Conquering the garage

Well we have almost made it through the winter with out too much snow.  Time to think about some spring cleaning in the  garage.  You'll need to find your gardening supplies and put away the ski stuff.  

So, how to get started.  First think about using the walls.  Hang up as many things as possible.  The rakes, shovels, leaf blower, hedge clippers.  You don’t need anything fancy.  Get some sturdy utility hooks from Home Depot or Loew’s.  Mount them on a length of 2 x 4 then attach the whole ensemble  to the wall.  If the walls are unfinished, make sure you measure the 2 x 4 so it will attach to the studs in the correct location.

Next get some plastic storage bins from Target or Walmart.  Use clear bins, that way you can see what’s in them. My favorite is the Sterile bin 61 qt. size with the white lid.   It’s always helpful to label them as well, but if you don’t have time for that you will at least be able to see what’s in them.  Sort your items by category.  Put all the baseball gear together, soccer stuff with soccer stuff etc.    The bins will stack nicely on top of each other  or if you have shelving, you can put them on the shelves.

If you do have room for shelves, sort items by category  on the shelves too.  Gardening items together, car car items together.   You can use smaller bins to contain these things.  An open basket will work nicely, that way when you need something you can just grab the basket and pull out the thing you want and put the basket back.  You won’t disturb everything else on the shelf.

The garage has nice high ceilings, so use the height.  Go up.  If possible, attach some shelves or a platform to the space close to the ceiling. Also, hang things up high.  Use this space for things that are out of season.  Lawn chairs, hoses and yard toys in the winter.  You can swap things around in the spring to access the summer items and put the winter things up high for the summer, similar to changing out your closet inside the house.

Top pick for storage containers.