Throw me your garage storage hacks!

[Martinjmpr]

Well we are settling into our SW Pueblo house. Got my home office set up so I can work, internet and cable, and just got a big screen for the "home theater" in the walk-out basement.

But my biggest issue is the garage and it's a gnarly one.

The garage itself is a 3 car, and that's a great improvement from the 2 car we had in Littleton. It means I'll be able to park my truck in the garage for the first time since we lived in Englewood in 2016.

But UNLIKE our Littleton house, which had a little "workshop area" by the garage, this is just a big rectangular garage. Into this I have to fit 2 vehicles (F-150 and wife's Honda CR-V), 2 motorcycles, 2 electric bikes, all our camping stuff and my tools.

So I'm looking for tips/tricks/hacks to increase my storage capacity.

Here are some photos. This is looking from the door into the house towards the far front corner of the garage with the small (8') single door. This is likely the best place to park my truck although I have had issues dinging the mirrors off the edge of the garage door tracks.

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This is on the opposite side, at the edge of the large double door (16') As you can see, I've piled all my excess crap along this wall for now to make room for my motorcycle and the wife's car (other motorcycle is still in Littleton, I'm picking it up later this week and it's a BMW touring bike.)

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This is looking from the center of the garage towards the door into the house. Notice the high ceilings - I'm thinking there is potential for overhead storage here?

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And finally this is the back corner with the door going out to the back yard. I bring the dogs in and out this way so it has to stay reasonably clear.

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There are no windows on the garage so I pretty much have unlimited use of the walls. In the last picture you can see the nice built-in workbench and cabinets at the back of the garage. This I'm planning to keep.

So, with all that said, what kind of storage solutions have you found? Obviously, getting rid of excess crap is a high priority. But I also want to maximize the space I have to work with. We plan on being in this house for 20 years so I don't mind investing in some good quality materials to get the garage more functional.

[gnihcraes]

Prime all those walls white before anything or as you move stuff around. Reflects light much better and looks better.

Some shelving and overhead shelving help.

French cleat type wall for tools. I use harbor freight magnet trips to hold most hand tools. Pegboard sucks in my opinion.

Good solid workbench attached to wall made of 2x6s. Melamine or mdf top on 2x6 support. Smooth and replaceable.

Screw top down every 12 inches to help use for quick measuring of items. Rope boards etc.

[BPTactical]

Put the vehicles outside.

[kidicarus13]

Two bicycle lifts.

If you can't park your vehicles in the garage, you have too much stuff. Likewise, if you have to rent a storage unit, you also have too much stuff. 95451

[Martinjmpr]

Put the vehicles outside.

Oh HELL no.

One of the big incentives in moving was to finally have a garage that I could park my truck in. It's been outside for the last 7 years and I hate it. $5000 worth of hail damage on the truck because of parking outside from two storms that hit us within 2 weeks of each other. I was home both times, had to sit and watch helplessly as the hail beat the hell out of the truck.

I'm also sick and tired of having to plan on leaving 15 minutes early in the winter time so I can shovel/scrape all the snow and ice off the truck in the morning.

So NOPE, I'll give up some of my hobby stuff before I'll park the truck outside.

[eddiememphis]

Be careful about hanging too much weight from the rafters.

Engineered lumber doesn't support hanging loads as well as dimensional lumber.

[Erni]

Start with a super Large Husky toolbox to fit all your tools and then some. Cry once and be done. For shelf?s I like the heavy duty Husky brand ones. I think they are in the 150 to 180 range. But they are huge and store even the heaviest of items without sagging. Get some totes of whatever flavor you want and stack it high. The heavy duty shelf?s will let you stack two or three high on the top shelf so there is no wasted room. Hang those bicycles as suggested.

Paint the place and run some outlets now so there is no issues with extension cords later. For a workbench I recommend an acceptable sized area with an additional folding work bench for woodworking or larger crafts. The folding bench is atty to the wall and made from a particle board solid fire door. Supports made from. Gas pipe. Do that only if you need the space a few times a year.

[BladesNBarrels]

Is the walk-out basement totally finished, or do you have space for tools and workshop there?
Is there a yard big enough for a shed for tools and motorcycles?
I use a rolling wire shelving unit from Home Depot for the odds and ends that end up in my garage and I can roll it to where it is not in the way.

https://i.imgur.com/3Ip8aPu.jpg

[SouthPaw]

I had a similar issue; lots of stuff, very limited space. First thing to do, is go through all of it, and get rid of all the crap you never going to use. I found so much junk that had been sitting there, stuff I had forgotten about, trash etc. Some of it I was even able to sell to help pay for the new shelves. After that, I mounted shelves on pretty much every wall I could. I mounted them low enough to allow to 10 gallon totes to be stacked on top of each other with a little room on top. We then purchased 10 gallon totes and put everything we could in them, labeled them with their contents and started stacking.

Shelves: https://www.lowes.com/pd/97-in-L-x-0-75-in-H-x-11-75-in-D-Thermally-Fused-Laminate-Wall-Mounted-Shelving/50386830
Brackets: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style-Selections-13-5-in-Shelf-Bracket/4651455

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[Mtneer]

Double post.

[Mtneer]

You can free up ceiling space by replacing the overhead garage door lifts with wall mounts (like Genie B6172H), side-benefit much quieter. Then install overhead garage storage racks and use plastic bins for camping stuff, etc.

[battlemidget]

My best garage hack I learned from Caddy Shack, Bill Murray's character Carl used the leaf blower to clean out his garage apartment. Brilliant.

[MarkCO]

95458

95459

Heavy Duty Brackets, plywood. I have the equivalent of about 8 sheets of plywood used for shelving in the two garages.

[O2HeN2]

I basically put Elfa Top Track on all the walls of my garage (screwed it into the studs, which required that I drill the top track) and all the shelves are based on that.

Allows me to adjust shelves both horizontally and vertically with ZERO effort - no drilling or screwing, just move the components around.

Not cheap, but worth it!

https://www.containerstore.com/s/elfa/components/elfa-easy-hang/123

O2

[funkymonkey1111]

Paint the walls and ceiling and upgrade your lighting before doing anything else. The family handyman website has all sorts of garage storage tips, including ceiling and shelving

If you are planning on treating the floor, with epoxy or any other product (including raised tile) do it now

[ray1970]

Everyone seems to do shelving. I opted for custom built in cabinets because I don?t want to look at my junk.

The best thing I ever did to organize my garage was to purchase two quality storage sheds for the backyard for things like bicycles, the wheelbarrow, lawn and garden tools and equipment, hunting and camping gear, luggage, and any other bulky, seldom used items.

[MarkCO]

Everyone seems to do shelving. I opted for custom built in cabinets because I don?t want to look at my junk.

I had cabinets at my first house. It looked better, but I could not remember where stuff was. Guess I need to be able to see it.

[FoxtArt]

I once made racks to hold uniformly sized plastic bins, effectively turning them into a floor-to-ceiling drawer system. Just build a frame out of 2x2s of the appropriate width for the bins to barely slide in (with their lids), then nail on equally spaced chunks of trim the right dimensions so that the bins are supported by their lip, not the lid. Basically turns plastic bins into large drawers. If using appropriately sized bins (not gigantic) it does not take as long to build as it sounds, clamp a guide on a mitre saw and you can spit out 100 chunks in 5 minutes or less.

Then use a separately cut spacer to quickly nailgun them or even brad nail them to the vertical supports is good enough. Stain it, looks nice - then you can label the drawers. I used trim board for my "chunks" to make it nicer.

[O2HeN2]

I once made racks to hold uniformly sized plastic bins, effectively turning them into a floor-to-ceiling drawer system.
Yhea, I've lost count of the number of times I decided to "standardize" my storage on a particular long-lived, well known and large company's bin.

Only to have it IMMEDIATELY discontinued, making everything I had standardized upon the wrong size.

Rubbermaid, Sterilite and more. They've all shafted me.

The Elfa system I pointed to a few replies back has been working for me for many years.

O2

[TheNash]

Everyone seems to do shelving. I opted for custom built in cabinets because I don?t want to look at my junk.


I don't know about anyone else but I don’t want to see your “JUNK” either. ����[ROFL1][facepalm]

[brutal]

Yhea, I've lost count of the number of times I decided to "standardize" my storage on a particular long-lived, well known and large company's bin.

Only to have it IMMEDIATELY discontinued, making everything I had standardized upon the wrong size.

Rubbermaid, Sterilite and more. They've all shafted me.

The Elfa system I pointed to a few replies back has been working for me for many years.

O2

I think walmart has a lock on some of the color combos of the smaller Sterlite bins I like, as I can't seem to find them anywhere else.

https://i.imgur.com/3u4TrYj.png