These days we are looking for ways to make our homes more useable and available for multiple uses. More and more people are making do with their smaller homes, with growing families. Many of us don’t have all the space for what we want in our homes. So, because of that we need to get creative!
Great ideas are borne out of necessity or needing to solve a problem. If you are looking to maximize your garage space look no further!
The first thing you will need to do is organize your space to maximize the area you have. This can also be the most daunting of the process. I like to start in one corner of my garage- for me it’s one side of my garage door, and then move around in a circle until I’ve gone all around.
Group all like items together for now and make piles of stuff that you can put away later. Once you have all your items organized into piles of similar things you can start to pare down what you have. Take stock of what you have, and what you need and want.
I bet you that you’ll end up getting rid of a lot more stuff than you realized you needed to get rid of.
You’ll also need storage space and containers. I recommend getting several shelving units and probably some hanging hooks as well. For us, we have exposed trusses in our garage, so we also purchased some plywood to lay down in the rafters so that we could put some of our larger items up in the rafters.
We put seasonal items up there that we hardly use but don’t want to get rid of. Stuff like Christmas decorations, puppy kennels, or storm windows for our home. Those things that we don’t take down or use very often go up there, since it’s harder to get up there.
Things like tools, outdoor toys, sporting equipment gets put in toolboxes, and totes and put up onto the shelving units.
Once all your existing stuff is put away and paired down, you can start to add in the new stuff that you WANT. Figure out what you want to do in your garage. Do you want a potting bench? A space to paint or do other art? A Wood working shop, or even a home gym?
You may have to compromise on what you keep in your garage. Depending on what you want to do you may not have space for extra vehicles in your garage at this point. If you need a band saw for woodworking, you may have to park outside!
But try and keep most other tools put away in totes or toolboxes and then on shelves like I said previously. You can keep all your do-dad’s and odds and ends in storage containers, and that REALLY helps to maintain the space requirements that you need for whatever you are doing in your garage.
You can also look for multifunctional furniture- things that fold out or have extra hooks on the inside of cabinet doors or pull-out desk space is a great idea. You can even add in your own pull-out workspace to a shelving unit with a few tools, some wood and creativity (and basic math skills).
You can choose or customize furniture that helps to maximize your space. These furniture items can be spendy, but not as spendy as purchasing a whole new home because you want to be able to do your watercolors in peace!
You can make your space multifunctional with just some elbow grease and creativity!