When you are
reorganizing your garage,
it’s a good time to look into buying new or used
garage
shelves. Freestanding shelves come in a lot of different
systems.
You
can get some that bolt together, or those that don’t use any
tools at all. You can get metal ones or wood ones. There are even
plastic garage shelves available at discount and home improvement
shelves.
First, how much stuff do you have to store?
Do you have it in bins? How large are these bins? Make sure the shelves
you get are deep enough (front to back) to accommodate any boxes or
bins that you use for storage.
Common shelf depths include
12”, 14”, 16”, and 20”.
14” and 16” shelves are the most commonly needed in
a storage situation. 20” shelves are best for large plastic
tubs of holiday decorations, or for storing outdoor cushions and things
like that.
Now, look at your wall space in your garage.
How many walls can you use and still have room to get out of your car?
Newer homes tend to have two-car garages, with enough width that you
can utilize both side walls and the back wall for your garage shelves.
Be sure to leave room for things like bikes,
garbage cans, large garden
tools (rakes, shovels, etc.), and lawnmowers, if you don’t
have a separate storage area for these.
You can get hooks or
freestanding units that can hold these things – except the
lawnmower and garbage can, of course.
So, now, look to see how many shelving units
will fit on each wall. Be sure to allow space at the front of the
garage for the garage door mechanisms.
For example, if you have just
over twelve feet of usable wall space at the back of the garage, and
the freestanding unit you’ve decided on is four feet wide,
you can fit three units in there.
Give each unit its own purpose, and
each of the garage shelves within a unit its own purpose. Perhaps one
unit will be for gardening stuff, with hand tools on the top shelf,
buckets and such on the second shelf, and so on. This kind of
organization will make your garage much more useable.