With three kids who love to play in the backyard, the sports/backyard storage area of our garage really needed a good organization system.
What we had was a decent start, but we were in desperate need of some decluttering and organizing.
Now that I’ve finally tackled this area, I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. I am absolutely loving the results. 😍
Take a look!
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Our garage organization: Before
There were 2 areas of our garage that really needed some TLC.
The first was a shelf right by the inside garage door, where we kept yard toys and games, and sports equipment.
Here’s the before picture:
What a mess!
The second area was along the same wall, but farther down, closer to the outside garage doors.
This area was meant to store things that we often take out to the car, like our wagon, folding chairs, reusable bags, etc.
Clearly, it had also become a catch-all for a lot of other things as well!
Garage organization: After
Let’s jump right into the after pictures, and then I’ll tell you about how I organized everything, and the supplies that I used.
Remember that shelf that was a mess of yard games and sports balls?
Here it is now!
And that other shelf? Check it out:
What a difference. Every time I walk into the house I can’t help stopping to just look at these two shelves and marvel over how much better it looks.
The sports and outdoor toys shelf
The first thing that I did was take absolutely everything off of these 2 shelves, and get rid of a ton of stuff that we no longer used or loved.
Then I sorted everything into categories.
I was able to reuse 4 wire baskets that were already had for balls, gloves, and yard toys.
Next, I purchased two different sizes of plastic bins from Walmart.
(Medium for the bubbles, and Small Long Half for the sunscreen/bug spray, sidewalk chalk, and toy tools.)
I labeled the baskets using these labels from Amazon, and my Cricut Joy.
Finally, my favorite part: The ball storage situation!
My husband came up with the idea of using 2 bungee cords to keep all the balls from falling off the bottom shelf. This maximizes the space, while still containing all the balls. Plus, it’s really easy to get them in and out.
I added one more little basket for air pumps, and this shelf was done!
The “outing” shelf
I’m not quite sure what to call the other shelf that I organized.
I wanted to use it to store all of the items that we usually need to grab on our way out to the car. (This shelf sits along the wall right next to the outside garage door.)
We decided to use the bottom shelves for larger items like our wagon and stroller.
Usually the stroller is in the car, in which case we store our folding chairs in that space. They just happened to be packed up for a camping trip when I took these pictures.
The top shelf is for some random Christmas decorations, and our coolers, which take up a lot of space and pretty much had to go there.
Next, I sorted all of the other items that I wanted to include on this shelf into categories. I used these labels, and three more sizes of the Walmart bins to organize everything:
Bags, picnic, and softball bins: Large
Kubb, disc golf, and swim bins: Medium
Two empty bins on the top shelf: Small
I’m super pumped to have a designated spot to store our reusable grocery shopping bags.
I also have a basket for picnic supplies (a picnic blanket and a few insulated lunch bags) a yard game, and my husband’s discs.
One of my favorite baskets is the swim basket. I use this one to store water shoes for when we’re heading to the creek, some sunscreen, and a pouch containing smaller swimming items like goggles and pool toys.
This will make it really simple to grab and add items to our pool bag on the way out to the car.
(I also wrote a whole post on packing the perfect pool bag with kids. You can see it here.)
Oh, and there is also some empty space in our garage now!
Every time I organize a space, I try to include some unused space for the future. I have some empty shelf space saved, an empty basket, and one that (for now) is holding some extra animal food from the zoo, and will be empty after we use it up on our next visit.
It’s so reassuring to know that, if I need to add some extra items to this space, it will fit in without having to redo everything!
Supply list
Here are all of the supplies that I used in our garage organization project.
Bins:
In this entire space, I ended up using four different sizes of Jute bins that I found at Walmart. I love that they are plastic, and easy to clean: perfect for the garage.
We also already had these baskets from Target, which I was able to reuse for ball storage:
Unfortunately, the large wire baskets that I reused are no longer available.
Labels:
I found these labels on Amazon. They are plastic (lower quality than other metal ones that are available) but I love how they look here. I didn’t want to spend too much on something that will inevitably be getting dirty in a garage, and these are perfect.
Then I used my Cricut Joy and white vinyl (font: Alone on Earth) to create and attach the white writing to the black labels.
| Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
34 Pcs Plastic Basket Bin Label Clip on… | $14.99 | Buy on Amazon |
|
Cricut Joy Machine – A Compact,Portable… | $84.99 | Buy on Amazon |
Shelves:
My husband custom-built these blue wooden shelves to perfectly fit our space. He’s amazing.
How to declutter any space in your entire house
I follow the same steps to declutter and organize, no matter what space I’m working with. This process will work everywhere.
You can see the full list of steps by clicking here, but here is the short version:
1. Take every single thing out of the space that you’re organizing.
Yes, you really have to do this. It’s the key to really decluttering and getting rid of things that you no longer need in this space.
2. Sort every item into 4 piles: Trash, donate, move (to a different place in your home) and keep (in this space.)
Be ruthless. The better job you do of getting rid of things you no longer love or use, the better your final results will be!
3. Sort all of your “keep” items into categories, and use bins, baskets, and labels to group small items together.
Those are the basics! I have lots more tips and a checklist for you here, but these steps will help you to organize any space in your home- even the toughest garage shelf.
Thanks so much for reading, and happy organizing!
-Laura
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Max Lowe says
This is a great example of making the garage work for real family life. Sports gear, tools, shoes, and seasonal items all need different storage. Treating them as separate zones usually prevents the garage from sliding back into chaos.