Your garage is a natural place for stuff to collect. Often that “stuff” is a combination of yard and garden tools that you don’t want to keep inside your home. Items relegated to the garage, shed or basement are dirty, rusty, smelly, or hazardous. These items find a home in the garage, but they need specific storage solutions to keep them out of the way or safely locked away.
No matter if you live in Chester County or the Main Line, one item that has our full attention each fall is yard tools. You need easy access to your garden supplies, like rakes, yard waste bags, and tree trimmers. However, they can quickly become tripping hazards if they have no place to go. You prop these awkwardly shaped tools on a wall, but they inevitably slip onto the floor at the slightest fall breeze.
“Homeowners call us when they hit their breaking point with all the things in their garages. They want long-term solutions to get organized. They want their yard and garden tools close at hand. But, they are tired of having a mess or having all their yard equipment scattered in different places throughout their garage or shed,” says Randy, Garage Sense co-owner. “Honestly, it is a source of stress for people, one which we are happy to fix.”
Yard tools that are typically found in a garage include:
- Rakes
- Shovels
- Hoses
- Gloves
- Planters
- Potting Soil
- Seeds and bulbs
- Plant food
- Fertilizer or weed killer
- Push mowers
- Seed spreaders
Garden tools and supplies come in all shapes, sizes, and weights.
How to organize your yard and garden tools
Our first recommendation is to gather all the yard and garden tools together in one place. Pull together any items related to yard work, weeding, gardening, or lawn care. This allows you to visualize everything you own in this category. If you have duplicates or half-full bags of the same items (ex. grass seed or potting soil) combine them or throw them away. Likewise, if you have newer versions of certain supplies (ex. gardening gloves or planters), you can donate or discard unneeded items.
“Before tackling any organization project, we always recommend taking a hard look at what you own and deciding what can be donated, sold or thrown away,” suggests Randy. When we meet with the homeowner to discuss the goals for the garage project, we encourage them to only store those items that survived the final wave of decision making. Listening to the homeowner’s goals and seeing what needs to be organized helps us create their custom solution.
Storage recommendations
Fortunately, we have several garage storage options available to homeowners.
Cabinets are ideal for smaller items, like planters, spades, hand tools, and gloves. Many cabinets are lockable, which will keep gardening chemicals, like fertilizer, and organic products, like seeds, safe from curious children and family pets.
For items that don’t fit in a cabinet, wall systems that feature hooks and shelves are a good solution. Rakes, shovels, and hoses can be hung. This keeps your garden items together and gets them off the floor. Garages are filled with untapped vertical storage potential. Therefore, garage storage systems have different hooks for different purposes, making them functional and creating a nice cohesive look for your garage.
Fall is the season to winterize your yard and garden. Garage Sense recommends getting your garage ready for winter too. By conquering your clutter in September, October, and November, you will safely park your car in the garage before the cold weather arrives.
Garage Organization Installers
Garage Sense helps you make sense of your yard and garden tools. Fill out this form, call 610-996-3365, or email [email protected] for a free estimate.