The three main things people use their garage for are:

1. Parking

2. Storage

3. Multi-purpose  

Parking:

If you only use your garage for parking, congratulations - that means you’re organized and have room in your house for everything. You are also a unicorn.

Do you need to park a car there? If not, we are going to talk about other uses for your garage below.

The one thing we can all agree on is to not use your garage for a dumping ground for anything you can’t fit in your house or anything you don’t know what to do with.

Whether it’s a one car garage you get with your condo or multiple cars, using your walls will change your life. (If you want to see how, check out our blog post from November, “How to Be Organized, Straight from Our CEO's Mouth”).

Storage:

We’ve made a list of what you should and shouldn’t store in your garage: 

What to store:

1. Extra paint/tile/flooring 

2. Tools 

3. Sports equipment

4. Holiday/party supplies/decor

5. Bulk paper products

6. Emergency/earthquake kits/water

7. Memories 

What not to store:

1. Clothing

2. Bedding

3. Food

4. Photos/film

5. Electronics that need to be kept free from the elements

6. Artwork

7. Cardboard - anything in cardboard (bugs love it)

I’m sure everyone has other things they would like to store in their garage. Ask yourself, do you mind if the elements get to these things? If you do care, make sure you have proper protection (eg. weather-tight bins) to store it properly.

Multi purpose:

To a certain extent, garages will always be a multi use room if you are using it to park vehicles and/or have laundry facilities etc. It’s typically where you enter the house. (Ask me about creating a “drop zone/communication station” just inside or outside of the house.)

One of OFab’s services is designing intricate garage storage solutions. As we’ve said before, we use Elfa shelving whenever possible.

Do yourself a favor - if there is any way for you to get to The Container Store before February 15, they are having 30% off all Elfa shelving solutions, including installation. 

If your garage is not doing it for you, give us a call!