5 Ways to Maintain Order in Your Garage

Garages usually have a lot of items to store, but not at lot of space to store them, especially when there are vehicles that need to be parked inside! Check out these creative solutions to maximize storage space in your garage while keeping your belongings organized. It doesn’t take much to get organized.

Calm Order Inc. Garage Organizing

1. Tool rack

Avoid leaning your brooms and shovels against the wall or having them scattered throughout your garage. tool racks are the perfect solution to storing these larger and in the way items.

2.    Garage track Systems

Use hooks to hang multiple items, whether it’s a bike, cords, or sporting equipment from the garage track on the ceiling. This will maximize the space on the ceiling without interfering with vehicles or the garage door.

3.   Glass jars, plastic containers

Glass jars and plastic containers are great solutions to storing nuts, bolts, and screws. They’ll be easy to identify and access, and stack nicely on shelving units or workbenches. The jars will also help keep like items with other like items and prevent these small items from becoming clutter piles in a drawer or cupboard.

4.    Peg boards or Slat wall - WE LOVE!

Using peg board to store your tools makes them more easily accessible. The tools can also be easily rearranged and added on to the board. Slat wall Systems are our favourite as they allow for customized wall storage that can fit a wide range of items from bottles and containers to hoses, wires, and power tools with hooks, shelves, or hanging baskets. These systems are not all created equal. Store wall is our favourite as they offer a tonne of accessories from hooks to ball bags and shelving and bins that fasten on the wall.

5.   Magnetic tool bar

They’re great for knives in a kitchen, but who knew they also worked great with wrenches and other metal tools in your garage? Try mounting a magnetic strip around your work bench or on the wall above to store these items. You won’t need to worry about finding special hooks or drawer inserts. Just take them and place them back on the magnetic strip when you’re done!

Phase 5: To buy or not to buy?

 During any organizing project, it is sometimes necessary to buy new products to help organize people’s personal items in the new space. As we discussed in our previous two posts, there are some circumstances where buying new organizers may be necessary, and certain organizing products work better than others. However, sometimes people have items they already own that can be repurposed and used in their new home. Buying more items isn’t always the right answer – sometimes it is more efficient, clutter-friendly, and financially beneficial to use what people already own.

When the Calm Order team does our initial walk through and determines that items the client already has, we start to plan for what can be reused in the new home, and what needs to be purchased. Sometimes these items are used in the new home for a completely different purpose than what they were initially used for in the previous home. Finding a new purpose for an item or giving it a simple update can completely change its functionality and usefulness. For example, our clients had a small cabinet that was just collecting unnecessary clutter in the living room of their previous home. However, in their new space, Calm Order was able to find a new use for the cabinet. The new home came with a dedicated play room/bonus area, so the team was able to designate the cabinet for toy and game storage without having to buy a new unit. Other smaller items like bins, hangars, drawer organizers and shelving units are easy to customize and adapt for a new space and are regularly repurposed by Calm Order when unpacking in a new home.

There can be a downside to reusing items – in some cases, people can hold on to more items than they need or try to use objects for a purpose that does not work or does not contribute to the organization of the space. Similar to purchasing new organizers that aren’t needed, some people may try to find a use for items when there is none. In circumstances like this, Calm Order can work with clients to find a place to donate or sell their items to people who might need it more than they do. A list of some of these organizations is available on our website here.

Whenever possible, Calm Order will work with clients to use what they already own. Sometimes all it takes is a new space or a new idea to completely reinvent and repurpose and object that may have previously been creating clutter and contributing to a disorganized space.

Stay tuned for our next post where we continue our journey through the unpacking process!

Phase 3: Finding the right organizing products

Moving is a multiple-step process that requires a lot of work and planning. On the blog, we’ve been going through each step in the moving journey of one of our clients. The move was prepared in their current home, a walk-through was conducted of the new space, and their belongings were unpacked and carefully sorted. Now, it is time to plan how their belongings will fit into the new space with the right organizing products.

It isn’t as simple as going to the nearest department store and buying some bins – there are a lot of products available that are created to assist people in maintaining an organized space. In a way, there are almost too many different products, to the point that people can run into the problem of accumulating too many baskets or specialty organizers for their items that they don’t really need.  

Before we even started shopping, we carefully examined the client’s new space to see what kind of products would work and where, keeping in mind the actual items and belongings we had to work with. For example, the master bedroom had a large walk in closet that was empty except for a rod for hangers. However, the client had a wide variety of clothing and accessories that wouldn’t work with hangers. This necessitated the purchase of a closet organizer that provided hanging room for dress clothes and coats, as well as shelves and racks for shirts, pants, shoes, ties and bags. 

The new kitchen had large cupboards and drawers, some with deep angles that made the spaces difficult to store items. Although the space was large enough for pots, pans, and mixing bowls, they were almost impossible to reach and would require the clients to take out items to reach other items. The drawers had plenty of space for a large number of utensils, but they would easily become cluttered and lost if they were left loose in the drawer. For the cupboards, the team was able to find innovative cupboard organizers with moveable shelves, so the clients could pull them out to reach the items they needed without emptying the cupboard. As for the utensils, an organizer that fit the dimensions of the drawer were added to keep the cutlery and utensils in their place. The organizer had a mix of large and small spaces so a variety of different-sized utensils could be placed in the drawer, making the space adaptable and customizable.    

In the client’s new home, we were able to find organizing products that worked with their items and would actually provide a benefit to their home. Instead of buying unnecessary products that would only add to their clutter, the Calm Order team focused only on adding pieces that would contribute to the organization of the new space. In some cases, it may not be beneficial to add in an organizer – the space and function of your home or room may not require any specialty products. You might also already own an organizer or a cabinet that can be used to store items that you may not have thought of previously using.

When it comes to finding the right products, remember that while there are a lot of different organizing products on the market, finding the right product – if you need them – requires you to consider the space you are working with, the items you own, and how you use them.

Keep an eye on the blog for our next post, where we will take a look at some of our favourite organizing products and storage solutions!