Storage Solutions For Home and Warehousing

I’m an admitted highly organized person and that applies to my work as well as my home life.  If you look at any of the storage in my house, you’ll see how organization is important to me and how keeping organized makes it easier to find what you need.

I recently built a new garage and I was amazed at how many choices there were to organize the garage.  I have a reasonably large set of hand and power tools, so I started with a tool chest.  I first surveyed the sizes and types of tools I had as well as how I planned to use them.  This lead me to a wheeled multi-tier tool chest with drawers of many sizes.  Deep drawers for power tools and shallow drawers for hand tools with the most used tools on the top chest.  From there I added drawer organizers and even drawer labels to easily find my tools.

After that I added in a matching workbench with a wood surface and two vices as well as some bright task lighting.  The bench also had storage cabinets that rolled under the bench and metal cabinets that hung above on tracks (more below).  We added in matching shelving for larger items like fasteners, and larger power tools.  We equipped the shelves with hangers for extension cords and stations for battery charging and lighting.

For outdoor tools, I added in a wall track system that made it easier to attach everything from tool hooks to cabinets easily to any wall surface.

As a car guy and admitted clean freak, a significant part of my garage deals with car items.  I chose a wall-mounted rack for storage of winter tires and learned an important lesson.  The tire rack I chose was wall mounted, but the placement was tricky.  If you put the rack too high, it is very difficult to get the heavy wheel-mounted tires into the rack.  If you put it too low, it takes up significant storage space and if you put it in the middle, it becomes a head-banging hazard for you and guests.  I chose a slightly higher location and modified an old ladder to make it easier to add and remove tires from the rack.  Watch your rack height and do add padding so someone visiting your garage doesn’t end up needing dental veneers.

I also choose to add a central vacuum cleaner for cleaning cars and the work bench and I added some portable light and charging sources for all of my devices.

In winter, I do wash my car indoors, so organizing your storage in such a way to avoid getting wet can also be a challenge.  Having drawers and cabinets with doors near the washing area helps keep things dry and still allows you to store car towels, car cleaners and car waxes safely.

My garage is expensive and I took most of my inspiration from some great industrial storage solutions.  The options for large enclosures with clear span interiors provided solutions and customization ideas.  I was surprised at how industrial warehousing solutions can also apply to home use, and you will be too.

Beyond tools and car things, we also store all sorts of random housing and job-related items ( click here ).

In the end a well organized garage is not only a good way to store your tools and vehicles, but also a place to complete projects and repair household items.  Organizing your tools, your space and even your lighting can go a long way toward making your life easier.  A little research up front can make an overall design plan much easier to create and execute.