Top 20 Garage Storage Solutions Sydney, New South Wales (2024)

Car Supplies

If you have a car, it probably spends a lot of time in your garage or parked nearby. So it's logical to store items you use for your car, including wiper fluid and tire inflators, in your garage. A garage is also a good place for items you often transport in or on your cars, such as a roof rack or camping gear.

If you have the space, hang bulky items like roof racks on the wall or ceiling of your garage. This will help keep the garage floor space clear for parking your car. As for the smaller items, consider a plastic storage rack with bins or a storage cabinet meant for the garage. This will keep the space organized and make finding items when you need them a breeze.

Yard and Gardening Tools

The garage is ideal for tools and appliances you only use outdoors. Think shovels, hoses, outdoor extension cords, lawnmowers, gardening tools, flower pots, and more. Bags of potting soil, buckets of ice melt, and other outdoor supplies that come in bulky packaging are also good candidates for garage storage. Consider putting up a pegboard or a similar product to hang tools where you can easily see them and grab what you need.

Outdoor Toys

Any product made for outdoor entertainment can withstand the elements, so it's usually OK to keep it in the garage when it's not in use. This includes children's toys, pool accessories, bicycles, and patio furniture. Consider hanging items like lawn chairs from hooks on the wall to get them out of the way. And you can keep toys in wire or clear plastic storage bins, so you can easily see what's inside.

Infrequently Used Items

If you need to store any items you rarely use, the garage—like the basement or attic—is often a great place to hide them away. The garage also can be a good temporary storage spot for items you ultimately plan to get rid of, as well as items that just don't have another home at the moment. Remember that sturdy, weatherproof objects will do better in the garage. More delicate items, such as documents and electronics, will hold up better in a basement or an attic.

Declutter the Space

Before you begin your DIY garage storage mission, start by eliminating any unnecessary items you don't use or need. For example, donate the gear if the kids aren't playing hockey anymore. Likewise, if you haven't fixed up an old lawnmower in the last year, it's time to give it to someone else or take it to your local recycling centre.

If you have many things to get rid of and your garbage service won't take it, consider using a private removal service. For example, you can buy a giant canvas bag at a home improvement store, fill it with garbage and set up a time for a haulier to come and remove it. Fees apply, of course, but companies like this offer a simple way to rid your garage of junk.

Install a Pegboard

A pegboard may be the most versatile of garage storage ideas. With a pegboard installed on a wall, you can hang just about every hand tool or gadget you have; seeing them out in the open makes them easier to find. Get a series of wire brackets to hang basic tools, and buy several hanging baskets that fit pegboards. They're great for storing things like nails or bottles of glue.

Add a Folding Table

When you have two vehicles in the garage, there sometimes isn't enough room to do much else. Where do you work? Consider creating a drop-down folding table. Connect the table to the wall with hinges so you can fold the legs under and fold it up against the garage wall when you aren't using it.

Hang Cans of Spray Paint

 If you have a lot of spray paint, buy a hanging shoe organizer at a department store and use it to hold spray paint in your garage.

Utilize the Space Above Your Garage Doors

There's a lot of space above garage doors that you can use. Consider installing wire shelves attached to the ceiling as part of your DIY garage storage plan. Or you can try making some DIY garage shelves. Either way, make sure the shelves are secure before you try storing anything on them.

Measure the available space before buying the shelf to make sure it will fit, and then buy durable tote bags that will fit on the shelves. It's a great place to store seasonal items, like holiday decorations, that you only need to access once a year.

Hang a Utility Rack

Rakes, shovels, hoes and brooms all take up space. Rather than lean them against the wall and trip over them, get a utility rack from a department store and hang up any tool with a long handle.

If space is an issue, you can buy individual hooks and hang them in tight spaces, such as between the garage doors, next to the tool bench or near the entrance to the house.

Get Rid of Everything You Don't Use

A lot of the stuff that's cluttering your garage is, frankly, junk. Your son's old bicycle that he's grown out of. Your daughter's old, broken toys. That lamp the dog knocked over and smashed last Thanksgiving. Decluttering means getting rid of all that junk, which will free up a lot of extra garage space. A good rule of thumb is this; if you don't need it, want it, or use it regularly, chuck it. There are a few ways to do that, including:

• Have a garage sale. Sell your used stuff and make a few extra bucks.
• Donate gently-used things to charity, like Goodwill.
• Take a car or truckload of junk to your local dump.
• Put a 'curb alert' on Craigslist. Then, put all your unwanted stuff on the curb. (People will come and take it away, almost like magic, we promise.)
• Give things that still work (but you don't want them) away to neighbours and friends.

Don't Toss Your Spouse's Things.

How to declutter and organize your garage is one thing. It's necessary and can give you a garage you love to use! On the other hand, getting rid of stuff that belongs to your spouse is a real 'no-no.' People keep things for different reasons. What may look like junk to you may be a treasure to them or have significant sentimental value. So, organizing or not, wait to throw or give away something that belongs to your spouse. (It will almost certainly prevent hurt feelings and arguments.)

Organize Your Garage With Shelving

Did you ever notice how a shelf helps you keep things organized inside your home? Well, they can do the very same thing in your garage too! Your local big-box home store sells heavy-duty metal and plastic shelving that can take a beating. Better still, shelves help you use vertical space rather than floor space. As a result, you'll instantly be able to move around more freely in your garage! 

If you don't want to buy a shelf unit, you can purchase shelf brackets and make shelves out of wood. This can allow you to go higher and put things nicely out of the way. You can also hang one long frame that spans the length of your garage's wall. No matter which shelving you choose, it will instantly declutter your garage and leave it more organized!

Declutter and Organize Your Garage With Bins

Clear plastic bins are, in a word, awesome. They hold all sorts of stuff and have closing lids that don't need tape like a box. You can see what's in them, too, making finding something a breeze. They're also very affordable. The fact is, most big-box retailers put clear plastic bins on sale regularly! So you could wait until they have a deal and then stock up!

Propane Tanks

Cooking outdoors with family and friends is a ubiquitous pastime, and you need propane for a good barbecue. However, while you may store some of the barbecue items in the garage, it's best to leave propane outside. Very often, the valve isn't completely closed, causing one kind of leak; sometimes, the tanks have another type of leak.

Propane gas leaking is an explosive situation and deadly. Instead of risking your life, store the tank of propane outside in a secure, enclosed space without sparks – like the garden shed.

Clothing and Bedding

Bulky coats and linen need a place to rest during summer. Common city animals such as raccoons and skunks look for a soft clean nest. If comfortable, that claim jumper will bring family and friends along.

Instead, find winter clothing storage areas inside your home, in sealed plastic containers or old suitcases.

Paper Products

A growing number of people are adopting green lifestyles and recycling religiously. However, recycling causes expensive headaches in the form of pest control if done improperly.

Fresh Food

Most homes have pet food and wild bird seed, but garage storage for these items is taboo. Stockpiling food makes it a luxury hotel complete with a five-star restaurant for vermin. Seal those items and store them inside your pantry.

Temperature-Sensitive Items

Wine should never be stored in your garage. Exposure to extreme heat can damage the composition and colour of wine, making it undrinkable!

Paint, refinishing solvents and stain in garage storage will spoil. Some paints separate, and you'll be left with a curdled, unusable mess. Also, paint cans sitting on a cement garage floor will rust through very quickly. It's science.

Canned Food

A stockpile of canned vegetables has a shorter shelf life in garage storage and will freeze over the winter.

Good Housekeeping states that "A stockpile of canned tomatoes, beans, and more has a shorter shelf life in a room that gets hotter than 70 degrees (and when temps reach 95 degrees, the food will spoil quickly). If your canned goods freeze in the winter, they can be thawed, but the quality might diminish."

Refrigerator

Fridges control the temperature of your food, but as heat rises, your fridge works harder to keep food cool. You will see it on your energy bill if it's in the garage.

Vinyl Records & 8mm Film

Mice and other pests nest in celluloid, and vinyl records become ruffled like Grandma's doilies in garage heat.

Electronics

The DVD players, phonograph players, televisions, and computers you've been meaning to donate to charity could get damaged in extreme heat or cold. Then they will do nobody any good.

Declutter First

The first step to any organization process is decluttering. Take a weekend (or two) to declutter all of the junk that is currently in your garage, as well as any extra storage that you want to keep in there. Next, purge your items by selling, donating, or throwing away anything you don't need or want.

Organize

Once you have decluttered everything you no longer need, organize the remaining items into similar piles or categories. This will help you get an idea of how much storage space you need and what kind.

Plan Your Storage

Before you start throwing things in bins, it's important that you first create a proactive plan so that you can keep your items organized for years to come. Without a plan, likely, your garage storage will soon get out of control again, and you'll have to reorganize later.

Consider Accessibility

For the items that you use often, you'll want to make sure that you store them in a way that makes them easily accessible. For example, if you're an avid fan of outdoor sports, you wouldn't want to stuff your equipment in a bin and hang it overhead where it's difficult to get to. If you feel the need, make a list of your "categories", rate them on how often you'll want to access them, and plan your storage accordingly.

Label Your Storage

Proper labelling is a part of any good organizational system. We advise that you mark your bins and baskets with removable labels so you can switch them out in the future as your storage evolves. With labels, you don't have to dig through various bins to find your Christmas decorations, thus saving you loads of time in the long run.

Leave Room for More

If possible, make your garage storage dynamic and leave room for more items in the future. As your life changes, you don't want to be cramming new bins into an overstuffed garage—it's a real hassle that can be avoided.