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Having a small garage can be a bit of a pain, especially if you intend to use it to its full potential. You need enough space to park so you can open your doors without bumping into walls and loose items, store stuff you want to keep away from the house or use sparingly, and if you’re a bit handy, work on some passion projects in your free time. Your space considerations can change depending on the type of car you drive, too. A compact sedan won’t give you as much trouble in this regard as a large SUV, but you should have wiggle room to go about your business regardless of car size.

If you’re at a loss for how best to organize your garage to optimize storage, you’re not alone. 36% of garages in America are so cluttered that owners no longer park cars in them, according to CRAFTSMAN. The same survey also hints at a possible solution: 90% of respondents said that organization can make a small garage appear larger. Clearly, although you can’t change your garage’s dimensions, proper storage goes a long way to solving space headaches down the road.

So, what can you do to tidy up your garage and make it look (and feel) bigger than it is? To solve this riddle, we’ve listed six tasks to help you organize your space effectively.

It’s completely natural for you to dump stuff on the floor in your garage. However, you only have so much floor space available, so, at some point, the clutter from storing things on the floor is bound to catch up with you. While you could always discard stuff you’re no longer using, you could think outside the box and use the next most spacious area of the room: the ceiling.

Overhead racks make this possible. Theoretically speaking, you could transfer about half of what you have on the ground onto these ceiling storage boxes; it’s why we recommend it as a storage hack. However, in practice, you’ll need to consider two things before you start moving things about: weight and usage frequency. It’s never a good idea to concentrate a lot of weight in a small area on your ceiling -– the whole setup could fall apart. That’s a legitimate safety risk; you don’t want anyone in the vicinity in a structural collapse. Follow recommended weight limits and hire a professional to install your overhead racks safely. 

As for usage frequency, the last thing anyone wants is to fetch a ladder every time they need an item. Use the racks to store items you only use seasonally or sparingly. There’s one last thing to watch out for here: your lighting. If your garage uses ceiling lights, installing an overhead rack may dim the intensity or even block it out entirely. In this case, move the fixtures or attach LED strips directly to the bottom of your rack.

Wall-mounted shelves are a more obvious solution to your storage problems than overhead racks. They’re easier to reach than overhead racks and pose a lesser structural collapse risk. That doesn’t mean you can go crazy and keep whatever you like on them, though. Where the shelf is positioned on the wall (like the corners, for example), and the dimensions have implications for how much weight it can carry.

If you’re going the DIY route and constructing one yourself -– shelves are on our list of projects to try out before calling a professional – the first thing you want to do is pick a good location. Certain factors, such as what you plan on storing on the shelf and your general garage layout, should inform your decision-making. Then, get to work with an electric screwdriver, Allen wrench, or any tool that suits your fancy to fix it to the wall.

Alternatively, you could invest in metal shelving units. With these, you can add caster wheels and move them around whenever you like without removing any nails. You can get your hands on one of these for around $30 — as of March, Home Depot had a heavy-duty shelving unit going for that price.

Staying on top of your inventory and knowing when to decongest is necessary to stop things from getting out of hand. A confined space can only take so many items before it starts to look cramped. Things start to get lost in the pile of assorted items, and just looking at the sight of a scattered environment can give you a headache. So, what’s the best way to clean up the mess in the garage?

Start by taking a mental list of the things you need the most before you actually start throwing things away. That list stops you from hanging on to things you haven’t used in ages, but might convince yourself to keep. Don’t get us wrong; there’s certainly some stuff you barely use that can come in very handy when you need them, but chances are that if they’ve been left to gather dust for a long time, then they’re really just occupying valuable space. To stay on the safe side, though, you should keep receipts and other sensitive items.

Decluttering can be overwhelming if you let it pile up, though. Nobody wants to spend an entire day rummaging through old things in a stuffy garage. So, use the 21-toss method: pick 21 items to toss out or give away every day for a week. You could aim for a higher number depending on your energy levels, but the point is to space out your decongestion so you don’t get overwhelmed.

CRAFTSMAN‘s 2022 survey found that over half of adult homeowners in the United States use their garages for some form of DIY projects -– 53% to be exact. With this in mind, there’s most likely a dedicated workstation where all the creative magic happens situated in the garage. If you’ve set up a permanent fixture, however, you’re leaving valuable storage space on the table.

Some garages run so tight that they can only fit one car, and in such cases, you’re going to need every inch of space you can lay your hands on. A fold-down workbench is perfect in this scenario -– you use it when you need it, then you tuck it away safely against the wall. As a bonus, you can use the area under the workbench as storage for things like vacuum cleaners and compressors. While you’ll obviously need to move things around when you want to work on your next passion project, it offers maneuverability that a dedicated setup can’t.

If you're inclined to build one yourself, it's not that complicated

All you need is some brackets, hinges, dowel legs, and a bit of creativity.

We highlighted how you can use shelves to maximize your space, but some tools require a bit more intentionality — especially if they’re easy to misplace. Think of how many times you’ve had to grope around a shelf or floor in search of a missing drill bit, screw, or nail. Magnetic bit racks help you organize these metallic items so you don’t have to take up valuable space with boxes of the stuff, only to risk them going missing anyway.

The best part is that you can construct one yourself as a DIY project. All you need, besides the wood to make the frame, is magnetic strips. Simply mount the strip securely onto a wall, workbench, or any surface you fancy, and you have a handy place to retrieve your metallic tools. 

Make sure to set it up in an area that’s comfortable to reach, though -– the last thing you want is to take multiple trips far away from your workbench or stand on your tiptoes every time you want something.

It’s entirely possible to perform all the aforementioned tasks and still have a very cramped garage. Maybe you drive a large SUV, which makes it impossible to create any meaningful space. In such a scenario, you’d be better served addressing the elephant in the room -– the car itself. Instead of spending valuable time looking for workarounds that’ll barely move the needle, park your car in the driveway.

Of course, it goes without saying that this is an absolute last resort. Your garage exists for multiple reasons, but its primary function is to give your car a measurable degree of protection. Once you park in the driveway, your car is exposed to a world of risks, even if you live in a relatively safe environment. For starters, the effort barrier for theft is much lower. Where a thief would have to invest effort to break into your garage to do any damage, your car is suddenly easily accessible.

Secondly, damage from hail and other elements could necessitate a trip to the repair shop, and there’s also the risk of accidents, no matter how remote the possibility seems. A car in the area may lose control, kids playing with a ball could accidentally smash your windows -– the list is endless. It’s an option you can explore as a temporary solution; the other tasks in this article are better suited to keep everything you own safe.