subject: How to use shelving to organise your garage [print this page] Having a cluttered or untidy garage can be extremely frustrating, and can even lead to procrastination of home projects and DIY tasks that need doing. Many people "suffer" at the hands of a badly organised garage where it is impossible to find anything. The good news is that it is not difficult to tidy up your garage and keep it well organised and neat. This article is aimed at providing some top tips for de-cluttering and reorganising your garage or tool shed.
De-cluttering is undoubtedly the first important step. There is no point erecting shelves if you are simply going to laden them with junk that you don't need. It might take a fair amount of time going through your things, longer than you predict. Even if you find yourself 2 days in and the end is not in sight, don't worry. Persevere with it and you will be grateful you did so. Go through every box, bag, shelf and broken bit of equipment to see what you really need and what you really don't. There will be a lot of things you come across that you think you will need in the future but that you haven't used for a long time. The rule is simple - if you haven't used this item for 2 years, then you can get rid of it. Using something as infrequently as this means you can probably borrow or hire whatever it is when or if the time comes.
When you are going through everything, try and leave it in appropriate groups for storage. Cleaning materials should go together, bicycles and related equipment should be together, and garden tools belong together too. This will make housing everything quicker and easier post de-cluttering. Be quite brutal when you are going though everything. If anything is broken then throw it away. Anything that still works but you have no use for can be sold at a car boot sale or even in an online auction if you think it is worth a bit of money.
Now that your belongings have been whittled down, the next step is to find a home for everything. Get yourself some heavy duty garage shelves for a start. These are the perfect storage units because you can reach them from all sides and you can see at a glance what is stored and where. Another unique feature is that you can screw hooks or even jam jar lids to the undersides of the shelves. Then you can hang bags or fill jam jars with small items and just screw them in place. This provides a further layer to the shelving making it even more effective.
Store everything so you can reach it quickly and easily. If boxes are piled on top of each other then it makes it too easy to not put something back where you got it from. Leaving just one or two things out of place can result in the whole system falling apart. All boxes should be labeled too and if possible, try and store your groups of items into even wider categories. For example the bicycle equipment could go with other sports equipment such as golf bags and swingball sets, the garden tools can be stored near to the potting compost and lawnmower and the cleaning equipment can go alongside any other equipment for the house.
shelving units are all that is required in the way of formal garage storage as these are enough to let you see at a glance where everything is and keep the floor space entirely free from clutter. It doesn't matter if your garage serves as the home office space for your fledgling internet marketing business or whether it is just the home of the lawn mower, you'll get on far better with a clear and ordered space.
