Our garages aren’t the prettiest (although beauty is in the eye of the beholder—looking at you woodworkers and mechanics), or the cleanest places in the home, and oftentimes things that don’t have any real place, within the home, seem to just get tossed in the garage, getting in the way. And that’s one utilitarian function of the garage: it’s a place to put things that we don’t want in the house—it’s a place for chemicals, paints, recycled newspapers, the dog’s food, etc. So, knowing that, let’s talk about storage options, the best ways to manage all the stuff.

Vertical Shelving

Garages are well-suited for vertical storage. Oftentimes, garages are simply sheet rocked walls, or even just as simple as wall studs. And, while we need most of the floor space for, say, parking a car (funny that the percentage of people who park a car in their garage is low), we can use shelving, bought or built, to ascend the wall space. Racks and shelving are found cheaply, depending on materials, at your local home center. Metal is always a good lasting option, although it will cost significantly more than shelves of plastic. You can build shelving with boards—2×4 and 2×6’s are cheap and common at the home center—don’t buy expensive grade lumber for this simple project. You can also purchase shelving brackets, or build your own. Simply cut down the lumber using a circular saw, or a chop saw if you have one (If you don’t have any power saw in the home, one important DIY hack is that your local home center, lumber yard, wherever it is you buy your lumber, can make the cross cuts for you—they don’t, at least usually, make rip-cuts, so be aware if you are planning on buying wide boards and then ripping them to a narrower size.) Hang the shelving, using boards at six foot lengths, brackets spaced every two feet, or at every other stud location—every stud if you’re worried about the load.

Remember not to build anything that could get in the way of your garage door opening and closing.

Contact Bailey Doors for all of your garage door needs.