by
Richard
on
10 Steps for Organizing Your Garage Workshop
Benjamin Franklin once said the “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” If you ever spent an hour looking for that 10mm socket only to make a run to the auto parts store to buy another, you know about Benjamin’s wisdom (even if he never owned a garage). Still, it’s one thing to recognize the need to organize and another entirely to get it done. Projects like this get put off often because it’s hard to know where to even start. So, we humbly submit the following plan. Follow it one step at a time and you will like the result.
1. Why Are You Doing This?
If you are like most folks, you can’t find your tools when you are in the middle of a project. Often you spend more time searching than the whole project takes. Frustrating eh? Or perhaps your better half is tired of her car not fitting in the garage. Or the kids can’t pull their bikes out without scratching your car. Or, the yard tools and equipment take up the place where your tool chest should be.
Well, whatever the reason, it’s important to understand why that garage isn’t working for you. Would be nice if you could wave a wand and double the size, but for most of us, that’s not in the cards. So, compromise is the word of the day, and you need to understand what the goals really are.
So, for example, if the goal is a first class workshop, then perhaps the yard equipment has to find another place to be. If both cars need to get garaged, then perhaps the goal is to get the tools to fit in the space in front of the cars.
First step is to define why you doing this and what tradeoffs could you make to move some of that stuff somewhere else.
2. Next, Throw Out the Trash
Step two may well be the hardest; throw out the crap. I know, I am a hoarder at heart. But the reality is we all have tools and supplies that have been in the same unopened box for ten years.
You have two choices; either find a home for your treasures that doesn’t take up garage space (attic, basement, rental storage, etc) or pitch the stuff. If you just can’t bring yourself to pitch that chrome trim for the ’57 Chevy, I understand. But perhaps that roll of headliner material for the car you got rid of two years ago doesn’t need a home in your garage. Or that pile of plywood scraps from the last woodworking project….
In any case, now's the time. Be absolutely brutal. If you haven't used it in the last 5 years, pitch it.
3. Find a Home for the Bulky Stuff
So, what to do with those bikes or that garden tractor?
Well, the best is a shed in the back yard for all of that stuff. Even one of the plastic ones from the local big box store would be a big help. But suppose you can’t do that for whatever reason. You next best option is to set aside a designated area in the garage for those items. Focus on how you can make that area as small as possible (like say hanging the bikes over the tractor, for example).
I’m sure you have other bulky items such as Christmas storage, or boxes of car parts. Look around your garage for areas that are hard to get to, but unused. For example, the top 2-3 feet of each wall or the area above the garage door when it is up. Some heavy duty shelving in these areas can hold an awful lot of stuff, but don’t start buying those shelves until you take a rough count of how much shelf space you need. Another choice might be your attic or basement. Maybe that requires a set of pull down steps, some attic flooring, or basement shelving, but you will be amazed how much difference it makes when the bulky stuff has a new home.
4. Everything into piles
So, now we are down to the smaller stuff, but how to organize it? Well, one of the fastest ways is to start making piles on your garage floor. So take all the tools, for example, and pile them up. Everything out of the drawers, boxes, and bins they are in now.
Try to use no more than half of the available free space you have so there is plenty of room for the next step in the process.
When you have emptied out all of the hiding places, it’s time for the next step.
5. Sort the piles
Organize all of the tools according to their specific type. Divide the pile of screwdrivers into flat-head, Philips, and torx. Organize the wrenches by metric and imperial, open end and box, ratchet and fixed, etc. With the tools sorted this way, you will have a really good idea of how much space each one will take.
If it helps, this step can use the empty boxes / containers to hold each category of tool. That will allow you to spread out a bit even using the driveway and still be able to easily put everything temporarily back in the garage if you need to take a break.
6. Get rid of duplicates and unused items
In the process, you will find all of the duplicates you bought when you couldn’t find the original. Our best advice is to take the worst of any duplicates and set them aside. If you need a little tool box for the car or boar, now is the time. If not, get rid of them (or at the very least, get them into a box in the attic).
You are also going to come across tools that you haven’t used in years (like say that old strap wrench that never seems to work when you need it). Now is the time for that to go sayonara.
7. Find a home for the easy stuff
And now, we start to put everything in it's new home. Let's start with the small tools.
If you have a large tool box (if you don’t, now would be a good time), start with the upper drawers. You should put the lightest and smallest tools in the upper drawers. Middle drawers are for items like screwdrivers and wrenches. The lower drawers are for the largest and heaviest tools (hammers, pipe wrenches, etc.) Each drawer should be organized in a way that you can spot missing tools.
Every item should have a home. You can use cut foam, or drawer organizers to keep the tools in place.
8. Decide on storage for commonly used bulky items
Then we have bulky items such as electric drills, chargers, long wrenches, etc. These really don't fit well in toolbox drawers.
If you have cabinets, a designated place on a shelf is a common approach. Cabinets do a great job of keeping shop dust off of your expensive power tools. Consider adding an internal power strip to keep them all charged. That sort of cabinet is also used for chemicals and flammables to keep them out of harm’s way.
If you have wall space (pegboard or slatwall), you can also use that to hang items. Things like coiled extension cords are often done this way. Sometimes a combination of pegboard and shelves will help.
9. Label your storage
Everything put away? Then now would be a great time to label each drawer and the shelves in closed cabinets. For this, a label maker provides a professional touch.
If you use small bins or parts containers for your small screws and parts, be sure to put a general label on the front of them as well to make things easy to find.
For boxes that you used for bulky items, just paper label and permanent marker the exterior so things are easy to find. Don't forget to label the boxes that went to your attic / basement as well.
10. Put them back when you are done
