Garage Storage, organising tips?

[JC220]

Hi all,

A random subject I know but curious what you guys do in terms of racking and storage in your garages? Any nifty ideas or products to share?

I have 2x domestic garages and they are coming down with tools, parts and car body panels etc. Really trying to get things into shape and free up much needed space!

Plus I find that I cant locate alot of tools due to lack of organisation. This adds time to every DIY job when I have to spend a half hour looking for a certain clip, bolt or tool.

Wasnt planning on sharing this pic but what to heck! This is newly installed racking in my smaller garage- in the middle of tidying it up and filling/ organising shelves this week

 

[gsxr]

I have the same problem. But your photo shows 10x more organisation than my shop/garage, so I need to get tips from you...

 

[Glen]

Agree with GSXR. I have a 3-car garage and in addition to "car" type tools, I have "home" type tools, e.g. table and miter saws, drills, etc. In general I like to use rolling type shelves so I can move stuff around easily.

 

[alabbasi]

My fitbit tells me that I walk an average of 6 miles around my shop in about the same amount of hours.

 

[LWB250]

I just recently moved from a two car garage house to a three car garage house. Sadly, the three car garage has less room for storage because there is no “margin” space on the sides like there was in my two car garage. In that case, I had a set of kitchen cabinets on one side that were great for storage, and room on the other side for my paint (flammables) locker and lawn equipment.

The new garage is deeper, so there is room to store things in front of the cars. I have our upright freezer, my paint locker and another cabinet in this area. I also have a set of the stainless wire shelving like they use in kitchens that is 18” deep. Fluids and some car stuff goes on these.

Along the side of the single garage I have more stainless wire shelves that are 12” deep for new parts, such as filters, and my oil change stuff. It’s narrow, but doesn’t project out much into the stall or impair my ability to park there.

I’m still trying to get things organized, but am coming to the realization that I probably won’t be able to park three cars in the garage. That means my beater ML500 will have to stay outside, but that’s not a big deal for me.

I miss AC, which I had in my two car garage. I might end up putting a mini split in later this year, as that extends my work year a good 3-4 months. One nice touch I just set up was taking a 60” plasma TV we retired from the house and hanging it on the back wall of the garage. My laptop with SDS works great, giving me a MASSIVE screen to view it on, and when not running my SDS I have a headless MacBook Air that I run PLEX on, giving me access to my video library.

Just added pictures for some context. I would also state that the previous owners built a "deck" above the garage doors for storage, which is nice for long term stuff you don't need to get to on a regular basis. I put my specialized tools up there, for example.

And yes, there's still a ton of crap that has to find it's place. I still have a pile of stuff in the back of the ML500 I haven't offloaded yet...

Dan

 

[JC220]

It sounds like you all have similar issues to my garages! Too much stuff and not enough time to do anything about it....

I have 2x garages so I am trying to rationalise what is stored in them. The front single garage is warm and attached to house. Very secure too. Generally no work is done in there (Welding or spraying) it is used primarily to store my 500E and for routine servicing / detailing - ceramic coating etc. Although the red coupe is perched in there currently and needs out in a couple months when the under body work is complete to it.

That garage will house large tools / gauge kits etc and detailing products. Some DIY tools will be in there too. The metal racking was a great buy! I got some only about a foot wide to go along one wall and larger ones up where the bonnet of the car is. (So the clear space isn’t inhibited at the car doors)

The metal shelves span from floor to ceiling so it makes maximum use of space. I want to get some wall mounted small storage bins too. That should really help to keep small items to hand and not forget what I have!

The back garage is a double one with loft above. In that garage I try to only store my most frequently used tools and car parts. New parts + fluids / filters are on shelves on the ground floor. Along with a parts washer and shot blaster etc. Pretty darn packed garage I need more Sq Footage for sure. The loft is 100% bunged with w124 / w140 parts including bumpers, window regs, headlamps you name it.

I am still working on organising things so ill share some ideas and pics in the next week or two when things start to get in shape.

 

[JC220]

OK so this took alot longer than I thought BUT one garage is pretty much done now. After years of tripping over stuff it's great to have most items easy to find. Indeed I "found" alot of tools I forgot I even had.

The key to success for me was the use of plastic bins. Fantastic to just select the appropriate size and start chucking stuff in. Such as one for cord / small straps and others for parts etc:



I already had 40 large tubs I had bought a few years back for my hoard parts. (Hoard parts is in another space!) But needed a new small selection for this garage:



And the almost final result -






Some shuffling around still to do. Some crates + shelves are empty but that is planned since more stuff needs to come from my other garage. I start on it tomorrow night. I have some wall mounted storage bins coming and hooks to try and organise things further and maximise every inch of space.

This garage also desperately needs new LED lighting installed so that's next. And some custom JC220 E500E wall posters