Garage Organization

Lorie and I spent this last weekend painting the inside of our garage. Now I don’t want to shove all the crap back into the nooks and crannies where it lived before the paint job. Anyone out there done a garage reorganization that they’re happy with and would like to share? Here are the basic facts:

2 x car garage with 2 x cars and 1 x FJR (FJR rests in-between the 2 cars at the garage entrance side. 2 x garage doors. In the back left corner I built shelves 2’ x 8’ (half a sheet of plywood) – 3 shelves high + the floor. Have a moveable Snap-on tool chest next to the shelves. That takes up about half or maybe a little more of that back wall (back being the wall you’d hit if you drove the car into the garage too far – no, we haven’t done that yet).

My lovely wife loves, absolutely loves, plastic containers. I think it started when we were stationed in Hawaii with all the little critters there. We basically put everything in plastic containers from food to, well, just about everything. On the other hand, I absolutely hate, yes, hate, plastic containers. We have some that are clear and some that aren’t. They’re good for some stuff like the 10 – 15 bottles of trannie fluid we have from when our son worked at Honda. On the other hand, digging thru these damn containers looking for stuff I use on a fairly routine basis – sucks!

My plan is to:

A. Determine what goes into our backyard shed and what stays in the garage (garden tools, etc). And organize the shed.

B. Do the same for the garage and here are some thoughts:

- Both cars are, and will remain, in the garage.

- Lorie parks on the right side and her door opens in the center of the garage. The wall on her right is therefore open for “stuff.” Note – already have a 24’ ladder hanging sideways on that wall.

- My door opens into the left wall. Therefore “my” wall is available for “stuff” from roughly my back door to the garage opening. I don’t want to have to fight thru stuff when I get out of the car.

- Did I mention I hate plastic containers, tubs?

- The top level of the shelves is for longer term storage

- The bottom (floor) is for floor jacks, oil pans, etc

- Second shelf is for Givi Top Box and 2 x sidebags

- Need a place to hang our bike gear – helmets, jackets, trou, boots, etc (2 x sets)

- Floor – we bought the epoxy with “sprinkles” stuff a couple of years ago and will put it down one of these day. Anyone have any experience with that stuff – sorry, I forget right now who makes it. Anybody have experience with other floor coverings? I’ve seen some various materials that you lay down like a rug, etc.

- I’m a pretty decent woodworker and don’t mind making stuff for the garage. I visited the “Garage Store” and I am not paying what they want for garage cabinets, shelves, hooks etc! Great looking stuff, but holy crap!!

Well, that’s about it. I’d actually just like to know what you all have tried and what has worked/not worked for you.

As always, thanks for your time!

the best advice I can give (and I'm the last one who should be offering advice about garage organization....) would be to use the plastic bins, but put them on closely sized shelves. Also, tape/glue a pouch on the front where you can slide in a label with content descriptions. Use something like a binder page protector, so you can update the contents list as it changes, rather than writing on the box.

The other suggestion would be to use height to your advantage. Can you make any racks and hang some items above the car hoods? This might be a good place for gear, but you always have to worry about the accidental OH SHIT when you drop something on your hood.

i have not taken the time to do a complete revamp of the stuff in the garage, but i have just recently installed several feet of the wire closet shelves...i lined 12 feet on both side walls, and put 2-4 footers stacked one above the other about 4 feet in between, in a nook beside the door between the house and the garage. on this set of shelves i have my helemts, riding chaps, winter gear on the top shef, on the bottom my boots tank bag and misc stuff...what is nice about these shelves, is the fact that i can hang my coats and jackets on them too...

lowes/home depot have a the displays and a few brochures for ideas.

ymmv

cadman

I can't help because I have a 2 car garage, 40'X40' shop,and a 24'X32' barn. The drawback is lots of room creates lots of shit.

Have never owned a home where it is possible to actually park a vehicular conveyance of any kind in the garage.

I am in awe of people who can actually do that...*L*

I have shelves and cabinets using a lot of "bankers boxes". Another idea, could you back into the garage so drivers doors on both cars are on the center?

I finally got tired of everything setting on the floor and bought 3 wire shelving units that have 4 shelves each . I also bought casters for each. Now when I want to clean the garage all I have to do is wheel them out instead of picking everything up. I love them, I also clean the garage more often because it is so easy.

Another nice thing about wire shelving is that they don't collect dust like a solid shelf.

Mac

I've been drooling for years just waiting to pull the trigger:

GarageMahal-Makers.

Funny thing here in Cali... very few people park their cars in their garages. Boxes of shit completely fill that space. I don't know why. My neighbors never even move stuff around, take stuff out or put stuff in. It just sits there.

:dntknw:

Me, I toss shit out or give it away. Matter of fact when I get back from WFO, I'm going through another round of tossing to make way for some of the SO's business stuff that we have to keep for 7 years. Ugh. I hate that thought, but at $300/month for a 10 x 8 storage bin, it makes sense, I suppose.

He put "garage" and "organization," TOGETHER(!), as the only two words in the thread title!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Here, does this help?



Maybe I didn't understand the question.

Seriously, when we bought the house and left our apartment, I [SIZE=14pt]SWORE[/SIZE] that the garage was for cars, and cars only. And maybe toolboxes. And yard tools. And the grill. But everything else was off limits!!! That actually lasted 3 or 4 years, and then . . .

I came home one day, and couldn't park, and my wife said she put some stuff out there for me to move to the attic. Well, I felt bad, but I couldn't lie to her, and had to tell her we don't HAVE an attic. It's just rafters, no flooring anywhere up there. So there the stuff sits, and it just gets worse.

Things I've seen elsewhere that helped:

Hang bicycles from hooks in the ceiling. If your bike is too heavy to lift to a ceiling hook, it's not worth having.

Metal cabinets. Not just shelves, but stuff with doors that close.

I HATE plastic bins, too. But Mrs. Me loves them, thinks they are the best modern invention other than automatic icemakers. of course, they have to be stacked, and the stuff you need is always at the bottom. My wife "fixed" that by finding the thing that makes them into drawers, but the drawers keep falling out, because nothing over 3.6287 ounces can go in there before they collapse.

Don't try to back a car into the garage. There's going to be something out of place that you didn't see, and BAM! Busted something.

Last thing I can think of, I wouldn't hang my gear out there, even in a cabinet. I don't know about where you live, but . . . . things . . . . . get into the garage. Spiders, a wide variety of insects, frogs, lizards, neighbor's cat, maybe a snake or two. Nothin' like a sleeve full of baby spiders on a sunny Saturday morning.

See? Looking at that photo, I'd pull up a 20 yard dumpster, fill it and have it pulled tout de suite. Shit. Piles of shit. I don't get it. :dntknw:

OMG! That pic looks akin to my garage, cept for one thing. There is too much wall showing. Guess my piles are higher???

Yikes...

TWN? I feel an intervention coming on, what are your professional fees?

twowheelnut said:

See? Looking at that photo, I'd pull up a 20 yard dumpster, fill it and have it pulled tout de suite. Shit. Piles of shit. I don't get it. :dntknw:

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You are not allowed to look in my garage.

Gentlemen - thanks for your replies. Half our garage looks like wfooshee's right now just because we've moved it all to my side in order to paint the walls. Gonna take TWN's advice and throw crap out! I'll bet that 50+% of what's out there we never use, heck, we probably don't even know what that 50% is because it’s in those lovely rubber tubs.

I am going to buy one of the extension cords you either attach to ceiling or wall with a 3 or more plug outlet and a rewind mechinism. I looked at The Garage Store online yesterday and I might buy those flooring squares (1' sq each, ~$3.50 ea) and lay them out for Maxine to rest on. Black/White checkerboard 3' x 8' should work - this is a maybe.

I appreciate the comment on not hanging riding gear in the garage due to spiders, etc. However, I've been hanging it out there for the last two years w/o critters and will continue - but now I'll wonder what's in there every time I put my stuff on, thanks! I like the open metal shelf idea - helmets on top w/jackets, trou hanging below (against the wall and not sticking out) and may either try that, or make a like system out of wood. We went to Lowes last night and they’ve got ready made cabinets, etc, but they’re made out of pressboard and are fairly crappy construction and weigh a ton. And I’ll probably make a relatively small cabinet to hold cleaners, waxes, and all the other bottled “stuff” you keep in the garage. And I’ll take the good advice to put doors on it.

I also like the idea of the wire baskets on wheels, good idea. I think I’ll do my level best to get everything I can off the floor and then may go this route for what’s left, if it’ll fit.

Already have the bikes and two golf pullcarts hanging up so that’s settled. We just bought an 07 Honda CR-V to replace our steaming pile of automotive crap Dodge Caravan – that’s my short title for that car. Lorie really likes the CR-V and is glad for the smaller size, but to compensate for the loss of - packing crap in the car - space, we’re going to buy a topbox – will need to design and build a system to haul that up to the ceiling when not in use.

Yes, I could back the car in and that would open the one entire wall. However, it would just be a matter of time until I ran over or through something! Our garage is not square to the driveway and I always wind up caddywompas when I back in. No “incidents” yet, but if I did it on a daily basis I’m sure there’d be one sooner or later.

Thanks again for your thoughts and I’ll let you all know how it turns out. And wfooshee, good luck with your garage, remember, that’s your man space!

JimLor said:

And I’ll probably make a relatively small cabinet to hold cleaners, waxes, and all the other bottled “stuff” you keep in the garage.

Click to expand...

What, like Moonshine? :yahoo:

Can you tell I'm from Tennessee?

Hey Jim, we met at Dunkin's on the Pentagon ride.

We've got the sorriest little excuse for a 2-car garage and it looked like wfooshee's till a year ago. I wanted to bring another airplane home and Doris made it clear that it wouldn't have a place to go without some serious organizing. Now, we have the Feejer, minivan, one of the cars, an airplane fuselage (Kitfox V), two bicycles, and all sorts of other crap. Damn if she wasn't right.

The trick was to go vertical. The Kitfox hangs from a pulley system across the car hoods and the bicycles hang to the side. A neighbor made a pulley-system that raises a slick flat 4X8 foot platform. Each corner has one of those bicycle lifts and he probably has several hundred pounds of stuff total which is a little overloaded, but not a lot.

We used the old kitchen cabinets along the back wall and the one that's only about a foot tall (from above the fridge) made a notch in the line of cabinets for the Feejer windshield when the bike is parked. I made one entire wall of pegboard and found a huge steel shelving unit as surplus for that side-wall, then did the plastic tubs and labeled them for whatever, toys, garden, shop supplies, bike parts, car oils, etc. The kayak got sent to the shed and the ladders went onto the other side wall.

But then as a good jar-head, why not just toss everything that won't fit on your back? Oh ya, you were artillery.

Good luck on your project and "hi" to Laurie.

Bob

In my last house, which I donated to my ex-wife, I had the walls lined with kitchen cabinets that I picked up from someones remodel. It worked out very well. I took the doors off some of the cabinets and just had open shelves and left the doors on cabinets that I stored my powertools, etc...that I didn't want getting all shitted up with dust. You can usually pick up decent cabinets for cheap or even nothing if you look around a bit.

Damn Bob, that's a lot of stuff to stuff in a 2 x car garage! Commonly know as a "blivit," 10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag.

That Kitfox is a nice looking a/c. You spring for the nose wheel or stick with tail wheel?

Old kitchen cabinets are a good idea! To be honest, I'm trying to keep the cabinetry to a minimum - because I know full well that if I line a wall with cabinets, we'll fill 'em. Not with anything we actually need or use, but with stuff we're hesitant to toss because, well you know, we just might need it someday! I'll cruise the neighborhood on trash day for outgoing cabinets - thanks for the idea.

i've been tossing things out for about 3 months now. i set a minimum of a 20gal trash can at the curb for each pickup. since the the weather has been verging on 100 each day, evenings of this are slowing down. but, in the process, i cleaned out crap (boxes, not piles) that i'd not used through at least 2 moves. i also made room for a rolling rack to hang my riding jackets and helmets on, a roll-away tool chest (which helped me consolodate 3 smaller toolboxes), and a Handy Lift with 12" side extensions on both sides (iow: WIIIIDE).

i have about half the garage left to do which included getting rid of some old cabinets and replacing them with something nicer, coming up with a plastic bin system to use inside the new cabinets, and going through the small stuff (photos, etc.) that take longer to "put away" if they make the 2nd cut of toss-v-keep.

I don't get he 'garage full of shit' either. It's like that around my neighborhood. Us, and our next door neighbor who's 85 are the ONLY ones on our street, and almost block, that park in the garage. Our neighbor on the other side has so much crap, they can't shut the door all the way, it stays angled down.

So the whole street has rednecks with cars and trucks in the driveways, lawns and sidewalks. Looks like crap.