Google and Garage Cabinets?

[jingles]

Hi,

I'm just starting the process of desiging my garage, and I'm really hoping that some of you will be able to get me pointed in the right direction.

I'm planning on housing my car, my workshop tools, and the 2 new ATVs that I'm about to buy my kids, in this new garage, so it's probably going to start to get tight. The dimensions are about 35 wide by about 25 feet deep (nice 9 foot high ceiing though).

In the process of trying to determine my flooring and cabinet options, I googled garage cabinets, and a company by the name of Slide-Lok came up. ranked first in the organic listing (not sure if any of you have ever heard of them www.slide-lok.com (http://www.slide-lok.com)). They also came up around number 4 when I googled garage storage.

Anyway, do you think that I should start by considering cabinets or should I start the process with some other consideration? And, what about Slide-Lok garage storage vs. other alternatives that you may know of and/or recommend?

Many thanks.

Jerry

[BoostAddiction]

IMO, the first step in designing a garage is to understand precisely what its intended use really will be. Come up with a set of requirements. Write them down.

From that, you can (and should) design several plans that might meet the stated requirements. Think about them, circulate them among your design-minded friends and choose two that seem to make sense from the suitability and cost perspectives. Keep referring to the written specs and check every change to see that it remains consistent to your vision. Everyone finds that the process of speccing and learning is iterative, so don't be afraid to change the specs as you learm. But write them down.

Then share them on this site- there will likely be plenty of opinions.

Don't skip the first step- it's hard to get where you want to go when you haven't really decided where that is.

Cabinets are a secondary consideration- there is so much more to a well-designed, comfortable garage than cabinet choice. Focus on the goals, then getting there. The cabinets will take care of themselves. For example, in my garage, I knew I needed a lot more tool storage than I could easily get with just regular tool boxes, so that drove the cabinet choices. I also wanted a storage scheme that didn't use open shelves as I knew from previous experience that they would be dust collectors of the first order. So everything in my garage is in enclosed cabinets. But your mileage may vary, and you need to make your own choices. They may not be the ones someone else might have chosen, but you are the one who has to live in your garage, not someone else.

One way to get ideas is to search the archives for garages of others. Sometimes you will see that they have solved problems you didn't know you would be facing. That is useful stuff.

Good luck, and share the ideas!