There are a number of reasons why the garage so often ends up being the storage place of choice for any tools that you happen to have, but one of the reasons is that tools tend to be awkward to store. Many of them are large, oddly shaped, or have lots of small pieces. They don’t fit neatly into any place inside the main house. The problem is, they don’t always fit neatly into the garage, either, which is how you end up with a cluttered, disorganized garage. Luckily, with a little creativity, you can come up with ways to neatly store your tools and parts so that you can find them when you need them, and so that you have a clean, organized space in which to use them.
Flip an Old File Cabinet
Rakes, brooms, mops, shovels, and other long-handled tools can present a challenge. If you only have a few, you may be able to just stand them in a corner, but the more you have, the more cluttered your corners get and the more likely you are to start knocking them over. However, if you have an old file cabinet that you’re getting ready to toss, you could repurpose it to store these lawn and household tools.
Just remove the drawers from the file cabinet and flip the file cabinet so that it’s sitting on its back, and there you have it – the empty slots will make great holders for your long-handled tools. If you want to make it even more convenient, add pegboards to either side of the file cabinet so that you can use it to hang smaller items, like pruning shears or rolls of duct tape. Adding a wooden plank with casters to the bottom of the file cabinet makes it mobile, so you can move it anywhere you need to.
Use the Space Under Your Shelves
You probably have plenty of things on your shelves, but the undersides of the shelves are pretty much just empty real estate. However, with the help of some screws and some empty glass jars, you can put that space to good use.
All that you need to do is find some glass jars, like the kind used to hold jam or salad dressing. Screw the metal lids to the undersides of your shelves, and you’re set. You can fill the jars with small items like screws, nuts, or drill bits, and screw them onto and off of the lids when you need them.
Hang Your Hubcaps
Sometimes, there just isn’t enough space to put up another set of shelves or a new cabinet. However, if you’ve run out of floor space, you can always hang things from the ceiling. There are big things that you can hang from the ceiling, like storage totes on tracks designed for this purpose. But you can also store small things by creating hanging shelves.
Just thread a chain through some old, discarded hubcaps, and hang the chain from the ceiling. Make sure that it’s long enough so that you can reach the hubcap shelves from your workspace. Now you have a handy place to store any number of small items that you need within easy reach.
Of course, not every garage storage issue can be solved by clever repurposing of items that you would otherwise have thrown away. Contact us for more great storage solutions that will make your garage more functional.
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