A Garage For All Seasons: Too Much Stuff and Too Little Space

A two-car garage reduced to one car space. Photo Courtesy: RubberMaid Products

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you realize that you just have too much stuff.  We all know it; piles of old magazines, bucket loads of tools, old pieces of furniture and even old toys and games.  For a lot of people, this is where the loft comes in; stuff it all up there and forget about it until you run out of space completely.  For those without a loft, though, their garage may have taken the bulk of their collection, so what happens to your car?  For most people, their car is the second most expensive thing they’ll ever buy, so keeping it in good condition and well looked after is essential.  So how do you make space in that garage, then?

Every Corner Tells a Story

Undoubtedly, your home has a lot of memories.  You probably associate something with nearly every area of the floor, walls and even ceiling and you don’t want to lose that.  Make sure, if you’re going to have a clear out, that you check every nook and cranny for items you may have lost or forgotten about.  Most of these may just be trinkets that mean nothing to you but every now and again you may stumble across something that causes the memories to come flooding back.  You will then need to find space for that and with an already cluttered garage, that may be hard.  Better to have everything to hand at the beginning; that way you can work out your space perfectly from the start.

Tools vs Trinkets: the Car or the Memories

Inevitably, if there are two of you, there will be arguments.  In this case, think about what needs to be where.  In your garage, it’s necessary to have your tools close at hand: should you need to work on your car, then you want everything to be easily accessible.  So, tools triumph over trinkets.  If you can cut down on the things that you don’t really need and that aren’t incredibly important to you, then you may be able to find places inside the house for most of the memorabilia.  Not only does this get them out of the man’s domain, but it also leaves them close at hand should you feel the need to reminisce.

A Whole or Two Halves?

One major option could be to simply split the garage up.  Most garages are long enough to fit both the car in and leave space at the back: originally meant to tools, this space can then be used otherwise.  As a lot of garages are slightly below the level of the ground floor, why not build a dais at the back of the garage, where there may be a door to the house.

Up here, you can create a shelving system and store lots of the small items that you’d like to keep hold of.  Then you can store all the households’ tools down in racks beside the car.  Not only will you be utilizing the space well, but you can brighten it up at the same time.  By giving it a lick of paint, you can open that room up completely from a dark and dingy car locker into a bright storage space, complete with shiny automobile.  This will require a lot more work than simply keeping your stuff elsewhere, but it may well prove a better idea: you’re creating extra storage space should you ever have the need.  You also have the option of moving your utilities out into the garage then; put your washing machine and your chest freezer out here and you can free up room inside the house proper.

In your garage, you need to keep your car as a priority; after all, it was made for that purpose.  Turning it into a multipurpose room can free up space elsewhere however.  Giving it a lick of paint, some new lighting and storage and some new garage floor tiles can really turn it into a space to be proud of.