reclaim-your-garage

Reclaim Your Garage This Summer to Help Your Garden Grow

The key to garden success is, ironically, in your garage! When the weather is nice out, you should declutter and clean it out. You can put your garden tools in easy reach and get organized for all of the tasks that gardening demands.

More...

When you can find all of your tools, yard work and gardening tasks will become a breeze. You will probably save money because you’ll be able to keep a stricter eye on perishable items such as bagged soils and mulch.

How to Declutter Your Garage

garage

If you can dedicate a weekend, you can expect the process of decluttering and organizing your garage to take several days. If you have less free time, you may work on it for an hour each night until it’s done. In the end, you will be pleased with your results, and you won’t resent a minute of the hard work.

1. Categorize Everything

The smartest garage organization tips start with dividing and conquering the mess. To do that, you should sort the contents of your garage into these categories:

  • Keep 
  • Trash 
  • Recycle 
  • Donate 
  • Sell

2. Make a Plan to Dispose of Unwanted Items

Once you have decided where everything should go, make a plan to dispose of unwanted items as soon as possible:

  • Schedule a bulky trash pickup with the city trash if all trash items won’t fit into your garbage cans.
  • Dispose of toxic items (like batteries, oil, cleaning supplies, paint, or fertilizer) at places in your city or county that will accept them. 
  • Load up your car with items to donate right away. 
  • List items for sale online immediately. 
  • Schedule a garage sale within days or weeks, not months.

3. Organize What’s Left With Designated Zones

Consider vertical space as being as valuable as horizontal space. The more things you can keep off the floor, the better. Many items such as bicycles, maintenance tools, and garden tools can hang on the walls.

Of course, many organizational supplies exist that can help you keep similar things together and keep them neat. A trip to the local hardware store can give you some ideas. However, you should check around your house and see what you already own that could be put to use in your garage.

Look for the following items to help keep your belongings organized and easier to find when you need them:

  • Plastic tubs (with lids)
  • Wall Hooks
  • Tool hangers
  • Pegboards 
  • Large Tool Boxes 
  • Shelving units 
  • Cabinetry

You will want to designate different zones in your garage for different types of items. Your garage zones might include:

  • Maintenance tools
  • Gardening supplies
  • Automotive supplies
  • Sports equipment
  • Seasonal items
  • Holiday items
  • Memorabilia

You should keep items that you use often in easy reach while keeping items you only use occasionally (such as holiday decorations) on higher shelves. You could also consider storing seasonal items, memorabilia, and holiday decor inside or in the attic.

For that matter, you could rent a storage unit to put everything that isn’t in regular use. That really frees up space for the gardening supplies you’ll want in easy reach.

How to Maintain Your Garden Tools

garden-tools

An attractive display of your garden tools can help motivate you to do yard work and make your gardening hobby more fun. You'll want to arrange your tools so they can be retrieved easily. This may take some thinking to decide where the biggest items, such as a lawnmower and wheelbarrow, should go.

1. Garden Tool Organization Ideas

Long-handled garden tools and garden power tools should ideally hang on the wall. Some options for storing long-handled garden tools include:

  • In large cardboard tubes (the type used to form concrete)
  • Hanging from hooks or nails on the wall
  • On a pegboard 
  • In a rollable golf bag that can go out to the garden with you
  • On a board attached to the wall with circular cutouts for tools
  • Behind a wooden pallet attached to the wall 
  • Through the grates of a metal wire shelf attached to the wall
  • In a floor cue stick holder 
  • In a cue stick holder attached to the wall 
  • Through small pieces of PVC pipe attached to the wall

Ideally, you should store smaller garden tools in a container that you can easily carry, but there are several options, including:

  • In a bucket
  • In a shower caddy
  • In a basket
  • In a vintage milk carrier
  • On a pegboard (especially over a potting area)
  • In a shoe caddy hanging on the wall

Meanwhile, bulkier items need a designated area where they’re easy to access. Luckily, some bulky items like weed eaters, ladders, and wheelbarrows can hang on the wall.

2. Creating a Potting Area

Creating an area for potting plants can be extremely helpful for even the most casual gardeners. An ideal area has a surface on top for potting and space underneath to store unused pots, soil, and other supplies. Some potting surface and storage spaces include:

  • A potting bench
  • A rolling cart
  • An old dresser
  • A table with space underneath for storage 
  • A garden-tool pegboard with a table and storage underneath
  • Low shelving attached to the wall (the top shelf is for potting)
  • A short shelving unit (the top of the shelf is for potting)
  • A cabinet with a countertop (even better if you can also install a sink)

Avoid keeping open bags of lawn products, soil, or fertilizer on your garage floor where they can spill or absorb moisture. Place opened bags into large, resealable plastic bags or store them in a labeled plastic bin.

If you make your own potting soil, large plastic bins allow for combining the ingredients and storing the mixture.

3. Garden Tool Care

Keeping your garden tools well-maintained will ensure that they will be ready when you need them again, whether that’s next week or the next gardening season. Following a few basic steps can help keep your tools in good condition:

  • Remove soil after use. If your tool has dirt on it, hose it off or wipe it down. 
  • Don’t put away wet tools. Be sure to dry tools off or allow them to air dry before storing so that metal doesn’t rust and wood doesn’t rot.
  • Preserve wooden handles with linseed oil at least once a year. 
  • Clean metal cutting tools with oil often or after each use. Some gardeners plunge their tools into a bucket filled with sand with a quart of motor oil poured on top.
  • Clean tools involved in chemical applications to avoid rust and corrosion.

Closing

When your garage is organized, you should have a place for each gardening tool, implement, and all of the related supplies that go with your gardening hobby. Happy gardening!

About the Author Laura Bennett

Hello, I’m Laura Bennett. I love nature especially when it comes to flowers and different kinds of plants. I started a very small garden behind my house and I named it Humid Garden. So, I created this blog to provide aspiring and inspiring thoughts about gardening for gardeners and anyone who has the intention of keeping a garden.

follow me on:

Leave a Comment: