Take Back Your Garage For Your Vehicle
Somewhere among the bikes, skateboards, lawnmower, ladder and other possessions that fill your garage, wouldn’t it be nice if there was room enough for something else? Perhaps your car? Too often, the garage becomes the catch-all room, the place to store anything that belongs neither inside nor out. It’s the place to conveniently shield your somewhat valuable belongings from theft or inclement weather.
At the same time it shields you from using the space for its original purpose. As a result, vehicles wind up parked in the driveway or street, open to everyday hazards that can take years off their life, not to mention hundreds, even thousands, of dollars from their value. Take back your garage and extend the life of your vehicle by initiating a garage makeover. Break the project into easy steps to make it more manageable.
If your garage is cluttered with old furniture, sports equipment and yard tools, you have essentially given higher priority to those items than you have your vehicle. It’s time to re-assess. Sheltering your car means finding alternative storage places for those other items. It might also help to be honest as to how badly you even need some of your other belongings.
Once you’ve identified everything you plan on keeping, find storage outside of the garage for as many things as possible. Everything else will, ideally, find a home somewhere in the garage. To make the best use of the limited space in your garage, it’s important that you come up with a plan. Just remember, parking your car in the garage comes first, not last.
With everything else out of the garage, park the vehicle inside and look around. Look for large wall space that can accommodate a shelving unit and dentify dead space on the ceiling where you can install large hooks. Take careful measurements of the spaces you plan to use to make sure it can house the items you need stored. Then make your plans around larger items that you need room for, like your snow blower and your lawnmower.
Once you have a plan in place, modifying the storage capacity of a garage is as simple as doing it. Handier homeowners build custom shelves. Others will take their measurements to a home improvement store and find shelving that fits their spaces and is relatively easy to assemble. Either way, once you have new storage options available to you, you’ll surprised at how quickly your garage reorganization will go.
Items that have long been crammed into a corner will now have their own home, out of the way but easy to get to. Once everything is tucked away, complete your garage makeover by fixing your existing garage door, or having a new one installed. You’ll be amazed at how life gets easier when you’re able to pull into your driveway, press a button, and enjoy easy access to your home.