Garage Shelving, part 2

If you remember, last September we put in a large stretch of Elfa shelving in our garage and re-arranged a few other things. We decided to put that in place first and live with it for a few months before going on and putting up more storage.

This turned out to be a good thing, because it let us figure out some things we knew we wanted, like adding in space for muddy boots, snow pants, etc. It also let me realize that it was inconvenient as hell to have the garden supplies to the side of the door I couldn't just reach from inside the house.

So the second phase resulted in me heading to The Container Store to make several modifications to the original plan. The section we were primarily concerned with is this one:

Prior to heading to The Container Store, I made an inventory of the garage, and then categorized items. This would help with figuring out how much space and shelving we really needed.

Once at the store I showed the space planner my list and we pulled up my original plans. We made several modifications - added a basket shelf, two utility panels for hanging coats, grocery bags, etc.. Another thing I wanted to accomplish was to get rid of the "storage" space over the garage window where we were putting things like hoses, chicken wire, tarp, etc. because the support for that storage was interfering with my plan to put pegboard above the workbench. Therefore one of the biggest change on this section was to make the top shelf 20" deep instead of 16" like the rest of them.

Order placed and shelves acquired, I took them back home. Once C and G woke up from their naps, it took me about an hour to have everything done.

After the shelves were up, I made a sketch of the full wall and started categorizing where things would go.

Plan in hand, I then started to organize equipment. As you can see, the hoses and tarp and other infrequently used materials fit just fine up top. Garden gloves, hats, sunscreen, etc. are currently in the shelf basket. 

The large "Pile o' Strollers" will be reduced to just one as soon as I can sell the other two, but we'll want that floor space for the wagon and bikes. Note the convenient hook for our grocery bags, reachable from inside the house and quickly grabbed on the way to the car. The currently empty panel will have hooks to hang garden tools from, so we're no longer playing the game of "Where is the goddamned hand weeder?"

I'm not 100% convinced everything will stay where it is. My initial thinking, planned in the depth of winter, may need adjustment to accommodate real life. But the important thing is this grants us more flexibility.

Looking at the back wall of the garage now, the small shelf becomes "bagged goods". A basket was relocated to store dirty rags and the like.

We decided we might keep the over the window storage, but if we do, we're going to move the support pillar so that it's next to the window. Then that nasty set of shelves will go away (or be reduced/replaced) and pegboard can be installed on that wall, so we're no longer playing the game of "Where's the goddamned hammer?"

The final corner lets us more easily store all of the bulky stuff like the lawn mower, wheel barrow, etc.

This section and the east wall will be the final part we take on. We need more efficient/better defined large tool storage. But that's another project for another day.