AD. It’s great to have a home with a garage, It’s a very useful extra that not everyone can enjoy. But the problem is that garages just tend to become a bit of everything, including storage space, a dumping ground, somewhere to put things when you don’t know what else to do with them, and so on. And that means the space is just not very useful when you actually need it because it’s always full of stuff. However, if you set things up properly, you can make your garage much more useful, so keep reading to find out what to do.
Start By Clearing What You Don’t Need
Before you do anything else, it’s really helpful to properly go through what’s actually in your garage. And don’t rush the job or you’ll just end up hardly making any progress - you’ll need to set time aside to do it correctly, so you get the result you need to move on to whatever the next step might be for you.
The fact is, there are sure to be things in your garage that you’ve not touched or even thought about in months (probably years), and they’re all going to be taking up space you could be using for anything else - useful space that’s currently hidden under what basically amounts to junk.
You don’t have to get rid of everything, but it’s wise to be a bit more honest about what you actually use because once at least some of that’s cleared away, the space becomes a lot easier to work with, and you might be surprised at how much of it you’ve got.
Think About How You Want To Use It
A garage can be used in all kinds of different ways, so it’s good to know what you want to do with yours before you start organising anything. It might be mainly for storage, of course, but it could also be somewhere to work on projects, or you might even want to turn it into an extra room at some point because that’s perfectly possible and can save the hassle of moving to a bigger home.
Whatever it is, once there’s more of a clear purpose, it’s a lot easier to organise things in a way that makes sense for what your goals are, and if you don’t work out what you want first, you might have to start the task all over again once you do realise what the garage is going to be.
Use The Walls Instead Of The Floor
One of the biggest changes comes from just getting things off the floor because when everything literally sits at ground level, it quickly becomes cluttered and harder to move around, not to mention the fact that clearing it out feels more overwhelming and less possible, so you might not even start the job at all.
This is where garage shelves that are functional and look good can make a massive difference. The truth is that using the walls for storage frees up space and makes it easier to see what you’ve got at the same time. Plus it means you’re not constantly having to move things around just to reach something that’s hidden at the back of the pile.
Make Frequently Used Items Easy To Reach
Not everything needs to be as accessible as everything else, and if you want to make life easier for yourself, and make your garage feel more useful, it makes sense to have the items you use a lot within easy reach, and the things you don’t use very often can be stored higher up or further back.
That’s going to reduce the amount of moving and searching you’ve got to do, and that’s one of the things that can make a space feel really inefficient.
Add Hooks And Smaller Storage Where It Helps
Shelving is useful, of course, and you’ll definitely need it, but it’s not the only type of storage you can use - hooks, pegboards, and various other smaller storage solutions can all help you keep your tools and equipment organised without taking up too much room.
And if you’ve got things you can’t necessarily keep on a shelf, like garden tools or cables, this different kind of storage is perfect and solves a whole load of problems all at once.
Keep Similar Things Together
It sounds pretty simple, and perhaps that’s why not everyone thinks about it, but if you group items properly it’s going to save a lot of time later on. You can have tools in one area, seasonal items in another, car-related things kept together, and so on.
The problem is that when things are spread out, it becomes harder to find what you need, and you’ll get frustrated and not want to use the garage to its best advantage anymore. Having set areas just makes everything easier to manage without needing to worry, and it makes tidying up a lot more efficient as well.
It’s also a good idea to label boxes and drawers - it takes moments to do, but it can save a lot of time when it comes to finding things. On top of that, it makes tidying quicker, and that’s always a bonus.
Keep It Simple To Maintain
It’s one thing to organise a garage, but keeping it that way is quite another, so it pays to have a simple system in place - the easier the system is, the more likely it is to stay working and in place. After all, if it takes too much effort to put things back, it’s just not going to happen, and then you’ll find yourself in a cluttered mess again in no time.
Make Space To Actually Use It
You might be focusing totally on storage at this point, but don’t forget to leave some clear space as well - that’s just as important. Whether it’s for working, parking, or just being able to move around properly, having that open area is definitely going to make the garage feel more useful.
Without that space, it just goes back to being somewhere things are stored rather than a space or room that’s actually used.
