Organizing Your Garage into Zones
The garage is oftentimes a lower priority area when it comes to staying organized, simple because most people don’t spend a lot of time in the garage. It’s a place to store necessary home and lawn equipment and tools and often becomes the primary storage facility for items we don’t have room for or want to store inside our homes. Left unchecked, the garage can quickly become a dumping group for anything and everything.
As we head into warmer seasons, you’ll likely be spending more time outside and in your garage. Making this space one that's intentional and easy to navigate will save you much frustration and stress, so you can focus less on navigating garage clutter and more time enjoying your summer with friends and family. In this post, I’m breaking down the concept of zoning your garage, the most common garage zones, and thoughts on how you can smartly store your garage-worthy belongings.
Assessing Your Needs
Before diving into the organization process, take a moment to assess the current state of your garage. Consider its size, layout, and existing storage options. Identify your priorities: What items do you need frequent access to? What can be stored long-term? Accessibility is one of the biggest challenges in a garage, so prioritizing a reorder of items you struggle to access on a regular basis and stowing away low frequency items in harder to reach storage areas will be critical.
Observe any obvious changes that can be made, such as removing trash or broken items like furniture, equipment, tools, etc. Take note of items you want to prioritize giving a better home to. Also look at what’s living on the floor and note what categories of belongings tend to accumulate on the floor. A well organized garage will be easy to move around and access everything in there.
You’ll want to consider why items live on the floor. Is there simply and excess of items? Maybe there’s not enough storage shelves to hold everything. Is there wall space you can utilize to add storage?
Lastly, take a note of the general categories of belongings you store in your garage. Common categories include tools, car supplies, sports equipment, outdoor gear, home improvement materials, seasonal decorations and overflow household supplies like cleaning products, appliances, and backstock supply. Knowing your categories will help you planning out the zones in your garage.
Defining Zones
The key to a well-organized garage is zoning. By creating designated areas for different purposes, you can maximize efficiency and make the most of your space. Common zones include:
Workspace: This area is dedicated to DIY projects, repairs, and maintenance. Items you might store in the workspace include tools, home repair supplies, and building supplies such as wood and paint.
Storage: Utilize this zone for seasonal items such as holiday decorations and seasonal clothing such as winter gear.
Recreation: Use this zone to store sports gear, bicycles, and recreational equipment.
Auto: This zone can be used to store car parts, accessories and car washing tools and products.
Lawn & garden: Use this zone to store tools, equipment and products used for gardening and lawn care.
Entryway: If applicable, you can create a designated area for items coming in and out of the house, such as shoes, coats, and umbrellas.
Planning Your Layout
Once you've defined your zones, it's time to plan your layout. Utilize the layout of your garage to optimize space and functionality. If you already have loose zones that are working, stick with it! Consider if you can optimize them at all, then put focus on items that don’t have a home. Do you need to add any zones? If so, consider if additional storage is needed and where you might place it. Maximizing all open wall space in a garage is ideal for ensuring items stay off the floor and the garage is easy to navigate through. Also consider mounting storage to the ceiling, hanging racks work wonders for storing items that are needed once or twice a year.
Take note of frequently used items and see how you can ensure those are within arms reach at all times.
Organizing Each Zone
Now that you have your zones and layout planned, it's time to organize each area effectively:
Workspace: If you consider yourself a DIYer and are often fixing and repairing things around your home, you’ll want to prioritize accessibility to the workspace. Install shelves or drawers for storing tools and supplies, and keep frequently used items within easy reach. Install a sturdy workbench with ample lighting and keep tools organized on pegboards or within tool chests.
Storage: Visibility is key with storing infrequently used items like holiday decor. You want to ensure that the couple times of year you need to get these things is as easy as possible. I suggest using clear bins and labels to keep items organized and easily accessible. Group similar items together and prioritize accessibility based on frequency of use.
Recreation: Recreation items come in all shapes and sizes. You’ll likely have a mix of items that can be stored in labeled bins and larger equipment that can be mounted on a wall or be stored on shelves high up or overhead storage. Install racks or wall mounts for sports equipment and utilize overhead storage for bulky items like kayaks or skis.
Auto: Car parts and accessories can often be stored on a shelf or in a cabinet in labeled bins or lidless containers for easy access. Car cleaning tools such as long-arm scrub brushes can be mounted on the wall with other tools such as shovels, rakes, and brooms.
Lawn & Garden: Lawn tools such as rakes, hoes, and shovels can be mounted on the wall using a broom rack. Other loose items such as pots, fertilizer, gloves and smaller gardening tools can be stored together directly on the shelves or in lidless bins with labels.
Entryway: To create a garage mudroom, install hooks, and cubbies and/or add a shoe rack near the door for easy organization, and encourage family members to use this area to prevent clutter from spreading throughout the garage.
Maintaining Order
Organizing your garage is just the first step – it's important to maintain order to prevent clutter from accumulating. If you share the garage with others, after you’ve finished giving everything a home, take a minute to tour the garage with everyone who lives in the home. This gives an opportunity to show everyone where things live now & ask for commitment to put things back in their place.
It will also be helpful to implement a cleaning schedule to keep your garage tidy, and regularly declutter and reassess your organization system to adapt to changing needs.
I recommend at least every 6 months to a year doing a dedicated declutter and reorganization, whereas regular tidying can be done every couple of months.
It’s also worth saying that it’s ok if your systems stop working after time. It doesn’t mean your setup failed, it might just mean that your needs have changed. This being said, making a point to revisit your garage with the above approach at least once a year will ensure your organization systems stay relevant and support your season of life.
Final Notes
By implementing a zoning strategy and following these tips, you can reclaim your garage from chaos and transform it into a functional and organized space.
If you live in the Tacoma metro area and are looking for help organizing your garage, schedule a free call HERE to discuss your project.
