Garage Organized using Junk.
Is your garage full of junk? Keeping your garage neat and organized is hard! Especially if you a)have children and their equipment b)restore and refurbish furniture c)collect a lot of junk. I am all of the aforementioned. Last year my friend Emma (organizer extraordinaire) came to my rescue and helped me get that unruly space under control. We spent very little money, and used mostly items I had on hand (from all my junk). More or less it has (sort of) stayed this way. But at least a system was created and I had something to build on. Here is Garage 2013. However, like every good organization system, sometimes it will need reworking. Fast forward one year. My garage was in danger of becoming a black hole of junk again. Emma to my rescue! I have a work table I made out of a Free to Me Dining Table that has been wonderful as a work surface (You can read all about that HERE). The work table is at one end of my garage and all my CeCe Caldwell’s paints and finishes I use every day are on the other side. Emma had the fabulous idea to build shelving under the table. I put shelving in with wood I had on hand, and even L brackets left over from a dismantled project. (If you are a CeCe Caldwell person, DO NOT look at my cans. They are messy, and well, maybe the lids are not on as tight as they should be….) Ideally they will get alphabetized. (Ideally) On the other side of the table, I have all my supplies. Plus, a place to hang brushes, etc. In the front of the garage, we moved all my tools and mess making items. Table Saw, Chop Saw, Jig Saw, etc. The Table saw is on my Rolling Work Table made from a Shipping Pallet. You can check that out HERE. My free to me dresser now holds my extra scrap wood, many found cabinet doors and a few mess containing tools. To save on floor space, I hung my inventory of chairs from the ceiling! This story has a happy ending. The van can fit inside again. I have room to work again. And maybe this time I will stick to the program for good. At least until next week.
If you find yourself with a garage full of junk and you can’t seem to get yourself organized. Take a fresh look at all the stuff! Put that junk to work! You can have the Garage Organized by Junk and become the envy of all your junk loving friends. Not to mention your neighbors….
Ha! I love these posts… you are keeping it real. It is so hard when we do what we do and stay neat and organized. Someone told me once that she is so glad she is not a creative person because “those” people don’t stop thinking. It is true. I swear I can be completely organized and a week later, it looks awful again because my mind keeps rambling onto the next thing. UGH!
Danelle! That is so true! My mind never turns off. A curse and a blessing for sure
that looks so good compared to my garage. i am so ashamed.
Cassie, I live in a region where we can be outside 100% of the year. If I lived in snow, my garage would be too cold to clean it!
Please be careful with that table saw. Two experienced craftsmen I know have maimed their thumbs with them.
I consider my garage “clean” if there is a path to walk through. I am jealous of your space and awesome friend!
Elisha, your mess means you are working hard and creating something awesome!
Hi Karen
I don’t know what happened but I am no longer recieving your email blogs. I tried to sign up again but it says I’m already subscribed to your blog.
Debbie, I am so sorry! I will try to see if you are on the mailchimp list. I am out of town but will check in a few days. Thank you so much for coming by without the email reminder!
Karen, I have to reorganize quite often! I love it when it’s all clean and neat and tidy but when I’m creating i just can’t keep it that way. So every now and then when the piles become too deep and I’m not finding any of my tools I have to take a day and reorganize! The mess that accumulates just means you were creating good stuff and having fun and making money 🙂
I love the way you look at the reason for a mess!
Ok, now you’re freaking me out! We are getting buried in furniture over here too. We literally had every single thing cleared out a week ago to make room for a workshop and then I blinked. There are so many projects scattered about, we can barely wiggle through it all. How can that possibly happen in a week? We can’t even blame the kids, this is our own mess!!
I was trying to make my way around all our treasures to make room for more projects and a light bulb went on. I grabbed one of our chairs and dangled it over the edge of our loft smiling from ear to ear (doesn’t take much to humor me). Yesterday, I threw all my screw-in hooks into a box and hauled them into our shop. I asked my uncle to hang our chairs from the wall just over the loft so they would be up and out of the way. I even have the same color hooks!
I get so mad at myself when the whole garage gets overloaded in just a matter of days. I am so glad the hook for chairs system is working for you! Don’t you wish you could hang everything from the ceiling! Send me a picture!! I want to see your workshop full of furniture!!!
I’d totally be geeked if we could do that now. The ceiling in our workshop must be 16′ high
Did you hang your chairs yet? Think of how you could stagger them with those high ceilings!!!
I love how your “collection” of chairs is hanging from the ceiling, haha. Clever idea 🙂
Thanks Katie!! I was staring at them and realized I had the hooks in the ceiling from hanging drop cloths. It just clicked and cleared floor space too!
What a great space to create in! I love how you have all of paints so handy! My husband has “relocated” my work stuff out of the garage to one of the porches. I’m thinking I might have to pretty it up using a dresser. 😉
Thank you so much Wendy! Luckily, my husband claims no part of the garage! I don’t know if that is always good or not. I am the only one responsible when a huge mess occurs!