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Quickly reorganize cluttered storage spaces with the Rubbermaid 5G77 FastTrack 84-Inch Rail. This durable steel rail comes with all the necessary hardware to mount to the wall and accommodate hooks, shelving, and Rubbermaid storage components in a fast, snap-on fashion. Ideal for closets, basements, and garages, it holds up to 1,750 pounds and features a sleek, attractive look. .caption {font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif;font-size: 10px;font-weight: (more…)

In today’s world, you hear a lot about getting organized, it is the “in” thing to make life easier. We organize our closets, our shelves, our drawers, our laundry rooms, our desks and our calendar all in hopes of straightening out our lives. There are even garage organizers to fix our outdoor, where do I put it type stuff. As technology has improved, life has become more hectic and we often feel out of control as we try to juggle so many things. So anything we can organize gives us a sense of control and accomplishment.

So, say you have every thing else organized in your life, you have probably left the garage for last. It is a bit intimidating because probably while you were organizing the house anything you didn’t know where to put, was put in the garage. Plus you have your seasonal items out there (from summer camping to winter skiing), gardening supplies and any handyman tools are all stored in your garage. But spring is finally here, so it is the perfect time to tackle getting your garage in order.

Organizing your garage is going to be a big enough project, so when looking for what type of storage system you should use, there are three things to look for:

Easy – the items in your garage organizers should be easy to access, easy to find and be organized in a systematic fashion that is easy to understand. This includes using all of your available space, not just your floor space but also your wall space, and sometimes your ceiling space. Keeping many of your items off the floor also keeps them safe and dry. Versatile – this means that the garage organizers that you choose should be able to be adapted for many different functions or activities. Your storage options should be flexible and adaptable to the many different things that you need to organize. Modular and Expandable – a modular system is made up of different modules as the basis of design. These various modules should allow your garage organizing system to expand as your storage needs or pocketbook allows.

There are a couple of different storage systems that fit all of these criteria, two of these being Flow Wall and Gladiator Garage Works. These types of garage organizers have panels (slats) that are attached to your garage walls, available in different size configurations. Onto these panels you can easily hang a variety of hooks, shelves, baskets, small cabinets and workstations.

The panels themselves are designed to be both easy to install and easy to use. All of the many accessories mentioned above easily hang on the walls. And, the various storage accessories make these garage organizers very versatile. The different hooks vary is size and configuration to hang things from bikes and skis to heavy duty hooks for ladders and wheel barrows. Along with the different length shelves and various types of baskets a cabinets, these systems are very versatile and can be adapted to anyone’s different needs.

When necessary, you can easily add more panels for additional storage space, or rearrange the hooks, shelves etc. into different configurations for different storage needs. These two options make these types of garage organizers both modular and expandable.

So, when you finally get the courage to organize your garage, remember ease, versatility and modular expandability, and if you match all of these criteria in your system, you will be happy with the garage organizers that you choose for your garage.

Renting a self storage unit gives you far more opportunity than simply having an extra space where you can store away items, in addition to your closets, your garage and your attic. In order to maximize the value of your self storage unit, keep in mind these tips to learn how to get more out of your storage rental.

Tip #1: Stay Organized!
Do not treat your storage unit like you might treat your closets, garage or attic. In other words, maximize the value of your self storage unit by keeping it organized at all times so that you can easily access and use the items that you need at any time that you need them. Store similar items with or by one another and maintain neat rows and piles for all of the items that are contained within your self storage unit. When you have more containers to add to your self storage unit, make sure that they are added in an orderly fashion, instead of simply being shoved inside.

Tip #2: Not Only Clutter!
Your storage unit doesn’t have to become another closet. Instead of using it to store away only random pieces of unrelated clutter, use your storage unit for a purpose. Storage units are great to store a collection of items in one safe and secure place. For instance, if you are involved in a club or organization that uses certain items that may be hard to store away, you can dedicate an entire self storage unit to keeping all items stored together and easily accessible at any time

You don’t just have to keep an organized collection for a club, however. You can also use your self storage unit to organize one of your own collections. If you are an antiques nut but don’t have enough room in your own home to display your pieces, keep the all together in a climate controlled self storage unit. If you have a million baseball cards or perhaps collect other items like movie memorabilia, keep it all together in the secure environment of your self storage unit.

Tip #3: Save for the Future
When you are remodeling your home, buying new items for your kitchen or new furniture for your living room, it may be tempting to throw all of your old items away. Stop! Do you have children who will be going out on their own in the next few years? If your used items are in relatively good repair, you can save them to give your kids a head start on all of the things that they will need while living on their own. Furniture and household items can be very expensive to buy, and chances are that the money you spend on a storage unit will be far less than the cost of buying all of those items in the future. You can get more out of your storage rental by keeping those items to use when your children need them than by helping them to buy new items in the future.

Tip #4: Welcome to Your Office
Well, not literally. But welcome to your warehouse! Many people run home businesses, selling a variety of items to people around the world through the power of the internet. But keeping the kind of inventory necessary to your business within your own home can be quite difficult. Rather than cluttering your home with your inventory, organize it neatly in your self storage unit. As soon as you sell an item, you will know exactly where to find it in your mini warehouse. No longer will you have to wonder where it is stored – instead, you’ll always have perfect order to your items. In addition, you will get a lot out of your storage rental because the cost of the rental can be written off as a business expense!

Tip #5: Split the Space
For some people, even the smallest storage unit is a little too large. If you only have specific items that you want to store in your storage unit, considering finding a friend or family member to split the cost of the unit with you. Ensure that it is someone who can be trusted to keep their half neatly organized, just as you will keep your own half. In addition, make sure you agree under whose name the unit will go and how payments will be managed. But once the logistics are worked out, but you and your storage unit partner will begin to reap the great rewards of a self storage unit.

So a move is in store? Congratulations! There are so many items that you need to consider when you are getting ready to move that it is difficult to keep track of everything. It’s a great idea to purchase a small planner or move-planning sheet that will help you organize all the tasks that are ahead of you.

For many of those tasks, a self storage unit will be an invaluable asset.

Sometimes called mini storage – particularly at businesses that offer only smaller storage units – a self storage unit is extra storage space, away from your home or business, that offers you a space to store any items you need to pack away for a period of time.

This kind of storage unit is perfect for short or long term storage, since they are typically monitored 24/7 and provide you with extra security, such as computer-controlled entry, electric gates, and personal locks of whatever strength you wish to utilize.

Preparing for a Home Sale

When you prepare to sell a home, one of the first things a real estate agent will do is walk you through your own home and help you see the home as it will be viewed by potential buyers.

The agent will point out not only dated carpets and curtains, but also the clutter and mess that accumulates through normal life and fails to appeal to potential buyers. The agent will likely suggest that you remove any clutter.

Many times, removing clutter means eliminating extra furniture from living space, cleaning closets and thinning out the clothing and shoes in the closets, and winnowing out children’s toys. If you have an extra car in the garage or an RV or boat in the driveway, the agent will likely recommend removing these vehicles to increase the curb appeal of the home.

You’ll be told to remove any storage boxes business records, tax records, receipts, old magazines or books, college papers, the kids’ artwork from grade school; it should all be removed from the home to add to the visual appeal and roominess.

Some people transfer these items to the garage and fill it so much that the cars can’t fit into it. This defeats the purpose of de-cluttering the home, makes it look like the garage is very small, and creates the feel that the home isn’t large enough to handle all of a person’s belongings.

After a sale, there are many situations that may demand self storage. If the buyer needs to move in before you can transfer to your new home, you’ll need somewhere to stash your belongings. If you are moving to a new location but do not yet have a home, this also presents a difficulty.

The answer to these dilemmas is a storage rental.

What to Rent
First look at how much you need to store. The easiest way to look at this is by boxes or by pickup loads. For example, a 5′ x 5′ storage unit will hold about 1 pickup load of material or about 50 standard file boxes. A 5′ x 5′ unit is 25 square feet (relatively small), so you can figure the larger units based on this standard.

A 10′ x 10′ unit, then, is 100 square feet, or four times as large as the 5′ x 5′, therefore it can hold 4 pickup loads or 200 boxes.

Climate Control Storage
Decide if you need climate control storage. Storage units with climate control are in a self-contained building with heating and cooling units to maintain a steady temperature and humidity.

If your items are valuable, sensitive to temperature changes, or irreplaceable, then you may want to consider climate control. You may have a small unit featuring climate controlled storage for photographs, electronic equipment and important tax records, and a larger, less expensive unit for the clothing, books, and toys.

Long Term Storage
If the market is bad or you’re not sure how long it will be before you find a new home, you may want to make arrangements for long-term storage in a unit. This generally means you have limited access to your items, but often at a lower price.

This is an option many people use after they arrive in a new area and still need to find, close, or build a home in the new area.

Using a self storage unit may be a completely foreign concept to you. After all, for years, you’ve been busily shoving all of your stored items into closets, attics and garages. Why make a change now? Consider these 10 reasons to try self storage and begin reaping the benefits today!

Reason # 1: Your Attic
Have you ever heard of the concept of maximum capacity? Chances are that your attic reached this phase eons ago. And yet you continue to happily shove more items into this limited space. Do you even know what is in your attic these days? Using a self storage unit can help you to unload this space, take stock of what you actually own, and bring more organization into your life. How much of your stuff could you easily throw or give away? What is hiding in the attic that you need to use? Find out today!

Reason #2: Your Closets
Closets are for clothes…not for storage. And yet so many families use the various closets in their homes to store away unnecessary items. After awhile, the articles that should go in closets start not to fit, because so much else has accumulated. Uh-oh! Time to clean out your closets, and start storing items in your self storage unit.

Reason #3: Your Garage
Can you even fit your car into your garage any longer? Too many families give up their precious parking spaces for the millions of boxes that overtake garage space in their home. If you have piles and piles of boxes, you may not even know what all your garage is holding. End the mystery today and use a self storage unit to organize your gear while reclaiming your parking space.

Reason #4: Know What You Own
Self storage units are a great way to take stock of what you actually own. If something has been stored away in your house, you may have completely forgotten that you owned it. That forgetfulness may cause you to own doubles or even triples of some items.

Reason #5: Get Organized
When you store all of your boxes together in one space, and continuously add new boxes at random times, you can quickly forget what is where. In a storage space, you can arranged all of your items so that you know exactly what is where and can access it any time you need to.

Reason #6: Run a Home Business
If you run a home business where you sell items through online portals or home parties, you may not have enough storage space in your own home to stay organized and keep the inventory you need. Instead of trying to invent space where there is none, use a self storage unit to keep all of your items in order and readily accessible any time you need them.

Reason #7: Organize a Collection
Do you have a valuable collection that is just sitting around in a dark corner of your home? Perhaps you collect massive quantities of baseball cards, or you are an antiques fanatic and have quite a few more than you can display in your home. Use a self-storage unit to safely and securely organize your collection.

Reason #8: Protect Against the Weather
If you own a motorcycle or another warm weather only vehicle such as a jet ski, you may need a place to store for the winter. If your own garage is not large enough to accommodate, you can use a self storage unit to protect your items from the cold of winter and the weather that may be damaging.

Reason #9: Saving for Later
Many parents save special items for their children to use later in their lives when they’re living on their own. Whether it is pieces of furniture, boxes of dishes or pots and pans, or even baby clothes and necessities, it can take up a lot of room to keep these in your own home. Instead, use a self storage unit to organize and store these items so that they can be enjoyed years in the future.

Reason #10: Occasional Use Only
Do you have items in your home that you might need to use only once or twice per year? They may be large and bulky and hard to store in your attic or garage. Perhaps you organize an annual parade or large event and have items related to that. Your self storage unit is the perfect solution for safely and securely storing those items that you only need access to once or twice a year.

Does this sound familiar? “Can someone please go to the garage and get me a hammer and a phillips screwdriver?” “Sure, where are they?” “They should be right there on the shelf.” These are the hopeful pleas that escapes your quivering lips. You know that you own a hammer. You know you own a screwdriver. And, you know they are both in the garage. What seems to be a continuing mystery is where these things live. Of course, if everyone else in the family would just be as conscientious as you are about putting things where they belong, all this useless frustration about where things are could be avoided. Argh!

I know that some sort of garage storage solutions would help me out of this nightmare, and I’m off to a good start. Last summer I even built some shelves. These are great for Christmas boxes, a little food storage, some keepsake boxes, and the odd loose item or two. But what to do with the bikes, winter tires, lumber, that third row car seat I hardly ever use, and all the miscellaneous items that seem to clutter up the place? It turns out, there are actually lot of options when it comes to garage storage solutions and I just wanted to share some of what I found.

One of my personal favorites are garage storage solutions that use that empty space overhead. For example, did you know that you can get racks and bins that are made especially for the space overhead. Yep, you can solve your storage problems with some really cool garage organizers like the ones made by Tote Trac. They have these specialty racks that allow you to store skis, snowboards, luggage, blankets, kid’s stuff, sport balls or whatever. They come in different sizes and configurations. My favorite is their 6 track family pack system. It is fairly priced at around $40 – 60 and allows you to hang the tracks from ceiling or wall joists. In closets, the garage, or wherever. The bins hang from the tracks and are easily accessible. They can be hung on drywall and hold up to 400 pounds. The construction is quality white powder coated steel and can easily be installed by one person. It even has hooks allowing you to hang your bike. Anything to get stuff off the floor!

Another one of the garage storage solutions that is really good is made by MonsterRax. They make overhead storage racks that are are an ideal storage system. Their racks are made out of 14 gauge steel frames and can hold up to 500 pounds. These are boltless and can be adjusted for how far down from the ceiling you want the heavy duty wire decking. Pretty heavy duty item that is well-made and completely modular.

And last but not least, there’s the Prostor Heavy lift overhead garage storage solutions made by Racor. No discussion of garage organizers would be complete without a mention of this ingenious product. It basically allows you to load items onto a platform and lift it up to the ceiling (up to 12 feet high) without having to use a ladder. It has a 250 pound capacity so you can really store a lot of things. It includes a 4×4 platform, winding axle, steel support beams, all necessary mounting hardware, and sells for under $200.

Maybe one of these garage storage solutions will help you. I am excited about getting some of these for my garage. I guess I’ll plan out exactly what to get over lunch. Now where did I put my keys?