Anyone have any handy organizing tips for garages?

I have a 77 LB 2wd and my 68 sb 2wd sitting in my 2 car garage. I need to work on both, but it just seems that clutter here and there around them is impeding my progress.

What have you guys done to save space and unclutter your garage?

 

all the junk that you have been keeping and will never use, take it to Goodwill. Move one out of the garage and work on one at a time. move the excess crap to one side. rent a storage building.

 

One of the old sayings applies here: "A place for everything, and everything in it's place". This applies to anywhere you need to get work done.

 

Yep! The best way to organize is to remove EVERYTHING from the garage into the yard, sorting it as you go: stuff that belongs in the garage, stuff that does not (but you need to keep), and stuff to be tossed (when I did my garage, I got a 12 yard dumpster... and filled it...). Then move the stuff that belongs back into the garage putting it away as you go.

You'll need to dedicate a full day to this. At least. But whatever you do, don't start one day, then stop for a few days and try to continue... that's a recipe for disaster...

Personally, I like everything to be on wheels. Shelving, work benches, everything. To this end, I have bought a few wire shelving racks. The most recent from Sam's Club. To make them a bit more user-friendly, I installed white hardboard onto them so stuff sits on the shelves better.

Another "personal opinion" - yard equipment belongs in a shed, not the garage.

 

Does this sound familiar: The wife decides to move something out of the house (but not throw it away, of course), so guess where it goes . . . . to the garage.

Two solutions I have made in my garage for storage is to (1) deck the middle section of my trussed garage roof with plywood for attic storage, and (2) build shelves along a side wall that are supported from the roof trusses and the studs on the wall - the shelves start at about 7 foot high and go up to the ceiling (at 10'). It doesn't take up floor space, I can walk underneath them without bumping my head, and its pretty cheap storage (2 x 4 construction with particle board shelves. And I hang air hoses and electrical cords underneath it, which is pretty handy to keep them somewhere out of the way. You'll always have more stuff than space.

 

"deck the middle section of my trussed garage roof with plywood for attic storage"

A few words of warning here folks: Trussed roofs are engineered for the load they can safely hold. SOME are engineered for being an attic. Many are not.

Putting stuff up in trusses that has any weight to it is a receipe for disaster if the trusses aren't meant to have more than the weight of the roof (and, if you live where I live, a good snow storm or two!)

Just some advice from a volunteer firefighter.

 

Good feedback on the "trussed storage" idea - I thought of the same thing myself while building it - and will expound on it a little bit:

There's really 2 issues here:

1. Added weight - trusses are typically 2 x 4 construction. They aren't designed to support loads on the bottom truss chord. However, by screwing the plywood panels to the top side of the truss chord, they actually strengthen the entire roof structure - in particular in the horizontal plane. How many garages have you seen that twist out of shape over time because the wall that has the garage door just doesn't have very much structural bracing - and the roof structure isn't stiff enough to prevent the walls from moving? My trussed roof just isn't going to twist out of shape - in part because of the 4 x 8 plywood panels that run down the center section of the trusses will resist any twisting motion of the structure!

But back to the weight issue - basically I keep lightweight items up there - sleds, skis, trim parts on cars I'm working on, that kind of stuff. It would be pretty easy to overload the truss design by keeping a bunch of steel wheels, transmissions and boxes of books up there - common sense should play a part in deciding what to put up there. In my case, if I can't carry it up a ladder easily, it just doesn't belong up there.

2. The other issue is fire danger - attics are pretty hot to start with - and its pretty stupid to put a bunch of combustible items up there in a garage setting (like boxes of books, paper records etc). If a garage fire occurs, you don't want a bunch of combustible stuff above you. And even if one doesn't the heat will pretty much self-destruct anything that can't take temperature changes over time.

Summary - a storage shed is still the best idea. If I only had the money. . .

 

Well I have a 1.5 car garage so i have no room what so ever so i put up 2 Sheds up 1 for yard supplys (Lawn mower, snow blower, bikes) and the other shed I use for parts i dont want to sell or get ride of (Wheels,tires, exhaust, about 3 engine blocks).