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!

Creating a functional kitchen

The design and layout of a space is essential to being organized. In order to be successful in creating and maintaining organization, it is important to have a foundation that establishes how items can be organized and stored in a space. This is true for every area in your home, especially the kitchen, which is used daily and has to store a wide range of items.

To help create and maintain and organized kitchen, it should be designed to have plenty of variable storage for everything you have – from cooking utensils to dinnerware. The design and organization structure should work with how you live and what you use in your kitchen. It is important to consider your items, what you have, and if they are large or small.  Ask yourself if you need drawers or cabinets. How deep should these drawers be? Do you need lots of drawers for gadgets, or deep drawers for pots and pans, serving bowls, or other dishes? All of these questions and factors play an important role in determining the best design and organization for your space.

With the help of Calm Order, we can make sure that your kitchen space is maximized to provide optimal storage sizes for your kitchen implements.

For example, when you’re cooking you want the items you need kept somewhere close – if you’re cooking on the stove-top, you should have pots and pans, utensils and spices in easy reach. If you have a dishwasher, then dishware, mugs, glasses and eating utensils should also be stored near the dishwasher so they are in close proximity for easy unloading.

 What you can do to help create organization and functionality in your kitchen is to cut back on clutter or unnecessary items and keep similar items together. Only keep appliances, tools and dishes that you actually need and use. When you’re going through your items, always keep in mind what you actually use your space and items for. Sometimes, having dishware or specific kitchen gadgets (and multiple quantities of them) may seem important, but in reality they aren’t used and take up unnecessary space. Go through the items you have stored in your kitchen and consider what you really need, and what you can live without. If they are still in good shape, you can pass them on to a friend or family member or donate them to a local charity. With less items in your space, it will be easier to plan an organized layout that best suits your needs and lifestyle.

In areas like the kitchen which see regular use by everyone in your home, space functionality is imperative to efficiently using the space and maintaining organization. It all comes down to how you use the space and what makes the most sense for your lifestyle. Need some help planning your new kitchen or updating your existing one? Find out how Calm Order can help you here!

Pack for Organization - Moving in after marriage!

Once you've actually packed, another large task begins: unpacking them into your new home.  This is made easier when you organize your belongings before you pack them, but it is still a complex task for you and your new partner to undertake! Below, we’ve got some tips to help make the process smoother:

-       Coordinate schedules

If you’re moving in together, it stands to reason you should unpack your new home together. Getting married, unpacking your belongings, and moving them can take up a lot of time, but make sure you have enough time set aside to dedicate yourselves to the task of unpacking. Typically, at least one or two days are needed to set up the main items in your most used living spaces, like the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. However, it is common to take up to a week or more depending on how many items you have, how long it takes to move them to your new home, and how much free time you have. Make sure that you are both able to take time together to plan what rooms should be unpacked first, and where you’re going to place your items. This can be flexible, as furniture may need to be arranged as you get acquainted with your new space. However, it’s important to plan what rooms you will unpack first, and where you will put your belongings before you start opening boxes.

-       Tackle one room at a time

An empty house full of boxes can be overwhelming – but remember that they don’t need to be unpacked all at once! Pick one room, and stick to it. Your most used rooms should be the ones unpacked first, like the kitchen and bedroom. Remember that moving and unpacking is a process and will take time – don’t feel like you must have everything done at once! Unpack your items the right way from the start. Moving from one room to another can leave you feeling stressed, and leave your house in a half-moved state. Focusing on one room will allow you and your partner to properly unpack, organize, and arrange the items you have in each room.

-       Don’t unpack all boxes at once

Just like the rooms in your house, don’t unpack all the boxes in each room all at once! Open one box at a time and determine what you have packed, and where it can go in your new space. If your other items are still packed away and not cluttered on the floor, you will be able to visualize your space better and determine where everything should be placed. Placing furniture, appliances, electronics, and other larger items is easier if you don’t have small clutter in the way. Focus your attention on one box at a time to make sure that everything is put in its place. Moving is a process that should be handled one step at a time, so don’t make it more overwhelming than it needs to be!

-       Leave nothing packed!

Moving doesn’t happen overnight, but that doesn’t mean it should last forever. Often, people can get tired out from moving and end up leaving boxes still packed in the basement or other storage area, and eventually, they are forgotten. Avoid letting this happen to you and make sure that every box is unpacked within the first two weeks of you moving. By following a moving plan as mentioned above, you can make sure that time is set aside for every room and every box in your house. This should help keep you on track. Moving is like organizing – once something is used or brought into your home, it should be immediately put into its “home” or designated space as soon as it is not in use. Once a box is brought into a room, the items inside should be unpacked and put where they are supposed to go. No one wants to live with their belongings still packed away, so plan your move and stick to it!

-       Ask for help if you need it

Life is always busy and stressful, and sometimes, unpacking all their belongings is too big of a task for people to handle on their own. If you both can’t get enough time off work, or are physically unable to complete your move, always know that we can be there to help! At Calm Order, we offer our clients an “Unpacked to Organize” service that takes care of everything – whether you need one space, a single room, or an entire house unpacked. We focus on the big picture details and pay attention to the finer ones to make sure your house is set up the way you want it, with clothes stored in your new closet, beds made and ready to be slept in, and food waiting in your pantry. Moving can be time consuming and stressful, so don’t be afraid to ask for help!