Organizing and Maintaining Your Garage

Finally! I had a little free time this weekend to do some garage organization. Yes, even a professional organizer’s garage needs some maintenance. Some of you may already be shuddering just thinking about the unbearable task of weeding through the mound of belongings lining the walls and covering the floor of your garage. For others, the garage is no longer home to your car but has been taken over with excess “stuff” that seems to grow every year.

It has been about a year since I last did maintenance yet it took me about an hour to put my garage back in order. Could you organize your garage in an hour? If your answer is no, then perhaps you are missing some key strategies for garage organization that could make your life so much easier.

In many garages, the space is used inefficiently, which means your belongings end up on the floor, shoved in corners or spilling over shelves. What’s the answer to save your garage from overflowing in a disorganized mess? A system of organization that maximizes the storage capacity of your garage.

The first step is to sort your items. When you have too many things and they aren’t categorized by type, finding what you need becomes a huge chore. To remedy this, remove everything from the garage to your driveway and sort it into piles. Each pile should have a category. One of the most important categories is items you no longer need. Baby clothes, broken bikes, old car seats, books, etc. This pile should consist of any item no longer benefiting your family.

The next step is to get your stuff off the floor and onto racks, shelving units, or overhead systems. The entire height of the walls should be utilized, especially if your space is tight with your cars. In this case, you can use high, wall mounted shelving or ceiling racks for seasonal items you don’t access often. For low profile items you use more frequently such as brooms, blowers, or lawn chairs, you can use track systems to hang them on your side walls.

My favorite system for garage storage, and the one I have in my home, is the Elfa storage system from The Container Store (On-sale until October 14th).

To organize within any garage system you choose, I recommend using clear containers. Labels are effective, but nothing beats being able to see what is inside your bins. The best ones I have used are Weathertight bins. They keep out the moisture and bugs of our Florida garages and come in so many different sizes.

clear weathertight totes stacked in garage

I also like to use trays for items that don’t need a bin but do need to be contained in a “home.”

If you are ready to establish an organization system for your garage but aren’t sure where to start or don’t have the time for the initial set up, we are ready to help. An organization system means you too can maintain your garage once a year in only one hour.