Making the Most of Limited Space

6.9.15_Garages-Making-The-Most-of-Limited-Space-300x200As a top post frame garage builder, we know that your garage space can get overcrowded easily. You’ve got vehicles, tools, trash cans, bins, scrap wood and lumber, paint buckets, more tools – the list goes on.

It’s impressive enough that you can maneuver through the clutter at all, let alone locate that old hammer you’re sure you remember seeing on the corner shelf. You know, the one behind the spare set of dining room chairs…

The good news is there are plenty of strategies you can use to get the most out of limited garage space.

Here’s our top 10:

DEVELOP A PLAN
The first big step is to get a functional sense of exactly what kind of space you’re working with.

Lay out a floor plan of your garage, or download one of the many organization and space-planning apps, and adjust your plan-of-attack until you’ve got a rough idea of the best permanent place for everything you intend to keep.

LOOK INTO SPACE-SAVING TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
Cluttered or misused garage space isn’t a new problem. A lot of lawn care and power-tool companies create products to help garage owners maximize their limited space.

Fold-up lawn mowers or streamlined cabinetry and shelving units can allow you extra storage space. Some may be harder to find and a little more expensive, but they’re well worth the investment.

Especially if your garage space is space you use frequently.

SHELVING
Shelves do more to transform limited space into real, usable, maneuverable space than almost anything else.

There are all kinds of options here:  boxed units, repurposed bookshelves or well-bolted scrap wood planks can create space for things like tools, seed, fertilizer, snow-melt or any other seasonal or storage necessities you may have floating around.

UTILIZE CEILING SPACE
Garage designs usually leave openings or spaces in the ceiling above the doors. With the right resources, you can engineer a usable storage unit for just about anything.

MAGNETS OR HOOKS
Pick up some magnetic strips or a hooked-board and use them to hang and store smaller metal tools like wrenches, screwdrivers and plyers.

NUTS AND BOLTS
You can use old jam or mason jars to store small necessities like nails, screws, bolts, washers and other fasteners.

You can never have too many, but they’re fairly easy to lose (or step on).

HANG LARGER SOLID OBJECTS
If you have a bicycle, an old remote airplane model or any solid structure you’d rather not get rid of, invest in hooks, cords or hanging shelves to raise the objects off of your needed floor space.

CRATE AND LABEL
Pick up some plastic bins and crates – they’re usually designed to fit into corners and along walls, and they’re often stackable.

Use markers or a label-maker to minimize confusion – Garden Items here, Holiday Ornaments over there, etc.

RETHINK
There’s often no need to toss objects, items or tools – but simply to organize things differently.

Sort and organize the items in your garage by different standards. Instead of “like with like,” for example, try organizing by task.

Set apart areas in your garage space for certain tasks – lawn, garden, carpentry, painting, etc. This helps to create usable space, while it also minimizes the time spent looking for individual tools when a project or job needs to be completed.

SKIDS AND PALLETS
A lot of staple garage items – chemicals, cleaners, paints, wooden-structures – are better stored high and dry.

For this, you can scan the curb or look online to find free (or very inexpensive) skids and pallets to use for sorting and storing.

If you’re designing a garage, make the most of limited space.

Limited garage space doesn’t have to be a show-stopper, and you don’t have to throw away items you’d rather keep just to create enough space to move around.

If you’re planning to construct a garage, talk to our designers about how to build the right kind of options and features into your space layout. Contact us today to get started!

view categories & articles

Ready to learn more?

©2024 Conestoga Buildings. All Rights Reserved. Hosted By WebTek. Privacy Policy