Blog Post

6 Tips for Organizing Tools in Your Garage

Mike Merritt • Oct 21, 2021

The tools you used in your most recent DIY project may have had a home at one time, but if you can’t get to them easily where do they end up? In the Twilight Zone of your garage, which is how you end up with twelve hammers and six wrenches of the same size. Organizing these items will help de-clutter your custom garage and allow more space for other things.

The following list consists of tips you can use as a starting point for getting the mess in your garage under control, one tool at a time!

1. Start Small

Organizing a messy, cluttered garage can seem like a daunting task, no matter who you are, but you have to start somewhere. It can be helpful to sort items into categories that coincide with their functions. For instance, lump fasteners together in bins. Put those twelve hammers together, and gather your drill bits up.

Forget using old mayonnaise jars for smaller items. Instead, to make finding specific items easier, consider labeling small Tupperware-like bins with a label maker or magic marker. Don’t be discouraged if this step takes a while – it’s arguably the hardest part!

2. Clean Up Your Act

It should go without saying that organizing and cleaning go hand in hand, but they really do. An organized but dirty garage is not anywhere near as satisfying as a clean and organized one, right? Take this opportunity to wipe down surfaces and tools as you uncover them. This doesn’t mean you have to start scrubbing your wrenches and putty knives. Simply laying them out on the driveway and rinsing off any dust and debris with a garden hose will suffice.

3. Take Inventory

Once you’ve sorted through your litany of household tools, you’ll have a pretty good idea about how to approach taking inventory. Do you have more hand tools or power tools? How much space does your power tool collection take up? This is a good time to pare down your collection if necessary. How many flat head screwdrivers does one person really need?

4. Look Up

While the garage is an excellent place to store your tools, and a great home base for home improvement projects, it does tend to serve another purpose. If you plan on parking your car in there any time soon, you’re going to have to look beyond the obvious floor space. While wall space is an excellent storage option, so is the ceiling of your garage, as Wayfair.com notes. Overhead storage makes a huge difference in organizing options and allows more space for your cars!

5. Get Mobile

Bob Vila adds that another handy solution is bringing rolling storage carts & cabinets, both of which will add even more versatility to your tool storage options. Depending on the location of your project, being able to take everything you need in one shot could really improve your efficiency and save you some steps.

6. Stick to It with Magnets

The potential household uses for magnets are endless. They can be incredibly handy when it comes to garage organization and storage as well. After all, most of the items that you’ll be organizing are made of metal.

If you have a number of oddly shaped tools, look to the walls for inspiration. For example, you can utilize your storage solutions by installing a magnetic strip on the wall and using it to hold lightweight items like screwdrivers and small wrenches. Or, use Slatwall racks to reduce your clutter and store things like garden tools, sports equipment, and even your kids’ bikes.

Conclusion

Organizing your garage tool collection may seem like a massive undertaking, but it's actually very doable. Just follow a few well-thought-out steps. If you break the process up into bite-sized pieces and tackle each piece individually, you may be surprised at what you accomplish.

Just think how nice it will be to finally be able to park your vehicle alongside a nicely curated and organized tool collection. Taking it a step further, imagine how many more home improvement projects you’ll cross off the list once you can actually find the supplies you need.