Your Garage Floor Guys

Remember when you were in high school math class and you wondered when you would ever use this knowledge in the real world? Here’s a great application…finding storage space in your garage.

So, let’s take a peek at the math. If your garage size  is 24? X 24? , then you’ve got 576 square feet of precious floor space.  If you allow 90 square feet for each car and the space you need to open the doors and walk around it.  That’s 180sq. ft., or around one-third of your floor space. You should have plenty left over, right? After all. there is almost four hundred square feet left. So, why is it so crowded with clutter?

Well, the truth is most of us have more stuff than we have place to store it. Our inside closets are full already. So where does the overflow go? Yep, you got it….right into the garage. It’s one of the laws of nature.  Matter expands to fill available space. And, what’s true in nature is certainly true for our garage.

Finding Hidden Space

A common rule of thumb - for every one garage floor; you have three walls available for storage. Three walls, excluding the one with the overhead door(s), total out to 648 sq. ft. You probably have some windows and doors and stuff so lets cut that by one-third. That still leaves 432 sq. ft. available.  Wow, that’s almost as much space as the garage floor itself!  Cool, huh? But, that’s not all. Look up. See it, 576 sq. ft. of ceiling? Let’s do some more math and add about half of that ceiling space to the wall space. 720 square feet of glorious space to attach shelves and hooks and cabinets. Remember that 300 sq. ft. of floor space you had left over after you parked the car? You just got it all back.

Off the Floor and onto the Walls

Here are some tips to help you maximize that free space you just found. Implement some or all of these ideas to organize your cluttered garage into the ultimate garage.

* Storewall, slatwall or Garage Grids turn  walls into versitile, organized masterpieces. Everything will be n
plain sight, easy to get to, and better still, easy to put away. You can put a hook or bracket anywhere
and store just about anything, from hoses to rakes, bicycles to kayaks.
* Store items in bins on wall shelves or ceiling mounted shelves.
* Wall cabinets with doors keep “stuff” organized and out of sight for a neat look.
* Ceiling storage saves floor space! Overhead compartments are great places to store the stuff you do not
use very often. Labeling the storage bins make it easy to retrieve items when you need them.
* Hang bikes, kayaks or canoes from ceiling with overhead bike hoists.

Take it one step at a time. Remember, you don’t need to do it all at once. You can tackle on area at a time.