Garage Overhaul

We have a bad habit.  We tend to bring stuff home and, if we can’t find a place for it or we’ve used it and no longer need it all the time, we get rid of it.  And by get rid of it, I mean we banish it to the garage or basement.  Over time, our garage looked like this

and this

and this

and this.

To be fair, a lot of those items were on the shelving units in the back.  I got started before thinking, “Hey, this would make a good blog post!”

I had been planning to work on the garage for weeks.  I took some vacation this week to spend with Jeff and get some projects done around the house.  Early Thursday morning, I got started.  At first, I had no clue where to begin, but after a while I got into a rhythm.  At least it was a gorgeous day out!

After I had worked for a few hours, Jeff and I ran to Lowes to pick up some supplies.  There were several items we kept strewn around on the garage floor I thought should be on the walls, so we were in the market for some sort of organizational system.  At our condo, we installed wire shelving on one wall and a pegboard on the other, so we could hang various items like hammers, screwdrivers, etc.  Jeff received a large tool box for Christmas one year, so the small items were taken care of, thankfully.

There were a few different organizational systems from which to choose at Lowes, but we ended up going with the Kobalt K-rail system.

(source)  **BTW, there are no good pictures of the K-rail system online!

We didn’t pick up any of the cabinetry, but rather focused on the rails you hang on the walls.  There are several hooks you can get to hang your stuff.  I knew I wanted to hang the ladders, the lawn chairs, and a couple more things, so we got hooks for those items.  I also picked up a brochure listing all their products just in case I needed to reference it later.

When we were checking out, our cashier asked us if we’d received a myLowes card yet.  Nope.  What’s that?  It’s basically their version of a rewards card, though I don’t think you get rewards with it.  It’s a way you can keep track of your past purchases so if you don’t have to remember what color paint you bought back in 2007 to paint the bedroom or which organizational system you bought in 2012 to redo your garage!  I think it’ll be handy down the road.  If you have a Sephora card, you may be familiar with the process.  Sephora keeps track of all your past purchases for you just in case you forget!

We came home with our loot and I recruited Jeff to install the rails.  He was less than enthused.  He showed me how to install the first one and after that I took over.  I proceeded to install 2.5 more myself (he had to help me with my first one) and hung what I could with the hooks we purchased.

I’ll have you know, not only did I hang most of the rails myself, they are all level!  Bonus points!

Afterward, I realized I had a lot more that I wanted to hang, so I made a list of items, consulted the brochure for the best hook for the job, and went back to Lowes.  The items weren’t exactly cheap, but they were good quality.

I am a firm believer that you may have to pay a little more upfront if you want a good quality product that lasts.

After the second Lowes trip, we had to pick Jake up from daycare.  We returned home, had dinner, played with him for a bit and then, once he was in bed for the night, I returned to my task at hand.  I spent another three hours outside finishing everything up.  I put away all the little odds and ends in bins, hung the rest of the K-rails, and swept the garage.

Isn’t it crazy how a little cleaning and organization can change the look of things? (Some items are still being dealt with, but will hopefully be out of the garage soon!)

Before:

After:

We are very pleased with the results!  Jeff was even able to get his second car out of the garage for the first time in months.  (We have a pile of dirt in front of the garage door.)

My next project is the basement and it’s going to take quite a while.  I ended up moving all my kitchen items we had stored in the garage down to the basement and now I have to figure out what to do with them.

Question:  How do you store your kitchen equipment (examples: ice cream maker, bread machine, rice cooker, etc) you can’t quite fit in your kitchen?

Note:  Though it may seem like Lowes paid me to talk about their card and the Kobalt K-Rail (only available at Lowes), they in fact did not.  All opinions are my own and I purchased all products myself.

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