Garage Organization Suggestions Needed

Thread from 2011:

My garage needs a makeover. Nothing huge, as my tools are fairly well organized. Specifically, I'm looking for suggestions as to how I should manage the abundance of spray cans and oil bottles that I have. I have a couple of spare quarts for each car, plus some transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid for the plow and tractor, and spray paint, penetrating oil, air filter cleaner and lube, brake cleaner, etc. I am over run with small containers. How do you guys organize all this stuff?

How do you guys organize all this stuff?

In reply to Woody:

Organize? It's in my garage of course. Some where. I'll find them.

Actually, I took my wife's old book shelves and mounted them on the wall off the floor. One is dedicated to the fluids/solvents, etc.

We bought several of these when they were steeply discounted a few years back:

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00959126000P?vName=Storage+%26+Garage&cName=Tool+Storage&sName=Garage+Storage+Cabinets&prdNo=3

The two doors have spaces that are ideal for all of the spray cans, and the bonus is that you can see them all!

dj06482 wrote: We bought several of these when they were steeply discounted a few years back: http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00959126000P?vName=Storage+%26+Garage&cName=Tool+Storage&sName=Garage+Storage+Cabinets&prdNo=3 The two doors have spaces that are ideal for all of the spray cans, and the bonus is that you can see them all!

You know, that looks pretty nice and something like that might be worth spending some money on next time it goes on sale. I'll take a look at what else they have. Maybe there's something about half the height that I can mount on the wall.

I had the same problem in my garage after the 'race car' came and lived with me for a year. The house I moved into had 1 quad door over/under wall particle board cabinet up in the storage area, I added 2 racks of Whalen shelves for $60/each from Costco. When I filled the shelves and cabinets with car parts, oil, trans fluid, brake cleaner, spray paints, housing paints, moving blankets, car covers, tailgating equipment, etc. I went and did this a couple weekends ago,

before (notice the shelves and cabinet on the far back wall, all filled up):

after (2 sets of those cheap white particle board 3 door cabinets, CL $120 for both after painting, reinforcement and mounting hardware ~ they run around that price each unassembled from HD):

So my advice is if you want storage or cabinets go with CL and be creative. Over on Garage Journal there are a couple of amazing threads regarding re-purposing everything from old 2nd hand office cabinets to old kitchen cabinets people left by the side of the road: What do your storage cabinets look like? and What's your workbench look like?

Enjoy!

Have you seen the Shop restoration series that we're doing over at Classic Motorsports?

There are two articles in print, and 1 video of the old shop before we started tearing it apart. There will be 3 more articles and 4 more videos in the series.

There will also be a righteous contest to give away a bunch of garage makeover stuff, from polishes and waxes to shop equipment. You would be sad if you missed it.

In reply to Tom Heath:

I am! Working on your Garage is as good as working on your car IMO...

This might get me going in the right direction.

In reply to Woody:

Nice, but $$$

Lots of shelves spaced closely together hold lots of little items without stacking them on each other.

I've been tackling the same issue, as well as a general reorg of the shop now that I have all the non-running cars ousted. I've been reading Garage Journal for inspiration but haven't tackled the cabinet question quite yet. I'm still thinking and planning, so this could be a worthwhile thread for me too.

I didn't want to put a cabinet on the floor, so I bought some wire frame units from Home Depot. They're hung on the wall and screwed into the wall studs. Deep enough for 2 1-gallon oil jugs (4 per shelf x 3 shelves). I keep all my oil,spray paint,grease cans, etc on them. It's all visible, which may not be your cup of tea, but it's readily accessible.

Figure out a GRM version of this from Griot's Garage:

pigeon wrote: Figure out a GRM version of this

I may have found it - this was on closeout for $20 in red the last time I was at IKEA, I bought 2:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10139134

What about those aluminum "trailer organizers" sold by pitpal and the like.

Not particularly cheap, but I was still looking this direction.

The Griot's thing seems too small to me. By the time you put carb cleaner, gasket remover, simple green, oil for five different cars, pb blaster, antifreeze, air tool oil, brake caliper pin lube, etc etc in it, you've got more cans in boxes on the floor than fit in your fancy $189 cabinet. I ended up finding a great deal on a new medical (drug) cabinet that I hung on the wall - works great! Unfortunately I've let it lull me into thinking I have more storage than I do and I'm back to having a case of oil on the shelves instead of in the fluids cabinet. The other down side is it's impossible to just go online and pick one up. It came from a local military base, I bought it through govliquidation.com . It perfectly matches my workbench base cabinets, which is hilarious as the workbench cabinets are from the 60's and the wall cabinet was made in 2005.

Any shallow cabinet with doors and closely spaced adjustable shelves works great. Ikea makes some shallow wall cabinets that are 38" high, intended for bathroom use. They're maybe a bit too shallow at 5 1/2", but perhaps they would work for some people.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10147563#/90164916/

The kitchen wall cabinets are 12" deep which I think is a little too deep. Just deep enough for a bottle of antifreeze to fit depth-wise is perfect.

someone once told me to get a black sharpie and write the contents of the spray can on the bottom of the can, then store the cans laying down, with the bottom end facing the workspace. stack 'em like firewood on a standard shelf or in a standard leftover kitchen cabinet.

that's a great idea!

I have most of a set of kitchen cabinets screwed to the wall in my shop. Cost, nothing. I snagged them off the side of the road.

Most of the paints and such are in these:

All labeled nice and pretty. One for plumbing, sanding, electrical, small car parts, electronics, paint, oil, and so on. Got a project, just grab the right box. I got them at Home Depot when they had them on sale for $4. I bought 20 of them. Eventually I'll get them all on shelves, but they stack well.

Edit: Eventually I'll learn to put the stuff back in the boxes instead of piling it on the bench.

Po of my house redid the kitchen, when he did, the old cabinets went to the garage. Maybe post a wanted ad on cl for used kitchen cabinets, or get in good with a local contractor that does kitchen/bath remodels

I picked up a pair of metal Bosch cabinets from an auto parts store for $30 on CL, and then stole my grandmother's old kitchen cabinets when they were being replaced.

If no one has mentioned it, immediate join http://www.garagejournal.com/ and get on the forums. There are some insanely genius ideas for garage storage, organization, and management solutions on that sight, and lots of 'em are GRMer friendly... i.e. most of the guys aren't just check writers.

BTW, they have whole threads on things like spray can storage: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1197410&highlight=spray+rack#post1197410

I love this one:

Woody wrote: You know, that looks pretty nice and something like that might be worth spending some money on next time it goes on sale. I'll take a look at what else they have. Maybe there's something about half the height that I can mount on the wall.

Just for reference, I think I paid about $140 per cabinet between the sale and the Craftsman Club card. I've had them for a few years and love them!

Pull the drywall off one of the walls and build sheving between the studs. Gives you an extra 3 1/2 inches and a place to screw the shelf supports.

darkbuddha wrote: BTW, they have whole threads on things like spray can storage: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1197410&highlight=spray+rack#post1197410

Wow.

Re: How do you store your spray cans?

" I use a old coke machine, its insulated. The Coke machine is a late 60's 10cent, the cans lay down and I put the day and year on the caps so I know how old the paint is. I think it holds about 100 cans. The compressor didn't work so I removed it and use that for 1/2 gal and gal. cans. Sometimes I put a 20w light bulb inside if it real cold for long period of time. Dosen't take much to keep warm and you don't want your paint to freeze. "