be huge, so you will probably only be able to store limited things on there, but it’s still some extra space you wouldn’t be using otherwise. If you’re not the creative or building type, then there are readymade corner shelves like these that you can buy to fit the size of your corner.
Use door storage for cans or spray paints
If you have children or young ones in your house that have a huge collection of shoes (why do children have so many shoes?) then you’ll be familiar with shoe door storage. You can always buy yourself a cheap door storage unit to store your small cans or spray paints in and your garage door can be a perfect place for this. It can be annoying having to look around your whole garage to find a small spray bottle, but with an organiser like this one – you will no longer find yourself in a pickle every time you go into the garage for something small. Amazon has a lot of cheap door storage like this one, than can easily be attached to your garage door.
Buy a rack to safely park your bikes
Another easy way to store your bikes and scooters safely is to simply buy a bike rack and place it in your garage. This is the best way to organise a garage that is particularly cluttered with bikes and everything else toy related. If you remember to always store your bike right, and the children know where to put it when they’ve finished playing outside, then your garage will always stay organised even after a few months.
Bike racks aren’t particularly costly either. This 4 bike stand is available on Amazon for under £20.
Hang a magnetic strip to hold small tools and nails
Those of you who are looking at organising your garage, so you can find things a lot easier, then rejoice! We’ve found the perfect solution for anyone who always finds themselves looking for small tools and nails. Nails and other sharp objects can be extremely dangerous when they’re lying around in the garage so doing this tip will also improve safety in your garage too.
Simply take a magnetic strip and glue it above your workbench onto a wall or piece of wood, you can then store all your nails and other small magnetic bits (such as screwdrivers) on it. It’s a super handy and cheap tip!
Have a big bucket for scrap wood
Buckets aren’t expensive, and a lot of the time you can go to a tip or bin site and get one for free. Getting a big one and putting it in the corner of your garage can be great for any spare wood you may have lying around.
We understand that sometimes you find or buy things you don’t necessarily need right now but will use later… (maybe!) which is why buying or getting a big bucket for it will help to organise it. You can also label it so that everyone knows not to touch (or bin the stuff!). It’s essentially like having an extra bin but you don’t get rid of it and it has interesting and useful stuff in it.
Organise everything into labelled tubs
If organising has never been your strong point, then you may be a little rusty when it comes to storing and labelling tubs. It’s a great way to store all different things like toys, tools, or old keepsakes. If you’re wanting to protect the items from becoming damaged in the damp garage conditions, you should look to buy tubs with lids.
Labelling the tubs with the various item names will also help you when you’re looking for something and will save time and effort! You can always be a bit creative and use jars and other storage utensils to give your garage a boutique or vintage edge.
Save space by using sliding shelves
Building sliding shelves might take longer than a weekend as they’re a big task, but it’s definitely worth trying to build. They save so much room and mean your garage looks very organised. Having sliding shelves is possibly the best method for anyone who wants a perfect looking garage, and hates mess everywhere. You can store practically anything on the shelves and then simply push the shelves back in and forget they even exist. This is also great news for anyone who wants to use their garage for multiple things, as you should be able to free up a lot of floor space for other uses.
Add outdoor storage
It’s cheating a bit but if you’re still struggling with the organisation in your garage and are looking for an alternative, it’s definitely worth getting some outdoor storage. Even if it isn’t big, the best way to make more space for your garage is to store it in another place. Perhaps get a small bike shed which the smaller bikes or electric or petrol lawn mowers can be stored in, this will then free up more space in your garage for other things.
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our garage storage ideas and top garage storage solutions, we hope the ideas have given you additional ways to organise your garage. By the end you may well have decided to add this to your home improvement projects because it will undoubtedly lead to some great storage if you have enough space to implement all or even some of the ideas.
If you think you might prefer to start from scratch with a whole new garage, then check out our guide below so you can get an idea of how much it could potentially cost to start over:
