It’s Garage Organizing Season!

Spring is in the air, and with it comes the annual ritual of organizing the garage. It’s the perfect time to declutter, organize, and reclaim that valuable space that often serves as a catch-all for everything from surfboards to power tools. Here in Santa Barbara, where outdoor activities are a way of life for everyone in the family, having easy access to gear is essential.

Visualize

My first step in organizing any space is always to envision the ideal. For the garage, ask yourself how you want to feel when you’re in there. Are you productive? Happy and calm because you can easily find everything? Before you figure out how you want it to look, list three ways you want it to make you feel. Browse around online and pin some images of organized garages that make you feel happy.

Map It Out

The most organized garages are separated into stations—the bike station, the activity station, the workshop, etc. I have a designated craft station in my garage, where I am free to be as creative and messy as I want. And it’s easy to put everything swiftly back into its designated home when I’m done.

Make Time For Organizing

Set aside ample time for the job. Whether it’s a full-day or weekend project, you don’t want to rush through it. Perhaps enlist the help of family and friends to make the process more efficient and enjoyable. Sort through your belongings separating them into categories – keep, donate, sell, and toss. Keep adding to the donate pile! Then, using bins and products you already have, put everything in places that they are easy to find and get to. Lastly, determine the best container, measure and shop, if needed.

Storage Solutions

Embrace open shelving over closed cabinets for accessibility and visibility, and explore vertical space organizing systems like pegboards, track-based systems, or panelized systems to make the most of every square inch. Ace Hardware cut a piece of pegboard for me to my specifications, and it’s working great!

Make it Cozy

Since we park our cars outside the garage (these old garages built in the early 1900s are tiny!), we’ve allowed ours to function as a comfortable place to hang out. I added an outdoor rug, a heater, and my old record player. My son, Griffin, has a variety of interests and loves having a place to work on his equipment. He’s been tinkering with his airsoft BB gun while listening to Supertramp (yes, the original album I bought in 1982!).

Label Everything!

When things are clearly labeled, everyone knows where they go, and you won’t have to hear, “MOM! Where’s my surf wax/skate tool/carabineer/tackle box/ [insert appropriate outdoor gear here]?”