You've spent the past five months spending as little time as possible in your cold, dusty garage. But spring is here, and now is the time to tackle that behemoth of winter clutter. How can you maximize storage space and organize your junk? Here are some DIY tips for organizing your garage.
1) Store sports balls using bungee cords. This genius storage solution allows you to easily access your ball collection, and it's a cinch to put together.
Photo courtesy 100 Things 2 Do
2) Separate your garage into zones. Keep sports equipment, gardening accessories, power tools and kids' toys each in their own area of the garage to keep things organized.
Rocky Mountain News Photo
3) Install slatwall panels. This allows you to easily hang and rearrange hooks and baskets.
Photo by Michael Sears
4) Get things off the ground. Use a storage system or build shelves to clear floor space. Then you might have room to park your car in the garage – what a concept!
Photo courtesy Monkey Bars Milwaukee
5) Store your wheelbarrow on the wall. This tutorial provides an easy DIY solution for keeping a space hog like a wheelbarrow off the ground.
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6) Turn a file cabinet into storage. Keep your garden and yardwork tools organized using an old file cabinet. Here's a tutorial on how to convert it.
Photo courtesy Haydee Letonja, Trash to Treasure
7) Turn an old metal rake into garden hooks. The head of an old metal rake – thrifted or a used one of your own – makes a simple, stylish rack for garden tools.
Lisa Hubbard Photo
8) Screw organization. Literally – keep your screws organized with this clever storage idea that uses dead space underneath a cabinet or shelf.
Photo courtesy Benita Larsson
9) Use old furniture you might not traditionally keep in a garage. The combination of an old (or cheap, used) desk and cabinet can save space and help you keep things organized while providing a flat work surface.
Photo courtesy Monkey Bars Milwaukee
10) Hide clutter in easy-to-access bins. Cube-shaped storage units, like the one below from iCube, are ideal for stowing away shoes, sports equipment, tools or miscellaneous items that can clutter your garage but need to be available for easy access.
Photo courtesy iCube
11) Build a bike rack. Bikes can be a storage nightmare, especially when they go in and out of the garage every day. A simple DIY bike rack can keep them in place, and it's easy enough for kids to use. Here's how to build it.
Photo courtesy 100 Things 2 Do
12) Build a tool rack. These DIY hooks are cheap and simple to build on your own. All you need are nails and a board to keep your garden tools beautifully organized. Here's the tutorial.
Photo courtesy 100 Things 2 Do
About Alison Sherwood
Pulitzer Prize-winning multimedia journalist Alison Sherwood is the web producer for the Journal Sentinel's lifestyle section, Fresh.
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