Garage organization can seem overwhelming at first. Since the garage seems to be a catchall for all kinds of things, tackling the organization of it is a lot. One way to make this task easy is to organize your garage into zones.
Easy Ways To Organize Your Garage Into Zones
Follow these tips and tricks to get the garage neat and tidy in no time!
Make a Plan
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
This might sound silly, but draw a map of your garage on a piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be a work of art, but this will serve as a guide for your organization process. As long as the plans portray the general scope/area of your garage that is fine. Use a pencil when sketching, as your zones may change a bit as you are laying them out into their final resting points.
Once you have a general outline, start deciding how you will divide it into zones. Ideally, keep things to a minimum with no more than 5-6 zones. Some zone ideas might include sports stuff, home improvement tools, yard equipment, and pet supplies.
It might even be a good idea to take some masking tape and literally tape out the zones on the floor of the garage. You can leave these lines down while you are setting up each zone, or leave them down for any length of time. The tape will provide you with clear and distinct guidelines for organizing your garage into zones.
Divide and Conquer
Once things are planned out into sections, the next step should be to decide what will go into each section. There will be many items that could possibly go into more than one section. For example, would a rake go into the home improvement section or the yard equipment section?
Put things in the space that makes the most sense. The key is to make items easy to find and simple to put away. The zones will help to create this pattern so that every member of the family will know where things go.
Pick Up Essentials
Take a look at what objects you have laid out and approximate where they will keep residence. Will it be hung on a wall? Would some sort of shelving work for storage? Do you need to buy bins or boxes for smaller items?
Regardless of what type of storage items you may need, you will likely have to journey down to your local home improvement or department store. Once there ask an associate for help on where to find storage ideas or get their input on things that might help.
If money is tight, take a peak at Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for secondhand shelving, tool benches and storage items. Additionally, old kitchen cabinets from a house remodel can make awesome storage options for the garage. For budget friendly storage ideas for smaller items, use old coffee or tin cans (nails, screws, washers, etc.)
Break It Down
Via Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash
Focus on one zone at a time as you begin your organizing. This will not only make the entire process easier but will also add to the effectiveness of each zone. By doing one area at a time, you will be able to get very specific with the placement of things. For example, putting nails and a hammer close to each other for easy use.
Another idea is to put one member of the family in charge of each zone. They will be the one to organize, upkeep and tidy that zone. An example would be to have the kids be in charge of the zone that holds their sporting equipment or other toys they use outside. Assigning zones to individual members of the family will keep more eyes on the organization of the garage and take so much of the burden off of one person individually.
Empty Space Storage
When planning out your zones, also think about wall and overhead space. If your garage has overhead rafters, you can lay boards across and store some lightweight items. Also, it is always a good idea to store items that might be susceptible to water damage in this type of space.
Mounting pegboard on the walls of some of your zones will create a very good way to store smaller items such as tools. Hooks for pegboard can be picked up for not a lot of money at your favorite home store. Hanging items on pegboard gives everything a designated space and makes it easier to detect when an item is missing.
Beams can be a great place to drill eye hooks to hang lightweight items from. Be sure not to store anything super heavy where people may be walking. This can be dangerous if the items fall down for some reason.
Binge and Purge
Lastly, to keep your newly designated zones organized and efficient, make sure that you do a bi-yearly binge and purge. This process can be done very similarly to the organization itself – one zone at a time. When you get ready to start this process, keep in mind the limited storage space that you have in your garage as a whole.
Try to declutter each zone, getting rid of anything that no longer has use or a purpose. Freeing up space in each zone will allow you to add newer items that might get more use. Enlist the help of the family with this process, as some of the zones hold items that they use frequently or they own personally. This also might be a good time to move some stuff from one zone to another. Maybe you can reconfigure the storage of heavily used items so that the zoning is more effective.
One great thing about binging and purging right in the garage is that if you choose to, you can have a garage sale! Not having to move unwanted items out of the garage will streamline the process even more. Making some money on the things you have purged is even better and may give you some motivation to organize your garage!
