One of the worst feelings is knowing you have a quart or two of oil somewhere in your garage and not being able to find them among the scattered tools laying around. Garage storage systems can help keep everything in view as well as keep you safe from possible injury.

Rakes, shovels and hoes you may use outside may be stacked in a corner, threatening to fall onto your car, onto you, at the slightest provocation. Using cheap plastic garage storage systems can keep them safely in place and allow you to get the one you want without having to move them all.

For those with a lot more stuff, a more elaborate garage storage system will be needed. Using used kitchen cabinets has proven to be a success in the garage. Cabinets can be mounted on the wall and countertops, with storage spaces underneath, gives more room for tools and supplies as well as a work surface in your garage. However, not every garage will allow for the installation of large cabinet units.

Since cabinets can be mounted on the wall, this type of garage storage system can be set high enough to be out of the way for easy vehicle access and yet be useful for keeping other items in their proper place.

Be Careful Of Potential Flooding

Whether you choose old cabinets, a pre-built garage storage system or a custom designed and built one, consider the flooding potential of your garage before installing it. If your garage is prone to attract water on the floor, your base cabinet should be raised higher than the worst flooding you can expect. Additionally, nothing that can be destroyed by water should be stored near the ground.

Planning to store food items in your garage storage system should also be carefully considered. No food should be stored less than six inches from the ground to protect it from possible damage as well as be an attraction for animals you may not plan to feed. It would be best only to store canned goods in any garage storage system, regardless of its quality.

Thin metal shelves that hang from the ceiling can also be used to create an extra garage storage system as they can be hung over the space normally occupied by your vehicle. Close attention should be paid to the weight limits for these shelves, however to prevent their buckling or breaking damaging what is stored on them or anything those items might fall onto.

It is safe to say in most parts of the country that spring is finally here and the desire to get outside and start getting some things done is in the air. The last few weekends I see people everywhere working outside, hauling stuff to the landfill and limbs to the local recycling area where they accept yard waste to mulch down to compost. Besides the yard, another area of focus for spring clean up is the garage. If most garages are like mine, a lot of extra junk has been thrown in there throughout the winter and it is time to do some serious organizing and cleaning up. But this year I decided that I needed to do more, my makeshift shelving just isn’t working anymore, I need a more intelligent use space, I need some real garage storage solutions.

With a little looking around, I discovered that there is a lot available on the market, not just different brands of garage organizers, but different solutions within each brand. There is literally something for everybody depending upon what you use your garage for and the types of items that you store in your garage.

The basis of many garage storage solutions is the cabinet. Garage cabinets come in various sizes and configurations. You can get floor cabinets that are tall with shelves inside, or shorter ones that have shelves or drawers with a work space on top. Cabinets for the garage are often made from a press board with laminated finish or metal. Some cabinets are designed with certain hobbies in mind; such as sports, gardening or wood working. For example, inside a cabinet with sports in mind, you may find a special place to hang bats, a bungee ball restraint or storage bins for smaller items. Some cabinets are designed to be hung on the wall, leaving the floor space underneath for other uses.

Workbenches are another form of garage storage solutions, and are often placed beneath wall cabinets. A workbench can be just a table type design, sometimes with a few drawers or shelf beneath, and other times workbenches are cabinets with a special top for a work surface. I have even seen wall hung cabinets where the door actually swings down to become a workbench. This works great if you are really tight on space.

Tool carts are a popular garage storage solution for mechanics. Often like a tool chest on wheels and other times more resembling a cabinet or cart on wheels, the concept is the same. You can store it by the wall, but then move it with you when you are working on your car or other project.

Special garage organizers are a really flexible form of storage. These are often special wall systems for which you can purchase a variety of sizes of hooks, bins, and shelves for storing anything from garden tools, wheel barrows and ladders to bikes, balls, skis and sport rackets. From there the list goes on to whatever you might need to store.

One of my favorite categories of garage storage solutions is overhead storage. I can just imagine that this system was thought up by a very frazzled home owner who just needed more storage space than his floor and walls allowed. These systems hang from the ceiling, some are shelves or bins that you reach with a ladder, others are actually on a pulley system so you can lower it to the floor for easy access.

If you are like most people, one of these options alone will not do the trick, you will need a variety of them to come up with the best garage storage solutions for your home. But it is worth the work to get it done, your garage will become a place you do not dread going, and you will be the envy of the neighborhood!