Tricks to Declutter and Organise Your Garage

People usually think of their garage as simply a place to park their cars and store unwanted or unused items. It ends up becoming a space full of clutter, mess, and general apathy. But this shouldn’t be the case; utilising your garage to its full potential could change your life!

A few simple decluttering tips could turn your garage from an oversized mess of storage into a truly organised, well functioning, additional household space. Let’s look at how we can work to declutter your garage.

Screw lids under shelves

Using jars with screw lids can be an extremely effective way to organise all the small things in your garage, like nails and bolts. Stick the jar lids to the underside of wooden shelves to save space and make it easy to access all those little items. All you have to do is unscrew the jar itself from the lid stuck to the shelf. Extra points for using clear jars as you’ll easily see what’s inside.

Use bungee cords to keep balls in check

Basketballs and soccer balls, or any balls really, can wreak havoc in a garage as they’re hard to maintain control over and generally roll around the place. A simple trick using bungee cords can help keep these balls in check. All you need to do is connect the cords vertically between shelves or beams to the floor, holding the balls together and keeping everything in line.

Use magnetic strips to keep tools and drill bits in order

Tools like screwdrivers and other small magnetic pieces like drill bits always seem to go missing in the garage, especially when you’re looking for them! To combat this, apply magnetic strips to your wall or shelf to keep these things exactly where they need to be. Having them on display will make it even easier to find and grab the bits you need.

Peg boards, peg boards, peg boards

Peg boards are one of the most versatile items when it comes to organisation, especially in the garage! The more wall space you can use in your garage the better, and these boards make it easy to design a layout and attach all sorts of things to your wall. From tools to plants to tins, there is a solution for almost anything! The beauty of this is that once you’ve mounted it you can still go back and change your layout easily to accommodate more items.

Cut pipes to keep shovels and rakes organised

Use old PVC pipes to create storage organisers for longer items like brooms, shovels, and rakes. Cut pieces of the pipe and screw them into a wall or beam then simply slot in the handles of your long items into the pipes and trust that they’ll stay upright.

Hooks are your friend

Hooks, like pegs, are the key to organisation. From hanging tools and rags to anything else you can sustainably mount, hooks give you great flexibility and keep things visible and within easy access.

Label away

With so many things stored in any given garage, it can be very easy to lose track of where certain items are. Use as much labeling as possible and mark anything you’ll need for the future. Your memory will thank you for it!

Use the ceiling

Most people never take a moment to look up when inside their garage. Imagine how much space you could free up by simply utilising the space in the ceiling! There are a number of rail based storage solutions that can be bolted to the ceiling and keep boxes off the floor, giving you considerably more floor space to work with. You might even be able to actually park your car in there! These are best used for those storage items that aren’t often needed.

Cabinets

Installing cabinets on your wall, if space permits, is an excellent way to keep things neat and tidy. While many solutions involve storing items against a wall, they’re still exposed. Cabinets can help tidy everything up and keep things looking clean and neat. You should also always have a locked cabinet for poisonous items like garden products, especially if there are kids in your household.

Tennis ball parking guide

To extract every last inch of space from your garage, you can squeeze your cars in as close as possible to your walls, shelves, or cabinets. Rather than guessing when to stop each time, hanging a tennis ball from the ceiling with a piece of string can tell you exactly when you need to stop. Align it so that it makes contact with your windscreen at the exact point required for a perfect park.

Bike storage

Bikes are a family favourite, but they take up a lot of much needed space in the garage, especially when each member of the family has their own. Consider using a ceiling mounted pulley system, or if space permits, a wall mounted hook system to keep the bikes off the garage floor.

Boxes

Plastic boxes that are stackable and sealed from dust are great for garage organisation. They’ll keep things clean, out of the way, and have the added benefit of allowing you to see what’s inside them in case you ever need to retrieve something quickly. Keep them on your ceiling rack and save even more space.

Garage bag dispenser

This sounds trivial, but it’s very handy. Mounting a paper towel holder to the wall will keep your garage bags at hand, meaning that any rubbish that needs to be cleared is done more easily. Anyone that has let rubbish accumulate in their garage knows how easily it can spiral out of control, and this keeps bags within easy reach and front of mind, so you can be bothered every time.

All it takes to get your garage organised are some simple tricks to improve its layout and storage options. There’s no drastic remodelling required and you’ll feel a sense of mental clarity by simply arranging your garage in a way that keeps it neat and tidy.