5 Tips to Organize Garage Space Quickly

5 tips to organize garage space quickly. Do you want to transform your garage into a great storage space, work space, or even a spot to park your car again! 

Are you tripping over bikes and clutter that sit in the doorway? Has your garage become the family closet? Do you simply want to park your car again in the garage?

If the clutter in your garage is reaching mountainous proportions then it is time to reclaim the valuable real estate of your garage. To do this quickly you need to:

1. Have a plan for your garage
2. Sort your garage goods into different piles
3. Define your zones for garage storage
4. Go to the wall NOT the floor
   
5. Have a place for everything and everything in its place
   

These easy steps to organize your garage give your car its rightful home and you never know....you may find that old football that has been missing for the last year!

1. Have a plan to organize garage space

The garage is valuable real estate, in some cases accounting for 10-20% of your home storage space. What do you want to do with the garage space when you organize it?

Having a vision of what your garage is going to look like and how you are going to use it does two things:

• It is a motivating force to declutter your garage
• It makes it more likely that the reclaimed space from organizing your garage won't fill up with clutter again.

Having a vision of what you want from your garage also gives you some ideas about how you are going to use your reclaimed space! If you like to do mechanical work on cars and bikes then you may want to set up your garage to do those types of things. But woodworkers or DIYers may want to do something different with their garage.

2. Sort your garage goods into different piles

Does the prospect of organizing your garage sound daunting? Have you tried to organize your garage before but things just didn't work?

Organizing your garage can be overwhelming but here are a few ideas to get started.

Divide and conquer.

The first thing with any organizing project is that you want to break down your organizing into small chunks. This 'divide and conquer' strategy is a great way to get started on organizing your home or your garage. Choose a corner of the garage, or a shelf. Start small and follow these steps:

1. Sort your stuff into different piles. Are there things that you no longer use or want?
2. Label one of the boxes "trash", another "donations" and the other "to keep". Roll up your sleeves and systematically go through your garage and decide the items that go in each of the boxes. For example, empty cans of paint may go into the trash. However, unused toys or old bikes could be your chance to make some extra money with a garage sale!
   

3. Define your zones for garage storage

Now that you have sorted your things you now need to define different zones in your garage for each of your categories. These different zones may be:

• tools,
  
• sporting items,
  
• camping equipment, or
• general household items.
  

Determine the locations of the different zones in your garage and ensure that the items go into their respective zones. Consider these different strategies when organizing your zones:

1. Place like with like. By placing tools with tools, or general household items with general household items, you ensure that you are more likely to find the items when you come looking for them.
2. What are easy to reach spaces. In most cases you may want the organized garage as a storage space with easy access for items that you use often, such as general household items. However, the camping equipment that you may use only once a year can be stored in harder-to-access areas.
3. Think of your garage storage as real estate - and you want your prime real estate to be for those things that you use often!
4. Organize garage storage so that you have daily items at eye level and in easy-to-reach locations.

4. Go to the wall not the floor

The garage is valuable real estate! To reclaim the garage floor it is useful to 'go to the wall' to use your garage space more effectively. Often home improvement stores or professional organizers give you advice.

One tip that is often used by professional organizers is to clear the floor space by hanging bikes on hooks and putting other items on shelves. Hooks and cabinets are great options for utilizing garage space effectively.

Look at the items that you want to store in your garage - tools, household items - can these be stored in shelves or on hooks? For hazardous items, consider using a lockable cabinet, and for heavy items consider supported shelves.

5. Don't let the hard work go to waste

We have provided you with a guide on how to organize garage space but this could easily apply to any other part of the house from the closet to the home office. Defining zones makes it easier to find and put away items.

By having a zone for different categories and a home for each of your items, the trick to maintaining your garage organization is to ensure you put your items back in their home spots.

One of the key tips to organize garage space and clutter control is to have a place for everything and everything in its place. If you liked this article then you may also like articles on organizing:

• your files
• your desk for optimal productivity
• your bills so that you don't lose track of what you have paid.