Organise a Garage on a Budget – Our Top Tips and Ideas

The garage is part of the house that often gets less love than it deserves. It?s still a room, and I feel it should be treated as such. So often, it ends up becoming part storage space, part dumping ground. You probably still like the idea of being able to find things occasionally, but not often enough to spend a fortune. So, we take a look at the options to organise a garage on a budget.

I have to admit that I can see why, and I?ve been guilty of it myself. If all the bedrooms are used up by, well, beds, or perhaps a home office, dressing room or anything else that doesn?t involve junk storage, the tried and test concept of a box room goes out the window. Those boxes have to go somewhere, and it?s so easy to subscribe to the theory ?out of sight, out of mind?.

That?s without even mentioning the things that end up in the garage just because it feels like the best place for them. You?ve almost certainly got your fair share of tools, gardening equipment, bicycles and plenty more out there. And now, you?ve reached the point where you need to do something about it. With that in mind, we present a bunch of low-cost ideas to keep everything organised in your garage, just as you see fit.

If You Can?t Go Outwards, Go Upwards

You might like to keep your car in the garage, or just have so much stuff that you can barely see the floor. If you need to make more space quickly, look up to the ceiling.

You?ve got an entire floor?s worth of space just hanging there if you don?t use ceiling storage already, and it doesn?t have to cost the earth. If you?re particularly handy, you can make an innovative and supremely useful storage structure out of pipework. If not, you can achieve more conventional results at slightly higher cost with a garage racking system.

One thing you?ll always want to keep in mind regardless of the structure itself is the weight limit. The chances are you don?t want anything you store up top to fall on you without (or with) notice. Indeed, some of you may be even more terrified of it falling on the car. If you go the DIY route, carry out some tests or get it inspected. If you buy a kit, check the instructions for what you can expect it to hold.

Consider Steel Pegboards for the Walls

I love the flexibility of pegboards for all sorts of purposes. Your thoughts for wall storage may immediately turn to shelving units, and we?ll get there. However, if you have a lot of small items, and fiddly ones, in particular, you may fare better with a pegboard.

You might look at a pegboard and feel that it?s not particularly cheap in itself, and of little use to organise a garage on a budget. However, the sheer amount of space it frees up for flexible storage works out incredibly well. For even better savings, look around for a pegboard that comes with the screws to fix it to the wall and a decent number of pegs and hooks in the package.

Reuse and Recycle

If your garage doesn?t receive much love as far as looks go, does it really matter what you use as storage? Just because you wouldn?t have a particular piece of storage furniture in the main house doesn?t mean it can?t enjoy a second chance in the garage and serve you well in the process.

As I write this feature, I have an old filing cabinet out in the garage ? which could admittedly do with some sorting out of its own. It?s scratched and dented, but that doesn?t take away from its ability to keep stuff well organised and out of the way. In fact, I appreciate the somewhat well-worn feel of the unit as it adds to the illusion that I get stuff done with my tools as often as I?d like to think.

If you have drawers, cupboards or anything else along those lines that you?re thinking of getting rid of, see if they can contribute to the storage options in the garage. If not, check out anywhere you?d expect to buy second-hand furniture. If you have a decent-sized car, you can even keep an eye out for suitable items that are free to collector. As far as I?m concerned, if it gets the job done, it really doesn?t matter how it looks.

Wooden Pallets can Maximise Space

We?re trying to clear the floor, not add to the mess, so you might wonder how wooden pallets can help you reach your budget-driven organisation aims. Harking back to a previous tip above, we need to think upwards not outwards.

The structure of pallets makes them perfect for hanging just about anything. Make sure you take the time to affix them to your walls properly as they are liable to fall over if left to their own devices. Other than that, you?ll just need to get your hands on them.

Fortunately, the price you can expect to pay for a wooden pallet is zero. The same sites you used to check out unwanted furniture may have just what you need. Otherwise, ring around local timber yards and industrial estates. I?d estimate you?ll have an invitation to come and collect whatever you need within the first ten calls.

Use Screws for Storage

If you?ve followed any of the tips so far, you?ve probably got some screws to hand. If you happen to have long ones, why bother with anything else? They?re cheap, cheerful and you can put them just about anywhere.

Alone, they?re ideal for anything with a reasonable handle or a dedicated hanging hole. In pairs, or potentially even more exotic formations, you can use them to hang just about anything. Consider a broom hanging upside down with carefully positioned screws either side of the handle, and you?ll get an idea of the potential that screws can have.

Now, this option doesn?t look great ? which doesn?t bother me ? and might be a little too much for the safety-conscious or those with younger children. At the end of the day, you?ll still have potentially dangerous pieces of metal sticking out so consider whether you need something a bit more obvious and permanent before you start to drill holes.

Use Items to Organise a Garage on a Budget that Weren?t Made for the Garage

We?ve established by now that I?m not overly concerned with how things look and I much prefer functionality. You can use just about anything for storage, but some items are more useful than others.

One trick I love to use is to repurpose anything that was originally designed for shoe storage. Shoes just so happen to be around the same size as some of the smaller, more fiddly items you keep in the garage.

Hanging shoe organisers like the one pictured are designed to go on the back of doors. However, you won?t need more than a couple of nails to fix them to just about anything in the garage. For a small outlay, you?ve immediately got a tidy, easily accessible space to store bottles, tins, small tools and anything else that comes to mind. You can label them to keep track of what?s where or could skip that part altogether and go for a see-through option.

Shoe storage is obviously not the only option, and you can also try your luck with any other form of household storage that comes to mind. From spice racks to the aforementioned filing cabinets, it is essential to remember that not everything needs to be used for its original purpose, especially in the garage.