The Garage In The New House

My garage is not perfect, but I will share it anyway.

We made the garage huge! The spacing was the result of having small garages prior to this one. A double car garage places your cars too close together. I knew having kids would cause lots of dings in our car doors.  I also created this design when my dad was still living. We got a taste of the space needed with wheelchairs, scooters and walkers, that I planned for 3 feet between each garage door. I selected single garage doors instead of a double door so that I could space the cars further apart.

This allows the cars to be 7ft apart and no car doors touch each other. We can have both doors on the cars open and still not touch. I am most thankful for this decision!

I use the space in between the cars a lot to house my projects in process. But I try to keep the space clear so that I can enjoy the benefits of the wide space.

I also made sure I had space on the sides of the garage. Our last garage we were lucky to have enough space on the side to store our garbage container, but our neighbors were not so lucky. Our neighborhood does not like trash cans to be seen. Unfortunately, we can see our neighbor's, but you can’t see it from the main street. I understand some people not wanting their trash in the garage. I don’t mind at all. It is more convenient to take out the trash. So, I made sure the sides were deep enough to keep a trash can and a lawn mower.

Now, the back of the garage goes deep. I knew we’d need space to house my tools and my dad’s tools. We organized those spaces onto heavy duty shelves we bought from Costco. They are my favorite shelves.

I originally designed the deep space with intentions that we could tandem park two vehicles inside the garage. We ended up not making the space that deep.

 

We also weighed the option to put a smaller garage door on the opposite side of the garage so that we could access the lawnmower and equipment from the backyard easier. We nixed the idea for cost reasons, but I also wanted to have more wall space.

The extra space has been nice. When we built our cross, we didn’t think about storage. But we have a perfect place for it.

It actually serves as scooter storage for the boys. 

Not my preferred method, but it’s put to use!

The boys also have their tool benches out there. That has been the cutest thing. The boys love it! They will spend so much time out there “Building” things. It’s also a place I find many lost sippy cups!

The wagon has become a storage place for my scrap wood. The boys use it for their building sessions.

I’m back and forth on whether I should have done the garage flooring. During construction, our garage was used as storage for material. And even once the material was all used, we began using the garage as storage to start slowly moving things over. Mom’s townhouse was getting crowded! So, we never had an empty garage before moving. And now that there is a ton of things in there, I don’t want to move them out.

But with how dirty we get things in the garage, I’m not sure if I could stand getting the nice floor dirty. We have used the garage floor to spray paint on and residual paint has landed on the ground. 

We bought bike racks from Brookstone to make use of wall space.

We used the Rubbermaid Fast Track Rail system like we had inthe last house. You can hang the rails up and use whatever hooks you need.

On the wall closest to the house, we have the trash can and recycling cans so we can easily toss things in there. There is also a small can we put birdseed in to protect it from critters and a hamper for Mr. JCrew to toss his gym clothes in when he gets home. 

A tip I’d like to share is how we store our flag. Mr. JCrew bought this for me as a Christmas present our first year in the house. We only put it out on holiday’s, but when it is not on display, we store it in the garage. We eliminated the task for having to remove the flag from the pole, by hanging a bracket on the wall in the garage. We just move the flag pole from one bracket to the other. It makes it so much easier to display.

The latest addition to the garage is a clock. We had one out there, that was my mom's but it has since disappeared. I spend a lot of time in the garage with my projects, that it is nice to have a clock so I can keep track of time.

The garage isn’t a perfect, spotless, organized room in the house, but is a workable place that fits our needs. I have to reorganize it every once in a while, but I’m so thankful we designed enough space. We can fit so much “extra” stuff in there while it doesn’t have a home yet and still not feel crowded. Many of my projects land out there while the building phase is going on.

Drawer Organization

I’m definitely going through a phase of wanting to organize everything! It started with the pantry and then went to the drawers in the kitchen and bathroom.

I did not pay the cabinet maker for custom dividers in the kitchen cabinets and drawers, and I am glad I did not. When we built the house, I did not have an idea of how I was going to store things. I had a plan that was very top level and helped me decide how many drawers, but it was not detailed enough to know what I actually needed.

For the last three years, we used containers we found at the dollar store and Walmart to divide things up and keep it less like a junk drawer. This worked, but I still wasn’t happy. When I’d pull a drawer open, the organizers would shift and move around inside the drawer.

I then started researching inspiration. Something were very custom in using high-end parts, but I was not willing to spend hat much money. I then went to Lowes to see what my wood options were. I found some thin and narrow pieces of wood that I thought would be perfect. I used two different sizes. All were ¼ inch thick but some were 3” and some were 4” wide.

I started with the silverware drawer. It was my main goal to get done with the drawers.

We have two silverware drawers. One has a set of my childhood silverware and the other has my set I bought when I moved out on my own.

I then went to town with the remaining drawers.

I was most excited to tackle my baking drawer.

There was even a true junk drawer that I cleaned out/organized.

That was part of the process. I took everything out of the drawer and slowly added things back in. Somethings found new homes in other drawers and some things were thrown away or donated.

But as I laid items back in the drawer, I put it all together as a puzzle.

I didn’t stop in the kitchen. I moved to the master bathroom!

Mr. JCrew had some drawers that were a mess. Those are now cleared and he can find things!

One of my drawers had my hair ties and clips that were always tangled. They are now separated and I love it! It feels so custom!

After laying items in the drawers, I starting measuring the wood and cut the pieces. Making sure they fit, I started using wood glue and my nail gun to secure it all in place.

I’m pretty excited and am willing to show off what is in my drawers! Not ready to show what it behind my closet doors, but this is a big step! Another step in the process of making sure everything has a home!

Pantry Organization

There is nothing that excited me more than plants than organization. It comes natural to me, but Mr. JCrew views it as a super-power! I’ve come to the conclusion that my drive to organize comes from the feeling of not being able to find something. I don’t like that feeling! The pictures I have are not going to do this space justice. The next picture is my inspiration picture.

I found a lot of inspiration out there!

So, I organize things… everything! And my boys love it. I’ve trained them well. If a space is empty, they know something is missing from its home. Time to look for it! At least this is my vision. Mr. Pfitzer definitely gets it!

Now, organizing is hard if not everyone is on board. I can organize a space, but then it has to be re-organized a while later because things are not put back into place. When I am the one organizing, I know the thought process it took to make the decision on where something goes. I try to explain the thought process so that others understand and maybe will remember.

With pantry organization, it is a different type of organizing. The types of food we have always change! I recently organized the pantry, so I thought I’d share the process. I realized that the first thing I like to do with organizing is to take the item out of the box it came in and store it in something else. This helps make the pantry look unified. Instead of many different colored boxes of cereal, the containers are the same.

I also did this with oatmeal. We buy in bulk when it goes on sale and Mr. Pfitzer still eats it daily. I bought baskets to empty the instant oatmeal packets into. Looks SO MUCH BETTER than all the oatmeal boxes crammed on a shelf.

I also emptied the macaroni quick cups into a crate so I don’t have to look at the ugly box, but I can also see when I am running low.

That basket is currently at Target and is metal. I am trying to find reasons to buy more, I love them!

My first basket I did in the pantry years ago was a basket for Mr. JCrew’s popcorn. He loves popcorn, so we buy it in bulk at Costco. I didn’t like the box, but the basket makes it more presentable.

Now, the next part of organizing is grouping by category. I buy a larger basket to group items. There is a basket for nuts.

A basket for pasta/rice.

A baking basket.

An applesauce basket that Mr. Brigglesworth doesn't like to get low.

A basket for snack items that the kids are allowed to access when told they can grab a snack. Items in this basket rotate, but the kids like knowing they can pick anything in that basket after they have been told they can grab a snack. They know permission has been granted for anything in that basket.

After grouping items, I also have categories for shelves. There is a juice shelf that houses all the extra juices (for when bought in bulk). We use to buy Juicy Juicy when it went on sale and would buy 12 at a time. We needed a shelf for all of that!

There is a breakfast shelf.

The top shelves of our pantry are so high, that I have to pull out the full size ladder to access the stuff. But up on those tall shelves are items not used often. Coolers, cupcake tins, extra utensils, extra cups and extra tins. Because we buy things in bulk, I need a place to store the extra items. I keep a small quantity of disposable utensils, plates and cups on a shelf to grab in a pinch, but the bulk is stored on the top shelf.

My favorite part of the pantry is the Lazy Susan I used for the bottles. This was always my least favorite shelf in the pantry, because I could not figure out the right way to organize this. It just never looked good. I'd try to make use of the depth of the shelf, but would always have to move a container to get to the one I need. No more! This Lazy Susan was perfect (well, two Lazy Susans!).

The fridge is just as organized. I use containers in the fridge to group like items. I have a container for cheese and a container for juice boxes.

A container for bread. (We keep it in the fridge to last longer. Dave's Bread can go bad quick if it is not refrigerated!)

A container for yogurt, cottage cheese and Jell-O, and containers for carrots and grapes.

This type of organizing helps me look to see what I am low on. I either go into the pantry to the bulk storage (juice) or I put it on my grocery list. There is even a spare bin that I use as needed. It doesn’t have a defined category, but it’s there when needed. I recently used it to store the salad ingredients that came from a kit from Costco. Their salad kits usually are enough for two occasions and they supply the dressing in two packets. So, I stored the salad ingredients in the spare bin to keep them all together until the next use.

There are some things that are not on normal rotation that don't have specified storage. Pistachios were one thing we were trying and I will say, they are being added to our rotation, so I am going to get a container to store them. They will have a home here!

I will say, that I think we do a better job of eating the ingredients we have and there is less waste when the fridge and pantry are organized. People can clearly see what is available to choose from. I can say I want a piece of bread and open the bread bin to choose the type. Or I can say that I have a sweet tooth and want to bake something and go to my baking bin to choose an item. Plus, it just makes me happy knowing I can go into a room behind closed doors and not be scared of something falling on me or worse… not being able to find something!