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.

Lego Trays

Just in time for Spring Break, I made more storage for the boys’ Legos. I made a train/Lego table years ago as a Christmas present to the boys.

The table is currently downstairs in our living room. We have the Lego side on the underside, and Mr. Pfitzer currently uses the table for his trains.

2017

The older boys have transitioned to true Lego’s, but I’ve had to put limitations on when and where they play with their Lego’s due to their baby brother always wanting to be in their business. I’m pretty confident that Mr. Pfitzer is past the stage of putting the Lego’s in his mouth, but once I say that, I know he’ll go and do something crazy to make me regret saying it. Right now, the concern is him taking everything apart and losing the pieces.

I’m a little OCD in storing the boy’s Lego sets in containers. I have a separate container that has the extra pieces and instructions from the sets.

I was storing the Lego sets in my closet on a high shelf and the boys would have to get me or Mr. JCrew to reach them and they could only play when Mr. Pfitzer was napping. I saw how much they enjoyed playing Legos and was sad at the same time that they didn’t have the freedom to just play.

I wanted to change that, so I came up with making some storage for under their bed. Then they could just shut the bedroom door and play anytime. They no longer needed me to get them down for them. 

With carpet in the bedrooms, I created a “Tray” they could use to put the Legos on as they build and play. Much better than carpet. I intended to put Lego backplates on them, but then changed my mind.

Another tray I made has wheels and is where their containers are stored with their sets.

The last tray has wheels, but higher sides than the others. This is for all the loose Legos that do not belong to a set.

I bought loose Lego’s at a consignment sale long ago and had them hidden until they were old enough. Then I forgot about them! When I built the tray, I built one for each kid, so I had to go to another consignment sale to get more Legos!! They now have a ton! (2 trays worth)

It came at perfect timing, because I built these the weekend before our Spring Break, so for the entire week, they were quietly playing upstairs with Lego’s and baby brother was not bothering them!

The boys started using the trays as I was building them.

Mr. Pfitzer had to know what these new things were, so he investigated.

Now that we are in summer break, these Legos are getting a lot of play time.

Shoe Storage

Building a house of our own, there were a lot of things we did ourselves to save money. Closet organization was one. Fancy closet systems can cost a lot (even the Ikea hacks), so I stuck with wire shelving I could do myself.

No matter which material you choose, there is a lot of planning that goes into closet organization.

What belongings do you currently have? The size (length)? Quantity? Future belongings that will need storage? All kinds of questions need to be asked. From there, you can then start determining the layout needed for your organization.

When it came to my shoe storage, I was having a hard time determining what I wanted. There were ideas I would find that I thought would work, but then they turned out I didn't have the right space to execute. I was limited on space.

I designed my closet to not only house my clothes, but it also keeps my winter clothes and jackets and the random items I need storage for. My current shoe racks were plastic and took up minimal space, but I had a few pair of shoes that just hung out on the floor. I was tired of them being lined up on the floor, so I started my search over again for a solution.

After going through my shoe collection and making sure all shoes were worn regularly, it was determined that more storage was necessary. I ended up buying curtain rods!

This method can only be used for heels, but everyone knows that's all I wear, so I had no issue.

I had the extra space for the curtain rods to hang on the wall under shelving I was not using to hang anything.

My flip flops are the only thing left hanging out on the floor, but there is enough space to tuck them away.

And the boots are on the shelf with the sweaters.

Nothing fancy, but it works! I am all for good organization!