Garage Organizing Tip: Organizing Small Tools.

September 16, 2011 in garage with 0 Comments


Do you waste time looking for your tools?  Have you ever purchased a tool you couldn’t find only to find it later?  Organize your tools in a manner that will allow you to simply find them instead of wasting time and money.

My husband built a workbench with a pegboard above it.  We have one in our garage as seen in the photo and another one in the basement.  Think of it as our summer workbench and our winter workbench.  I live in Wisconsin where the winters are cold.  Go ahead and feel sorry for me if you have palm trees in your neighborhood.

Our workbench

The workbench surface holds jars of nails and screws and also collects crap if we aren’t careful.  There are shelves below the bench provide  more storage.

The pegboard stores our small tools in an accessible location.  This is an excellent system if you‘re a visual person who likes things out in the open.  We have a lot of empty spaces on our pegboard because we also have tools on the basement pegboard.

Maybe you want to take organization to the next level and use a permanent marker to outline each tool on the pegboard.  There won’t be any question where that tool belongs once you remove it.

You should be able to purchase pegboard sheets and metal hooks at your local hardware store.  It’s inexpensive, functional and will also work in craft areas.

Tools chests are another option for containing and organizing tools and certain designs have a lock.

How do you organize your tools?

Garage Tip: A Solution for Organizing Large Yard Tools

September 13, 2011 in garage with 0 Comments


Are your rakes, shovels and other yard/garden tools taking up precious floor space in your garage?  Are they tangled up in one big pile so you avoid doing yard work?  That’s your excuse and you are sticking to it.

Hang them from the garage walls.  The supplies you need are large nails, scrap lumber, decking screws, garage hooks, and a hammer.

You may opt to purchase storage rack for your yard tools but they usually aren’t as flexible as one you make yourself.

Our yard tools

 

More of our yard tools

Scrap lumber boards were attached (he told me he would use those boards someday)  to our wall studs with decking screws, as seen in the photos.  This allows you to hang tools anywhere on the board, they will be secure.  Otherwise you will need to use a wall stud for each and every tool.

Wall space is maximized by placing some tools near the ceiling and others tools at a lower level.  A store purchased system doesn’t always allow for this customization.

We were also able to vary the distance between the tools according to their size.  If you prefer to purchase a system, look for one like this that allows you to change spacing between the hooks.

Small garden tool storage

I love being able to easily find the tool I need and get on with my gardening.

What do you hang on your garage walls?

Garage Organizing Tip: Maximize garage space so you can actually park your car in the garage.

September 9, 2011 in garage, Uncategorized with 2 Comments


 

This is our garage.

There’s a lot of stuff in our garage.  Most of this stuff belongs to my husband, a fishing/outdoor enthusiast.  He is also the “saver” in the family.  “You never know when you are going to need a piece of an old bicycle inner tube; let’s save it” he tells me.  He’ll save some potentially useful items, not everything, and has them organized so he can find them again.

The funny thing is…..those bits and pieces do prove to be useful and then he is sure to make a point of telling me he used it.  Even though he is a saver, we haven’t run out of room.  We do not have a shed and only use off-site storage in the winter for the boat, so all the stuff has to fit in the garage.

How do we manage to fit all our stuff in the garage?  We think vertical and use the walls, not so much the floor for storage.  The garage floor turns into total yuck during the Wisconsin seasons that bring snow, slush, road salt, and mud which means it’s best to store items off the floor.

My husband’s an amazing garage organizer.  He’s made it a home sweet home for our car, his fishing boat and a bazillion other things.  It’s a functional space and I can usually find what I’m looking for.

When organizing your own garage think vertical.  Can the item you want to store hang from the ceiling or walls?

Our garage has so many items hanging on the wall and ceiling it’s border line crazy.  But…..this allows us to fit our car and boat in the garage.

Just look at that canoe dangling from the ceiling.  It hasn’t fallen yet.

Does our garage ever get messy?  You bet it does!  The work bench tends to collect crap.  It’s a regular old dumping ground, like a kitchen counter.  We do regular garage purges and every couple of months we spend a few minutes  putting things back where they belong.

To summarize, this is what I like about the systems my husband used in our garage:

  • They are simple, functional, and inexpensive.  He knows a nail, garage wall hook, or shelf will do the job.
  • The walls and ceiling are used to their fullest potential.  The previous owner installed the dry wall.  I would have left the exposed studs.
  • Similar items are grouped in the same area.
  • Most of the floor space is reserved for our vehicle and his vehicle (the boat).

I love the guy!

Stay tuned.  Upcoming blog posts will feature more intimate details about our garage systems and practical tips that will help you organize your garage.

What do you like about my husband’s garage organization?  Post comments below.

Garage: Using a Locked Storage Cabinet to Organize Hazardous Items and Valuables

September 6, 2011 in garage with 0 Comments


A storage cabinet with doors will keep hazardous items like garden chemicals, paint, and pesticides out of the reach of children, especially if it’s locked.  If you have valuable tools in your garage, you may want locked storage.  Before we organized my client’s garage, she had pesticides sitting next to macaroni and cheese they stored in their garage.  At least her food wasn’t infested with bugs:)

The cabinet has some nice shelves.  We used labeled dish tubs, yes you read that correctly, dish tubs, to hold her spray paint and garden chemicals.   Other items for her car and garden were grouped by category and placed on shelves.

Where would you use a cabinet like this?  Hint: it’s not limited to use in a garage.  Don’t keep your organizing ideas and tips to yourself, please share your comments below.

 

 

Got skunk? How to remove skunk odors from a dog.

August 30, 2011 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments


Our dog Cleo has been sprayed by a skunk numerous times.  She obviously isn’t catching on to the whole avoidance thing.  If you have had a skunk spray your pet you know it’s extremely nasty.

Thank goodness my sister shared an effective recipe for a skunk odor removal concoction before Cleo was sprayed the first time.  I immediately purchased the ingredients.

We were organized and ready for a skunk “incident.”  It sure beats frantically searching our house or shopping for the ingredients, late at night, while one of us holds the end of a leash strapped to our smelly dog.  I think I would be the one volunteering to go to the store!

My kit contains the following:

A bucket

Gloves

Baking soda

Hydrogen peroxide

Dawn dish soap

Directions:  Fill a small bucket with warm water.  Add a ½ box of baking soda, ½ bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and a squirt of Dawn.  Mix together, wet your dog with the garden hose (avoid bringing the dog into your house), pour solution over dog, rub it in and rinse well.  **Avoid the dogs eyes.

You may need more than one application.

Cleo receiving her third skunk bath. She had already had 2 baths the night before.

You may also use this solution to wash the collar and leash.

I use the bucket as a container for all the ingredients and store it in a closet.  Everyone in our family knows where to find it.

It’s amazing how well this simple solution works.  Don’t wait until the day your dog is sprayed, put together a skunk kit ASAP.

If you have a dog, has it ever been sprayed by a skunk?

 

 

 

Keep it fresh with a clothes pin

August 26, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments


A simple clothes pin is all you need to keep your snacks fresh.  No need to buy fancy chip clips if you don’t already have them.  I don’t do fancy, I do simple.  Most of us have clothes pins around the house.   Do you have bags of chips, pretzels, crackers, cereal, or other snack items opened and about to go limp and stale?  Quick, round up some clothes pins and snap those bags closed.  No more wasted money on snacks gone bad.

Clothes pins aren’t just for clothing.  Do you have another use for a clothes pin?  Please share in the comments.

Laundry tip: catch up on your laundry

August 23, 2011 in Laundry with 0 Comments


Does your laundry pile up and becoming an overwhelming task?  Maybe it’s time to start a laundry routine.  Put a load in every other day or so, that way you don’t have to spend hours trying to catch up.  Finish that load completely instead of leaving baskets of clean laundry sitting around waiting to be put away.  You will feel a sense of accomplishment when you finish a load and it’s put away.

Want to catch up quickly on laundry, especially after a vacation?  Consider making a trip to a laundromat where you can do it all at once or even using a laundry service.  My local laundromat charges by the pound to wash and dry AND will even fold the laundry.  I’ve recommended this service to my clients who are very behind or have several loads of bedding and towels to wash.

What is your laundry routine?

Setting a goal

August 19, 2011 in inspiration with 0 Comments


What if you say to yourself “from this day forward I will________________?  Imagine the possibilities!  Look forward instead at past mistakes or past slip ups.  What will you do, from this day forward?  Please share in the comments below.

Laundry tip: hangers

August 16, 2011 in Laundry with 0 Comments


When a load of wash is dry, hang up the shirts instead of tossing them into the clean laundry basket.  This  will reduce wrinkles and save you a step.  I keep a supply of empty hangers in my laundry room and hang the shirts on this clothing bar.   An over-the-door bar will also work if you are tight on space.

 

Is it time to make a change?

August 12, 2011 in inspiration, quotations with 0 Comments


“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Author Unknown

Organization requires changing habits and changing the way you feel about your “stuff.”  Start with small changes.

What is one change are you going to make today to become better organized?  Please share in the comments section.

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