Garage Storage Solutions: Which Way to Turn?

Jun 15
07:33

2010

Marc Willis

Marc Willis

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With options ranging from basic to intricate, choosing the best of the range of garage storage solutions is becoming increasingly difficult, a problem this article attempts to remedy.

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Effective garage storage solutions range in kind from the plain and simple to the terribly complex,Garage Storage Solutions: Which Way to Turn? Articles and whether a solution is one or the other is certainly no indication of whether or not it’s the one to choose for the purpose of cleaning up your garage. This will of course depend on the kind of things you need to store in your garage, and whether the system you’re using is in any way flexible (allowing you to rearrange or expand upon it without too much difficulty as more things need to be stored). The number of DIY options being proposed online, along with the commercial options being marketed by companies looking to cash in on public interest in the subject, mean that the world of garage storage solutions has grown increasingly difficult to navigate. This article attempts to unravel the tangled skein, by presenting what is in all probability the most effective means by which you can effect good storage practices in your home. Without question, the best of all the garage storage solutions to come out of the recent home DIY boom has been that of wall storage racks of the kind offered by Rubbermaid (their system is marketed under the FastTrack logo) and Handiwall. Essentially, all these systems work in the same way. First off, you need to secure a series of studs to your wall, which are either driven directly into brick (in the case of masonry walls) or, in the case of prefabricated walls, are passed through the wall and secured on the opposite side. Long racking planks, between six and twelve inches high, are then affixed to these studs, so that they’re allowed to hang horizontally in rows about a half inch apart. In the spaces between them, you can affix hooks, shelves, bins, whatever, and thence hang whatever you want from the racks. Let me say that again: literally, whatever you want. Due to the way that these racks spread any weight placed on them over the length of the wall they hang from, they’re capable of bearing far more weight than shelving could ever do. It’s not uncommon to walk into the garden shed or garage of a HandiWall or FastTrack user and see bicycles, golf bags, pick axes, barbells (weight plates attached) and even wheelbarrows hanging from the walls, all up and out of the way, leaving ample space on the floor around your car for people to pass through the garage. After all, there are few things more irritating than arriving home after a long day at work and being forced to navigate an obstacles course of boxes and black bags. Advanced racking systems ensure you’ll never be faced with such annoyances ever again. Of course, all this should not be taken as to suggest that there’s anything wrong with built-in shelving – indeed, it’s the prototype of all garage storage solutions, and can allow you to store all the moderately sized, regular objects in your garage, which in many cases will be most of what you need to store, anyway. What racking offers over shelving is, first off, the ability to store large, irregularly shaped objects, and secondly, to do so in a way that makes those objects at once easily visible (meaning you can find them just by glancing over your wall) and easily accessible (all you need to do is unhook the object you need). The worst inconvenience a wall-racking system could call for is for you to have a step ladder in the garage to access objects at awkward heights. But hey, guess what? Having a step ladder in your garage isn’t going to make things anywhere near as cluttered as they once were – because you’ll be able to hang it off the wall, too!