The garage organisation project.

My nesting instincts kicked into full swing and I really wanted to turn our garage into a more useable space. We had the amazing luxury of two large sheds in our old home and now have no shed at all (well there was originally one small shed but it needed to go in our backyard makeover to make the walkway more useable). Back to the shed dilema..

We are extremely fortunate to have a double garage as it seems to be a bit of a luxury in our area due to smaller block sizes and we really wanted to utilise this double garage to be our 'shed' for storing all those DIY tools and cans of paint we have accumulated over the last few years. 

To really take advantage of the garage and little bit of extra space in there involved a lot of planning. We needed to think carefully about each area and to make it most useful while still allowing parking space for our two cars. As our family is growing we really wanted more storage than we actually needed to accommodate the items that will probably enter our world in the next few years (like trikes and beach toys).

Before:

 We had a pool fence enclosed and there were a few storage shelves already in the shed. Finding a place for the bikes, lawn mower, deck chairs and other larger items was really important for us.

Lots of little items like sanders, screwdrivers and paint cans were just thrown around the place and dirty, with no particular organisation going on. The left side of the garage was really just a dumping ground for bits and pieces we didn't want in the house.

The first step:

I'm not always good at remembering before photos so the below photo will have to serve as the best before shot of what the right side of the garage looked like (although we clearly had already started the project and built a shelf.

This shelf was custom built by my Dad using some existing wood he had and some bought pieces. The outside of the shelving received a coat of white paint to help it be more durable against the elements. The shelf was built on top of our existing retaining wall and actually takes up no more floor space than if it wasn't there. I know I am extremely fortunate to have a Dad who can custom build a shelf for the cost of materials.

Before the shelf was built though we needed to deal with the existing gap between the fence and roof line. This was fairly easy to fix using metal sheeting and green paint which matches the fence. Now no water can get in and damage our shelving or the items on the shelves.

In total 4 shelves were built and they were all painted white and cottage green to match in nicely with our existing colour scheme.

One of the shelves was spefically cut into to hold the whipper snipper too. Step one complete. Stay tuned for how we tackle to rest of the garage organisation and if you have any good ideas on how to make the best use of this space please share, I'm always keen to work out the best solutions for a space and two (or more) brains are always better than one.

Lisa x