Setting up a garage: why the floor is your worst enemy

A garage does not fill up because you own too much, but because things end up on the floor. The moment something touches the floor, something else lands on top and it is gone.

Go up

Most garages are 2.4 to 2.6 metres high and you use about a metre of that. That is where your gain sits. A 1.70 metre unit with five shelves gives you more storage on less than half a square metre of floor than an entire corner stacked with boxes.

With shelving, look at load capacity per shelf rather than the total. A rack rated 875 kilos spreads that over five shelves, so roughly 175 kilos each. Plenty for tools and paint, not for a stack of tiles.

What belongs on the wall

Anything you reach for often and anything flat. Screwdrivers, pliers, small fixings. Wall bins beat drawers here because you see at a glance what is there and what has run out.

The rule of thumb that pays off most: weekly use at eye level, monthly use below it, once a year on the top shelf. Not the other way round, however tempting.

Heavy goes low

Sounds obvious but often goes wrong. Batteries, paint tins and tool cases belong on the bottom two shelves. A top heavy rack can tip when you pull on it, and in a garage you regularly have your hands full.

Fix shelving to the wall where you can. Most racks include a bracket for it. Five minutes of work.

Practical

• Clear bins or labels. A closed box without a label becomes a mystery within a year.
• Leave a free wall for long items: a ladder, boards, a bike on hooks.
• Keep one shelf empty. Sounds wasteful but it is where things go when you are halfway through a job.

A heavy duty shelving unit and a set of wall storage bins together cover most of what a garage needs.

The real test

If you can put tools away within two minutes after a job, your layout works. Any longer and it will not happen, and it will still be on the bench next week.