Look into our Garage

It’s that time of year again:  New Year’s = Organization Resolutions = New Clean Garage!  Every adult that visits our house for the first time gets a tour, and surprisingly one of the most asked about rooms is the garage. I’m not going to lie, we do have an awesome garage – not that it’s huge or filled with tons of fun adult toys, but it’s awesome. I think it’s because it’s easy to make it look clean with these awesome cabinets and the floor looks like some professional car guy lives here. You judge for yourself.

So here is the deal: just like most of you, we have a ton of stuff:  holiday decorations, kids toys, outdoor equipment, holiday decorations, athletic gear, daddy tools, holiday decorations (did I say that yet).  About 3 years ago in our old house (which had a smaller garage) we decided we needed to get organized.  Our garage was a disaster and we needed some way to get it cleaned up and looking good. So, we looked everywhere for someone to hire to put in cabinets and whatnot, but it was so expensive, so we decided to do it ourselves for literally less than half the cost. It wasn’t too difficult, and it turned out awesome and the best part is we can find (and reach) anything in about 2 seconds. As you might have noticed, I am 5 foot 2 inches tall but I can still get to nearly everything in these cabinets unless my husband puts the heavy stuff on the top shelf.  And the other best part – when we moved houses, we took it all with us, so no money lost there – BONUS!  We did have to buy a few extra floor tiles since now we have more floor space but that was easy and inexpensive enough.  The slatwall is awesome too to help hold my husband’s tools and other random stuff.  You can buy whatever accessories you like and customize to your needs, but it’s great to be able to walk up to the wall and grab what you need without searching.  This is a more permanent install and we weren’t able to take it from the old house, but we liked it so much we installed the same exact stuff again – although it is available in 4 colors –we chose the “charcoal”.  For reference we bought just one 8*4 pack and used it for the workbench area and the leftovers we trimmed for this slim wall to hold more stuff! The pictures do not even do it justice as it is truly amazing.

If you are looking for some garage updates, do yourself a favor and check these out. We have all these cabinets and still have room for a large SUV and a family sedan both parked inside every night.  We got the 12 cabinet pack (this includes everything most people would need – 4 double door tall cabinets, 3 double door upper cabinets, 1 base cabinet with 3 drawers, 1 double door base cabinet, 1 wide single door base cabinet, 1 upper cabinet with 3 doors, and a workbench countertop) and then we also added on 3 more of the tall cabinets.  It is pretty easy to put together although it is heavy so you may need an extra hand while assembling the largest of the cabinets. These things are no joke, they are strong and sturdy and hold a lot of stuff.  The floor is so simple to install and the kids enjoyed helping since they got to stomp the flooring into place as well (or a rubber mallet works too). There are two types of the flooring, one is perforated and one is solid, both are made of heavy duty plastic/pvc and both keep your floor clean and your feet warm (since the cold doesn’t transfer through from your garage cement in the cold months). The perforated/vented tiles are great for underneath the car in case it leaks any AC condensation or whatever this way it won’t pool up on your floor. Below are links to the items we purchased and remember the cabinets are all modular so you can add, remove, and customize as needed as they come in a ton of different configurations, but the 12 pack gives you the most bang for your buck.

12 Pack cabinets Amazon or Wayfair

3 pack tall cabinets Amazon or Wayfair

Pro-slat Slatwall Amazon

and Pro-slat accessories Amazon or Wayfair

Black solid flooring Amazon or Wayfair

Grey perforated flooring Amazon or Wayfair

When writing this post, the best costs have been found on Amazon.

** One hint: we installed some landscape fabric (Amazon ) underneath the garage tile.  It’s cheap and easy to lay down, but it gives the floor a slight cushion to mute any knocking sounds from when we walk on the floor.  And whatever extra you have – use it in your flower bed so weeds don’t come up in the spring!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section.  My husband is a nerd and would love to help with details if you are interested in making your garage look like a million bucks!

 

 

Cheers,

HO