Hopefully people come up with some good ideas quick because I'm just moved the cars out of the garage to do a midweek reorg.

Overhead storage racks. Especially if there's room over the garage doors.

I've got 3 of the 4'x8' SafeRacks and it made a huge difference to get that stuff off the floor in the garage.

ETA: Costco puts them on sale pretty regularly.

T&P for your free time: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/

Friend of mine spent serious coin on the modular rail stuff from Lowe's. It's looks pretty but I did some of the same stuff on the cheap. Screwed a couple of 2x4's and 2x3's into the studs horizontally near the garage door. Bought a bunch of the cheap hooks in different sizes

https://m.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-2-28-in-Gray-Steel-Utility-Hook/50218525

and screwed them in to hold rakes, shovels, etc. Used bigger ones for weed eater, lawn mover bag etc. Mounted them high and park the lawn mower underneath.

Got a bunch of the shelf brackets

Style-Selections-Steel-15-63-in-D-x-10-5-in-L-x-1-16-in-W-white-Shelf-Bracket

and attached lengths of 2x3 on top to make them longer. Added three rows of 1x4 or 1x6 to make the shelf. I got a bunch of these

https://m.lowes.com/pd/Centrex-Plastics-LLC-Commander-27-Gallon-Black-Tote-with-Standard-Snap-Lid/3551290

When they were on sale and spaced the shelves to hold as many as possible. Keeps junk organized and relatively dust free. Other shelves were spaced based on cooler sizes, canopy bag lengths, etc.

I didn't add overhead storage because I added a bunch of shop lights, but those overhead racks work great.

I also built a shelf unit out of 2x4s and plywood. The bottom shelves are spaced to hold cheap 5 gallon buckets. One bucket has misc electrical crap, another bucket is all paint brushes, call guns, and so on. Depending on what I'm doing, I just slide out that bucket.

Top of the shelf stops short of the garage door to put these on top with boxes of nails, screws, etc.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/Centrex-Plastics-LLC-Commander-27-Gallon-Black-Tote-with-Standard-Snap-Lid/3551290

I like the Gladiator line. Some Lowe's have it as does Amazon. Fairly pricey, but better made than most of the garage cabinets and slat boards that I've seen.

jayelbee said:

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We just moved and I'm trying to get the garage set up just right while we have a clean slate.

Share your favorite organization tricks, tools, fixtures, shelves, or whatever for keeping your garage neat and tidy so you can manage all of your gear, but still park in the garage? Store bought, homemade, cheap, expensive, big, small, it all counts.

I'll start off with one of the cooler things about the new house which is the attic lift. These things cost a fortune, but you could DIY a nice setup pretty easily. I'll need to get the attic set up right, bit this is going to go a long way to helping me keep all of my crap out of the middle of the garage floor, especially around Christmas with all of those tubs. https://sep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-81563436181518_2267_251198119

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I have a similar lift in my garage but it's more of a normal attic stair w/ my ass hauling my wife's Christmas decoration and winter/summer clothes up/down a few times a year.

I'd love to get the overhead storage by my garage is tiny with a low ceiling.

maverick12 said:

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I like the Gladiator line. Some Lowe's have it as does Amazon. Fairly pricey, but better made than most of the garage cabinets and slat boards that I've seen.

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I have the Gladiator too. I really like it and it helps when the wife gets bored and tries to reorganize my **** on bachelor party weekends. The track system and flexibility means you're able to move stuff around as your inventory changes.

Also, can't remember if it was Lowes or Home Depot (I think Lowes) but there is a really cool pots and pans slide-out organizer system you can get for your kitchen. I scored MAJOR brownie points with the wife after installing that. Incredible how much more efficient you can make kitchen cabinets with those suckers.

smokeythebear said:

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maverick12 said:

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I like the Gladiator line. Some Lowe's have it as does Amazon. Fairly pricey, but better made than most of the garage cabinets and slat boards that I've seen.

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I have the Gladiator too. I really like it and it helps when the wife gets bored and tries to reorganize my **** on bachelor party weekends. The track system and flexibility means you're able to move stuff around as your inventory changes.

Also, can't remember if it was Lowes or Home Depot (I think Lowes) but there is a really cool pots and pans slide-out organizer system you can get for your kitchen. I scored MAJOR brownie points with the wife after installing that. Incredible how much more efficient you can make kitchen cabinets with those suckers.

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So... She reorganizes your garage while you're out of town and you reorganize the kitchen while she's not around? Kind of a weird set up, but whatever works for you guys I guess....

I'm going to preface this with a little background on our monster garage....built house in 2009. At time wife sold golf apparel and had a modified van that looked more like a small RV. All of her clothes and products were inside so basically it was a mobile show room. Not something we wanted to keep at storage facility due to amount of use and contents. So we built a house with a really tall and big garage. Technically a 4 car garage (if 2 of them were small small cars). People slow down and look as they drive by....its that big.

When moving in we knew we needed to take advantage of the height for storage. We almost did what Underoos did above but wife wanted something with cleaner look than just 2x4's. So we looked around and went with the ClosetMaid Shelftrack stuff you can get at Home Depot. Obviously we use the typical hooks to hang stuff like shovels, weedeater, etc.

I've attached a recent pic from our garage after we added more shelving in the back right. And yes I don't have an Ag Tag but I think this picture tells you I'm definitely an Aggie. Wife and neighbors did this for me while out of town on guys weekend. And yes the murial on the left was all hand painted. But I digress, after wife got out of that biz I was able to park my truck in the garage until our most recent purchase that you see in the forefront!! Which is the reason we added more shelving in the back right. What you can't see here is off to the left is our big wall where we have a major set up. It has shelving about 12 feet long and 12 feet high. We have 3 shelves that have about 3 feet of height between them. We have TONS of stuff stored here...Christmas, tools like saws, etc. Most of it is in bins to help keep organized and clean looking. Coolers and kids toys (in bins) fit perfectly below as well. Everything easily accessible with a ladder and I don't have to haul stuff up to the attic!!

This set up has saved us so much space that one year with hail coming we fit wifes minivan on right side, my F150 in middle, and in-laws minivan on left side!!!

What we did is we put across the top the Hangtrack and just screwed into studs.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-ShelfTrack-80-in-White-Hang-Track-2836/100136597

then we hung down from the hangtrack the actual ShelfTrack pieces...keep in mind for garage stuff being heavy we went ahead and screwed these in to each stud as well...giving both horizontal and vertical support.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-ShelfTrack-84-in-x-1-in-White-Standard-2812/100194576

then we put their shelves on as well...this link is for shelves that are 16" deep...they do offer 20" deep shelves and that's what we went with

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-SuperSlide-72-in-W-x-16-in-D-White-Ventilated-Wire-Shelf-4735/100146445

and of course the easy brackets to hold up the shelves....similar to shelves since we went with 20" shelf we had to use 20" bracket (this is showing 16" bracket)

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-ShelfTrack-16-in-D-Bracket-32854/100671989

Salt of the water said:

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T&P for your free time: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/

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Amazing

Best thing I did to create space in my garage was buy a shed and store all lawn equipment and lawn type tools (mowers, weed eater, blower, hedge trimmer, fertilizer spreader, shovels, ax, rake, chainsaw, etc) in there. I also store random shat in there that needs to be stored somewhere, but doesn't get messed with often (Christmas lights, left over paint cans, dog kennel, folding tables and chairs, etc). Doing this opened up a lot of space in my garage and allowed me to organize it and use it much more efficiently for the stuff I do in there on a regular basis.

As far as organizing in the garage, I have cabinets, work benches, and shelves, nothing fancy or special.

Where is MF Barnes to show a pic of his garage

I seem to remember a board about this when I was in school. I will do some digging but if anyone remembers please link. There were lots of pictures of very nice garages.

Step 1: Get rid of unneeded stuff
Step 2: Park cars in garage
Step 3: Plan around / play around with remaining available space
Step 4: Get rid of more unneeded stuff

I'll see if I can get a pic up to better illustrate, but we've done the following:

2 peg boards; 1 to hold garden stuff (rakes, shovels, etc.) and another one above the work bench to hold quick-grab tools

1 fairly large workbench (8' x ~34") with one side empty underneath for a pressure washer and the other side with a lower shelf. I built it 2 or 3 years ago and I sort of wish now I'd just have the one top and no shelf so I could scoot the vac underneath there.

I just bought a large 4' by 36" deep steel shelving unit from Lowes. This can hold just about anything, but I've got a few storage tubs, a box for stuff to be shredded to go into, all my car towels, mitts, applicators, and products (quite a few), and a place for the recharge stations for my cordless tools. I'm experimenting with using those plastic storage drawers you can get at Walmart or Target.

Next to that is a small metal locking storage cabinet I used to have at my office. This holds stuff I don't want to get dusty. At the end is a rolling cart I just got from Harbor Freight. I'll use that for holding tools and for auto detail work. I have a tool chest and compressor in a cove at the front of the garage. I also built a wooden rolling cart that I have a miter saw on and various other power tools on the two lower shelves. I think I would just go buy a rolling cart if I had to do it again, but I definitely need to get bigger wheels for the cart as it doesn't roll very well.

With this setup, 2 cars can only go in there in an emergency (weather) situation and you can barely do that then. A car and SUV won't work. My vac and large trash can sit in front of the various cabinets/benches and isn't ideal, but both can be easily moved.

Sorry to bring this thread back around...Just my two cents...

Here is my work

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_QNfKvhLbojE/TWKQ9-QIyMI/AAAAAAAABFw/sbLEHhDDKD4/s640/IMG_0317.JPG

MDF will be fine. Make sure you Glue and screw it. It will be solid. I would also make a base for it, you don't want MDF sitting on the floor. For long term garage durability, I would use treated plywood to make the base, you can scribe the base and get a flat and level area to sit your cabinets on. Veneer the treated ply with your MDF, but make it hang 1/4" off the floor.

I really would consider making the boxes as buening stated. Ply for the box, MDF for doors and shelves. Make the center shelf permanently attached. This will support for the walls and reduce tugging on the hinges. I would not screw around with plaster strips or cleats. If your shelves are 3/4" material, I would just drill the cabinets for shelf pins. A kitchen supply store will have the pins at bulk pricing, so you will pay like $20 for a 20LB box. I am talking thousands of pins. Which you can put on the sides, and back of your shelf, and anywhere else you possibly want for the rest of your life, lol.

Paint or use some nice edge banding on all the edges, then paint. Your MDF will only last as long as the protection you give it. Iron applied edge banding is my fave. But you're limited in colors with it, so get the cheaper, non-colored banding since you gonna paint anyway.

Oh buy the hinges and slides at the same kitchen supply joint as the pins. You will get raped if you try to get all this at big box stores. RAPED

I also suggest full overlay hinges so that you don't see much of the box behind the doors when closed.

Some examples.



The silver between the doors are custom handles so that they are flush with the doors. Mahogany MDF. Poly finished by yours truly.


I also have a 3 car garage with a 2 car space about this size. Unless you drive a midget car or park outside it's just NOT enough room for 2 cars to comfortably park inside and have any sort of real work bench or storage space. If you have, or get, a truck -- fahgetta about it!

My previous house was a custom build with a 25' x 25' two car garage. I would have liked more but that was a compromise I made with budget. And for two cars, it was a pretty good choice. It offered a comfortable space to park 2 daily drivers and have ample storage and work space. At the time I even had a zero turn mower stuff in there.


The most valuable real estate in your garage is the floor space, so you need to think up. Search here for soffit cabinets https://mechanicguides.com/best-garage-cabinets/ -- that space is mostly wasted otherwise and makes for great storage. Fold down workspaces are also handy.