Simply Done: New Garage Shelving

If it appears as if I’m spending a lot of time lately in garages, it’s true! Shockingly enough, it’s becoming my new favorite space to work in. Especially with this beautiful Nor Cal weather!

Garages are a tough spot to organize because they’re large and don’t have defined spaces / zones as would be the case inside the house. Add to that the fact they are typically a catch-all for lots of different, random items. I’ll be talking more about my take on garage organization soon when I partner up with a local junk company here in the Bay Area…so stay tuned for that. But today, I’m here sharing an update to this pretty little garage.

Remember the one that didn’t start out that so pretty?…

After a couple sessions we made a HUGE impact.

Beyond all the purging and sorting that occurred, the next step was new shelving. Dad purchased this oversized rack from Frontgate, which really should be set-up in a commercial kitchen due to the very deep shelves. Or at the least set up in a large oversized garage with loads of room. This garage, while a generous size, wasn’t quite large enough to accommodate this option. He did his best and we can’t fault him for trying.

This was the shelf and wall before my first session…

Here is the same shelf and wall after that session…

On session 2, I returned to breakdown the oversized shelf…

To make room for the correct shelving…

*The pretty wood rack with hooks will be moving to a different wall soon, don’t worry.

Why does this shelving work better? Why is it the correct choice for this garage?

1. The shelf is 18″ deep x 96″ wide as opposed to 35″ deep x 59″ wide. This means the shelf doesn’t stick out as far in front, which was previously an issue for getting their 2 cars in the garage. And it also spans more of the wall giving us more room to organize things.

2. The shelves have been set-up in a way to maximize their vertical space. The previous shelf had only 4 shelves. With this new system we have 12 shelves and 1 deep shelf basket. This means we have more surface space to put items away.

3. We now have the ability to group like items together making it easier for them to find what they need right away.

4. We added a couple drawer components for easy access to small tools and fragile light bulbs.

5. Smaller items aren’t getting lost in the big shuffle anymore….

I could go on and on with the reasons this shelving is a better option, but it’s pretty clear just by looking at the before and after images. This is InterMetro from The Container Store. I love the add-on components like hooks and drawers, but I also love these deep shelf baskets…

Mom doesn’t have room inside for gift wrap, so it works perfectly out here in this basket. She also opts to wrap gifts on her oversized kitchen table, which is located directly inside their home from the garage…so she has easy access to gift wrap when needed.

Remember Dad’s side of the garage?…

After session one…

Check it out now!…

All it took was a lot of purging and sorting and the purchase of a shorter InterMetro shelf…

Again, I love that you can customize this shelving to work for your specific needs. You can see this shelf is shorter than the other. There are so many options to make it work hard for you…not frustrate you!

Dad loves the drawers for all of his smaller bike gear…

And he is pretty fired up to have his own little nook in the house for working out after a long day in the office or traveling.

If you are thinking about getting organized in your garage, come back soon to read my post about garage organization! Hint: It’s all about zones and the correct storage solutions. Really. It’s that simple!

Go organize something and have a great day!!

be social