Garage organization

I have a little single car garage. On one side wall is the washer and dryer and various things. The other side wall has a bunch of my tools and stuff with various things. The back wall has my bench and tools and junk. The problem is I have more stuff than space and end up piling stuff in front of stuff. I hate moving stuff, with no room to put it anywhere, to get to stuff, then having to put all the stuff back.

The biggest issue is the three bicycles. They are always in the way. Previous to my recent car purchase I have had them leaning up against the wall in front of my jacks and jackstands and stuff, as I rarely used that stuff. Now I am using it a lot and it's a hassle to move them every time I need to get to my stuff.

I thought of hanging them from the ceiling but it's low and there is nowhere that they could go that wouldn't be in the way. The garage door takes up 60% of the space and the rest is over my bench or the washer and dryer.

Pictures.

Before cleaning.

After cleaning.

Any thoughts?

Stuff.

I tried to envoke a "nothing on the floor" policy with as few exeption as possible. Menards had $10 bike hoist, cheaper than buying a couple of pulleys and cleats. I think my policy worked pretty well, but i did some cleaning house to do it.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

How tall is the ceiling? Do you have enough height to build a shelf under the open garage door & not hit your head on it? That wouldn't help with the bikes, but it could allow you to get other stuff off the floor so the bikes are less in the way?

How frequently are the bikes ridden? If they're used weekly it's probably not worth getting them off the floor anyway. However, if any of them are rarely used you might consider loosening the stem so you can hang them (mostly)flat on the wall.

I have absolutely no input worth giving on this topic as I live in a glass house, metaphorically speaking. Kid bikes are the bane of my summer garage existence, however, so I am watching with extreme interest!

Looking at the three bikes in the first picture, I certainly don't recommend hanging them from the ceiling. The mountain bike against the wall would be more in the way upside down on an 8 to 9 foot ceiling as that would put the bars at head\neck height.

The maroon bike with the mirrors would probably leak fluids all over the place if you hung it upside down.

If you can't swivel the stems around as per Pete Gossett's suggestion, then simply having them overlapped against the wall with an edict to keep the area in front of them clean may be your best bet. They should be the easiest things in the garage to move out of the way.

You may be able to GRM a version of this Flat bike lift as $269 per bike seems a little steep to save a little room.

When in doubt, build upward.

Is it possible to keep the bikes in a separate shed or something where they'd still be accessible, but not in the way of garage things?

The wife very rarely rides her bike, which wasn't pictured as I had moved it to get to something. I could put that one up on the wall above the jacks and such so it's out of the way.

I'm on mine four or five times a week and the boy just a couple.

If I got rid of my rusted through 28 gallon upright air compressor, which is in between the washing machine and the water heater, I could then put mine against the wall like thisand it shouldn't be in the way of the washing machine.

That would only leave the boy's bike in the way. Thanks for helping me think it through.

In reply to STM317:

If I had a shed

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

That's how most of mine are stored, only SWMBO's and the one I ride most frequently are left down. Of course, they're out in my workshop/shed, so they're not in the way of vehicular activities regardless.

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: . After cleaning. Any thoughts?

2X4 uprights, and plywood floor shelves. I'd go maybe 1' deep along the side wall there. and 2'+ deep along the back wall with the door. Build them tall, build them strong, get a step ladder, and store light/infrequently used stuff up top. Build shelves over the (man)door also. Make openings tall enough to accommodate the bicycles so they are accessible, but have a spot. It will be more manageable if everything has its own spot.

Inspiration: maybe leave the bottom shelf out for bicycles.

Design it around your stuff. There is space to be found, you just need to get creative.

Tie it all into the wall studs with 3-1/2" screws. Come to think of it, only use screws, so it's relatively easy to change.

These are my thoughts.

Here's what I did in my last, admittedly huge shop, but you get the idea.

In reply to wheelsmithy:

Good idea. There is definitely some room to be had doing that. However, I'm renting. And while that landlord hasn't questioned anything I've asked to do previously I'm not entirely sure how he would feel about building a bunch of shelving in the garage. It's worth asking though.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Yeah, maybe not if renting. I will say, my last garage I had was a 20X20 single car, and I made A LOT of room doing something like this. Maybe some pretty pictures to convince the landlord. If not, just some freestanding stuff would help. Look into industrial pallet shelving (or pallet racks) They're modular, and have lots of flexibility as far as set up. Check local salvage places, and maybe not much more$ than the lumber would have been for my earlier suggestion. Cheers.

Not garage but my basement shop. I got tired of having to sort thru 8 little plastic sets of bins and a couple cans of nuts, bolts, etc. So I bought a cabinet that has 132 bins. Now I have a place for almost all metric and SAE bolt sizes plus sheet metal, drywall, and tapcon screws. Also has enough space for the electrial and plumbing parts I have accumulated over the years.

Hal that cabinet is awesome! Where did you get it?

I'll put in another vote for vertical development. Some of my storage (don't judge me) If you have room above the door, and landlord allows, you can do a shelf like this. Its mostly for camping gear and parts I wont be needing to get to anytime soon:

This shelf is just some pieces of MDF glued and screwed together, sized to fit on top of a standard 36" wide shelf unit. There's another high shelf I built out of 2x4s & ply to the right of it, which is over the workbench.

In reply to XLR99:

The one Hal has looks a LOT like one Northern Tool sells. However, make sure you're sitting down and aren't drinking anything before you open that link.

Renting, or not, design those shelves to come partially apart (screws) and take it with you if you move.

Overhead shelves

A simple suggestion on the bikes. I have 2 bikes and hated them being on the floor as they took up a silly amount of space. I picked up a couple simple hooks and ran them into the studs as high as I could on the wall and hang the bikes from the front wheel. Cheap, easy, and clears up some floor space.

Ian F wrote: In reply to XLR99: The one Hal has looks a LOT like one Northern Tool sells. However, make sure you're sitting down and aren't drinking anything before you open that link.

I got mine from Global Industrial. Big difference is that it is 16ga rather than the 14ga Quantum cabinet Ian F referenced. Plus the price is significantly lower.

These are from my 20x20 rental townhome garage. I know it's a bit bigger than yours, but I had similar problems to solve.

I hung my bikes upside down from the ceiling on two hooks as close to the wall as possible. Then I pulled the top frame tube up to the ceiling and hold it in place with some rope, caribiner, and an eye bolt into the truss above. That way it doesn't hang down so far and I have usable wall space below the bike.

I also have a folding work bench. This took some getting used to as I typically mount my vise and bench grinder to the bench and use a shelf below it for storage. But the upside is that I can't keep clutter on the bench if I want to park inside.

Jack stands are stacked in the little cubby shelf I built, and dollies are hung on the wall beside that, just out of view.

I hung some wire shelving for tote storage. This stuff is the infrequent use items as they're a bit of a pain to get down.

I'm still working on some finer details and constantly refining my organizational methods every time I'm out there. I've only lived here for 4 months.

collinskl1 wrote: These are from my 20x20 rental townhome garage. I know it's a bit bigger than yours, but I had similar problems to solve. I hung my bikes upside down from the ceiling on two hooks as close to the wall as possible. Then I pulled the top frame tube up to the ceiling and hold it in place with some rope, caribiner, and an eye bolt into the truss above. That way it doesn't hang down so far and I have usable wall space below the bike. I also have a folding work bench. This took some getting used to as I typically mount my vise and bench grinder to the bench and use a shelf below it for storage. But the upside is that I can't keep clutter on the bench if I want to park inside. Jack stands are stacked in the little cubby shelf I built, and dollies are hung on the wall beside that, just out of view. I hung some wire shelving for tote storage. This stuff is the infrequent use items as they're a bit of a pain to get down. I'm still working on some finer details and constantly refining my organizational methods every time I'm out there. I've only lived here for 4 months.

Love that cabinet you made for the jack stands.

Your compressor looks just like mine. I bought mine in 1998.

I dig the fold down work bench. Thinking about one of those for mine.

Here's my current plan (although I haven't started building it yet)