Trying to make my garage into a useful space

Ok, lets get this party started.  This is my garage.  Since this is a panoramic shot, the empty space in the middle looks deceptively big, but its only big enough to fit the van.  We suffer from too many hobbies and not enough space for the toys.  (Actually just total lack of organization)  The bikes are obvious, but what you might not see is the kayak.  A second has been added since this picture was taken.  There's a bunch of scuba gear that hasn't seen water in 20+ years.  There's a decent rolling toolbox that's totally disorganized that I can't really get to.  A pretty decent air compressor.  About 4 sets of golf clubs collecting dust.  A horse tack trunk from back when my wife used to ride horses.  And the list goes on...

The first goal is to be able to park 2 cars in here. These first pics were taken just over a year ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting them. 

Step 1:

That helped a little, but there's still a lot to do.

I'm going to be starting on my garage next week. I'm too embarrassed to post a before photo.

Step 2 starts this weekend (I hope).  If you refer to the first pic, behind the big stack of boxes is some shelving. The shelves are mostly empty and now they're covered up.  The plan is to re-configure the shelves to be upright just like the shelves to the left of the boxes.  Space the shelves to be able to stack bins in them.  Take as much crap out of the cardboard boxes as possible and put them in the bins.  (and get rid of a bunch of it in the process).  Then move the toolbox, tack trunk, and beer fridge up to the front to free up space along the sides.  I've got some racks coming next week to hang the kayaks on the wall on the left side.

I'm very sad that I don't see pics, just a circle with a minus sign in it :(

I'm just getting moved into mine and its already a mess.....I need a plan before the moves goes any more wrong so I ws hoping to see ideas :)

Anyone else not see the pics?

No pics for me either

You have to sign in to a Google account to see the photos.

stuart in mn said:

You have to sign in to a Google account to see the photos.

I'm signed in and can't see them either. RogerB, are you sure they are in a shared folder? 

I was afraid of that.  I think I've fixed it.  I uploaded them directly to the site (forgot we could do that now).  

Can you see them now?

We can see the pictures now.

Like doing dishes, keeping the garage clean is a constant battle.

Very cool. I have been doing similar. I will take some photos of the shelves/brackets Ive been using to show you how I've been tackling this.

So, my garage was getting to be a cluttered mess, but one of the ways I've tried to tackle the issue is to put up shelves. This allows me to use the nakes walls in an efficient way.

I've been using steel brackets from lowes (about $7 a piece) and 2x12x12 pieces of treated lumber as shelving. I've been mounting the brackets to the wall studs and then laying the wood on top of the brackets. I use small wood screws to fast the shelf to the brackets and heftier construction screws to fasten the brackets to the studs. The shelfs feel stable and secure. I believe each pair of brackets it rated to 1,000 lbs when properly mounted.

Made a bit of progress today.  Started with this:

Got to this point:

More to come tomorrow!

Sounds like what would help a ton is a garage sale to get rid of all the gear you no longer use.

docwyte said:

Sounds like what would help a ton is a garage sale to get rid of all the gear you no longer use.

More like a bigger dumpster.  That's where a lot of it is going.  The rest is stuff that has "sentimental" attachment.  The decision to sell / dispose of that is up to SWMBO.  Almost have the second rack cleared out and start reconfiguring the shelves.  Pics coming soon. 

Slowly making progress...

OMG! I can see a wall! 

Phase I complete ???

The bins are empty, just trying to get a feel for how many bins I can get in each shelf.  The existing shelves will be cleared out and rearranged to maximize bin storage.

Now comes the fun part of playing "Garage Tetris" to get this toolbox into the space beside the new shelves.

Sweet! 

Starting to look good. Also, I have that same taskforce toolbox - it was my first tool box - and I bought it used. Ive gotten more use out of that box than I had any right to expect from it. I ended up sandwiching a 2 drawer Crafstman middle chest between the top and bottom and it fit surprisingly well and didnt look a bit out of place.

When everything is moved to the proper place, I'm gonna have to spend some time organizing the toolbox.  I have each drawer designated by type of tool, but that's about as far as it goes.  I'm terrible about not putting things back neatly when I'm done with tools.  And you can see by the pile of crap in the top compartment that it's just a catch all and I can't find anything in there.

Success!

I think that's all I have in me tonight.  SWMBO will have to park outside again tonight, but not the end of the world.  I'll see how I feel after dinner.

I wish I had posted a pic of what the rest of the garage looked like.  A lot of boxes of E36 M3 where the van normally parks.  When Mrs. B. came home, the first thing out of her mouth was "When can I park in the garage?  I hate parking outside!"  (sigh)  So I spent another hour after dinner whittling the pile down and rearranging the kayaks.  Hopefully, the van can park inside again tonight.

Unfortunately, the kayak wall hangers I ordered won't arrive till Wednesday.  For some reason I was thinking they would be here today.  It's probably just as well because it's going to involve another game of "Garage Tetris" to get those up.

Phase 2:

In the scramble to free up space for the van, I kinda left a mess:

So the next step is to get the kayaks off the floor with these:

Whatever I do, I have to be able to get the van in tonight because they're predicting bad weather.

I see wall!

Kayaks hung!  Now I just have to put the garage back together! 

You have more patience than I.

I too have a SWMBO, but mine will listen to reason. When she complains about something that is my fault, or of my making, I fix it. When she complains about something that she's had a hand in, I point out that the crap littering her way is HER CRAP, and she does what needs to be done to fix that.

Fortunately for me, she's not sentimental about stuff she doesn't use anymore, so she's the first one to toss, donate, swap or sell whatever detritus she's collected. UNFORTUNATELY for her, I'm the sentimental one...or as she calls me, The Human Raccoon. *OOOHHH, Shiny!*

Good start though! Inertia is the hardest thing to overcome...once you've started gaining ground, it keeps getting easier to gain more ground.