Location — garage storage occurs in one of three spaces:
- on the side wall,
- on the end wall or
- in the space over your head.
Depth — because garage space is limited, you won’t have much depth along the walls to work with, typically 12 to 24 inches — rarely more. The first thing you should do is measure and decide what “depth” you can use for your garage cabinets.
Organization — there are two critical issues to organizing your garage storage space: 1) deciding what needs to be stored and 2) ensuring you can find it later!
You will need to decide what should be stored: lawn and garden tools, holiday decorations, sports gear, hobby or craft items, painting supplies, or that cigarbox filled with extra nuts and bolts. How and where do you put it away? And, more importantly, how do you find it later?
- The most common organizing principle is to store similar items together, e.g., leftover paint in a cabinet you think of as “the paint locker.”
- Another way is to leave the items visible — on a pegboard, in a drawer, or on a shelf visible from afar.
- Don’t forget labels: a box of woodworking tools, labeled ‘woodworking tools” can be more easily located than an unlabeled box.
ALONG THE WALLS
The most common garage storage occurs along the walls, either the side walls or the end walls. Consider these components:
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photo credit: mtneer. .
photo credit: berbercarpet.
- full cabinets – these are cabinets that run from the floor to eye level or above.
- half-cabinets (low) – these are cabinets that run from the floor to your waist.
- half-cabinets (high) — these are cabinets, like kitchen cabinets, that are at a eye level or higher.
- corner cabinets – if your garage storage needs to turn the corner from a side wall to an end wall, a corner cabinet could be very useful.
- drawers, shelves or sliders – cabinets are not the only solution. Open shelves, drawers, or sliding shelves also provide excellent storage areas.
- workbench – a workbench can be a simple surface on top of some half-cabinets, or it may be a freestanding, heavy-duty table used for woodworking, crafts or otherwise.
- pegboards, wall hooks and on-the-wall systems – pegboards allow flexible presentation of commonly needed tools and other items. Wall hooks work well to hold garden instruments and fancy wall systems can support special needs.
- baskets, bins and boxes – don’t forget the simple basket, bin or box, especially those that are partially open or transparent. This not only helps with storage, but with the finding what you need later.
OVERHEAD SOLUTIONS
Most garages have high ceilings, often 10 or 12 feet off the floor. Using that space to store items, especially bulky items is often an excellent storage solution. Consider three alternatives:
- Attached To Ceiling – most overhead solutions are composed of a bracket that attaches to the ceiling joists and extends down 12 to 40 inches. The platform hanging off the brackets can vary from 2 to 8 feet in one dimension and 2 to 4 feet in the other.
- Pulleys and Lifts – another overhead solution is composed of two pulleys attached to ceiling joists, suspending a platform or rectangular basket for storage. The platform can be raised and lowered, either manually or with a winch.
- In the Rafters — if the ceiling joists are open, the space between the joists and the rafters can be used for long-term storage.
ISSUES
Once you’ve made the major decisions — where the cabinets will go, how deep they are, how to organize your “stuff” and so forth, then the fun begins!
- Should your cabinets be on the floor or above the floor? On wheels? Hanging from the walls?
- What is better? Would, metal, composite or plastic?
- Should you use a professional installer or install it yourself?
- How about environmental considerations — moisture, temperature, wait, hazardous materials?
Check out the other articles and resources here — and good luck with your garage cabinet project!
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