Kyle's Garage Project

[G20-Budo]

"Kyle's Triple" Garage Project

Well, after seeing some of the projects here and a few friendly suggestions I am starting a garage project thread.

I have a 3 car garage that is just a mess! I'm able to comfortably park two cars in there, but I have a bench and tool box, and piles of junk in the 3rd stall. I realize I need to get things sorted, cleaned/organized..but after seeing some of the great ideas here, I want to do even more than that.

Here are some pics of the mess.
Left bay:

The other two bays:

And a pic to show you just how messy it is:

As you can see we have some cheap cabinets on the left side, two rack shelves along the end wall, a gorilla rack bench and some wall mounted shelves on the right. And of course I have piles of stuff.

At this point my goals are:

• Clean it all up
• Paint the walls
• Do something with floor (thinking Epoxy- perhaps a checker pattern, two colors, one for each cement slab?)
• Perhaps replace the cabinets with something better?
• Make better use of the space, utilize space better for the items I keep
• Move some stuff out to a shed (need to get a shed first)
• Improve lighting
• Create a better working bench area
• Perhaps get a tire rack if it will fit to move wheels off the ground
• Put up some cool logo's/posters of the cool car stuff I like
• Tidy up the wires all over the place

I guess that's it for NOW.. I see OCD can be contagious on this forum. And you guys seem to come up with all kinds of cool ideas.

 

[55cadillacking]

Hi Kyle, just jumping over to your thread from mine. I see you have a bit of work ahead of you as far as decluttering the space. I think a shed is paramount to your success. You have to see those wall before you can paint 'em! Best of luck sorting through your thicket of stuff!

 

[G20-Budo]

Rick,

Thanks for the inputs. Yes I agree, a shed is going to be a must have for me. I have a number of items I don't want to get rid of, but don't want to keep in the garage. I also noticed while looking at my garage, that I have a good amount of possible storage space that I'm NOT currently utilizing it. Rick, your garage and a few others have really given me some ideas.

I hope to have some progress pics this weekend (mainly clean up) to show.

 

[ilovevocs]

I personally would start by buying 10 to 15 containers and begin to sort everything. My tote of preference is : http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-gal-Tote-207585/202328879?N=b9ojZ9tk#.Ua8s2o3D-5M . Develop a classification system and allow it to evolve as you go. Use piles at first, then move things to the bins as the designation becomes more clear. Some ways I sort items are; functionality, owner (e.g. wife, child, myself), project, area of use ( house, work.) I also find it prudent to have a few storage bins for Miscellaneous and project specific ( I have a few spare bins I use when I take something apart when I know im not going to complete the project in one day.) The spare bins help keep me organized and prevent parts from laying on my work benches or floor. My next step is to develop an electronic database to track items...

 

[G20-Budo]

Stellar advice vocs, and so simple. I think that is where I will start this weekend. I didn't even open the cabinets for you guys to see the mess in there. There is plenty ot items I can toss out. But there are also a number of items that should go together (I.e. plumbing items, flooring items, painting items, automotive stuff, etc). The bins will be a great way to get a many ot those items together. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[dubber]

Ahhh Here it is. Glad to see you started up a thread.

I'm not sure why you were so hesitant to start with your before pics haha. Lots of potential here for sure. I definitely echo the need of a shed and let the purging begin!

Your new steps are as follows:

1. Shed
2. Purge
3. paint
4. floor
5. storage
6. lighting
7. details
8. Enjoy!

Steps 1 and 2 will help you tremendously, especially by dissipating the feeling of being overwhelmed by all of your stuff and where it needs to go.

 

[G20-Budo]

Dubber,

Thanks.. that's a good set of steps for me to work from. Though I might change it around a bit, I think I'd like to do lighting just after paint. But the rest of it I like. The purge will be the big one.. I haven't seen that side of the garage in ALONG time.

I have to admin, I'm pretty excited. Dubber, I remember reading through your thread and how excited I got just waiting for your flooring to arrive.

Thanks for the support guys.

 

[dubber]

Dubber,

Thanks.. that's a good set of steps for me to work from. Though I might change it around a bit, I think I'd like to do lighting just after paint. But the rest of it I like. The purge will be the big one.. I haven't seen that side of the garage in ALONG time.

I have to admin, I'm pretty excited. Dubber, I remember reading through your thread and how excited I got just waiting for your flooring to arrive.

Thanks for the support guys.

The excitement is definitely contagious! Good luck.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

... Develop a classification system and allow it to evolve as you go. Use piles at first, then move things to the bins as the designation becomes more clear. Some ways I sort items are; functionality, owner (e.g. wife, child, myself), project, area of use ( house, work.) I also find it prudent to have a few storage bins for Miscellaneous and project specific ...

^^^ The above is the hardest thing for me. For some people, such a classification system is 2nd nature. For me, it isn't, and I just get frustrated.

 

[mike_81]

kyle, nothing to me embarrassed about!

good luck.

 

[PoorOwner]

I recently started with storage bins also, even if you don't fill them up with the category of things, you'll get more space than the current pile file system. The good thing about bins is that contents cannot enroach each other so things will be easy to find.

 

[Eusibius2]

Do lighting first, then paint afterwards. The change of lighting (incandescent / flourescent / LED / etc) will change the way the paint looks under one light to the next. Even position or wattage can change it enough to make one scheme go from stellar to "why the hell did I pick that color?"

 

[G20-Budo]

^^^ The above is the hardest thing for me. For some people, such a classification system is 2nd nature. For me, it isn't, and I just get frustrated.

I know what you mean Jaguar.. At times it's all clear how I want to sort/org everything and at other times I feel lost.

kyle, nothing to me embarrassed about!

Thanks Mike, but it IS a freaking mess.

good luck.

I recently started with storage bins also, even if you don't fill them up with the category of things, you'll get more space than the current pile file system. The good thing about bins is that contents cannot enroach each other so things will be easy to find.

PoorOwner, this makes sense. I've got car parts, wiring harnesses, headlight retro stuff, etc, etc. And many sorted groups of parts would not fill up a bin, but that's ok. I'm excited to get started! I might go out and mess with it this evening..but this weekends are when I'll get most of the work done.

 

[G20-Budo]

Do lighting first, then paint afterwards. The change of lighting (incandescent / flourescent / LED / etc) will change the way the paint looks under one light to the next. Even position or wattage can change it enough to make one scheme go from stellar to "why the hell did I pick that color?"

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of it like that. I just wanted to get more light to be able to better see what I'm doing. I'll start looking around for some lighting options. The issue with a 3 car garage, is it takes lot more lights to light the place up properly.

 

[HSpencer]

On the asset side of the ledger I see some nice tall wall cabinets and the raised part of the floor. I envy that as one can wash out the floor easily. i would raise those cabinets somehow to allow for water wash out on that side. The cubicle cabinets on the other side could be painted and well used for bins, etc. Like everyone has said, you gotta get all that stuff out of there and off the floor. If no other means, I would do a side to side. Means moving everything to one side and do that one, putting the items afterwards. Then move to the other side and do that one. In the process, you can sort, pitch, and keep. If you could get a couple of days for that and get it out of the way your 50% home and better off. Shed as stated would be mandatory if your keeping bikes, lawn stuff, etc.
You have great potential and I know it will come out fantastic!! I will be checking in.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[G20-Budo]

Thanks Herb,

You know, you guys have all kinds of GREAT, simple ideas. I will be going through it this weekend. Both cars will be pulled out of the garage and I'll be tossing everything from the "bad" side into the middle of the garage.. then processing it. I hope my next pic looks better.

 

[SBogaCH]

You garage is cool! And it's really big!
I need to sort it from rubbish to find something necessary
When all the staff of my garage annoys me, I usually put everything outside my garage (in front of the gates) and sort it, and put it one after another. As for the rest, I throw out everything that i don't need.
If the space over the garage gates allows you to do it, I would put some tyres there. It would be situated in the line.
And some long and plane things need to be there as well.

 

[G20-Budo]

Thanks SBogaCH. I do like my garage, it's just messy and could use some custom touches..to make it more usable. I've seen many great ideas here on garagejournal. I'll have some updated pics soon.

As for the tires, I plan to buy or make a tire rack to put up high on the right side of the garage (but not in the over head space). We have holiday lights and such in boxes that I plan to put over the garage, which will clear up some space in the garage too.

I also realized that my family needs a shoe rack of some kind in the garage. My wife is from a culture where they do not wear shoes in the house, so we don't here at our house either. But there is a HUGE pile of shoes where everyone just kicks of their shoes. That's one of the first things I need to fix.

I'm going to attach one area at a time.

 

[aps63]

Kyle -
You have a great space to start with.
Shouldn't take much time at all to see great progress.
Keep the pictures coming.

 

[G20-Budo]

Today was a pretty good day for my garage project, and I wanted to get some pics posted so you guys wouldn't think I'm a slacker.

Today was a clean the cabinets, see what I have on hand to help with my garage transformation, take some measurements and do some planning day.

I'll start off with the items that can help the transformation. I've had this retractable air hose for like 7 years now, but never installed it. I didn't run an air line to it because I wanted to run a hard line, but was tossing up a soft line, and it just sat there. I don't know the manufacturer of it, but it looks well made.

I was thinking of mounting it on the wall between the garage doors here (attach a mounting board with lag bolts and bolt the retractable hose to it).

Do any of you have inputs on the height you'd mount a retractable hose such as this? Also, any inputs you guys might have on the kind of hard airline you might have ran in your shop/garage.. pro's/con's.

I found this on the back patio, it's 105 qt capacity (it was slated for my green house which is a story in its self), so I borrowed it for the garage).

I realize all of my containers won't match right now, I'll get new matching ones in the future.

Lastly while cleaning one of the cabinets out I found these.

They should come in handy here in the near future.

Ok, so on to the cabinets.. keep in mind we haven't done much with the contents of these cabinets in YEARS.. And there are still 2 containers and a two boxes that have content I need for my wife to review before we can decide keep, toss, etc. I realize the shelves bow, these are CHEAP cabinets the wife had installed a number of years ago to help us with storage space. I plan to make use of them for now, and replace them with a better option in the future.

Before:

During cleaning:

After cleaning: (I also remembered that set of speakers on the top shelf there, which will be mounted on the wall here in the garage in the near future).

Another area I found that needs some attention is right as we walk in the door. We don't wear shoes in the house, so they tend to get just kicked off right before we walk in the door.

And a close up:

Well I cleared the plastic bags and containers just to the right of the door to the house. I will just need to work out some kind of shoe rack to put there (inputs welcomed).

Again, these might not seem like big things to you guys, but for me it was! During my cleaning I came to a realization.. we have 3 large sized coolers (you would use at parties or tail gating), about 5 of the smaller ones you'd use when going on a long trip in a car, and 2-3 of the flexible thermal containers you would use to ship something in. And I wondered..what do we need all of those for? I asked the wife and she said perhaps it was when we were going to our oldest son's football games over the years?

I threw out a number of old junk items and organized 3 out of 4 of the cabinets.

Planning:
I noticed in some other threads that people took the time to measure their space, and then put it in a program to determine how everything will layout. So I measured most items in the garage (and the garage its self) and sketched it on a piece of paper, I will get it in a program here in the next day or 3.

I also decided on a color paint scheme for the garage, and the theme I'm going after. This is exciting for me, because prior to today, I had NO idea what color(s) I was going to paint and detail the garage with.

I also found a garage bling item I feel I have to have.. but not until I get the garage in order.

I'd like to close this post with a question..am I the only person that feels like this is some kind of a 12 step program, where we first admit we have an issue (garage is a MESS) and then we start working through it? (J/K)

Thanks for reading, and I'll have more updates in the days to follow.

 

[dubber]

Nice job with the progress. One step at a time for sure. And another positive is there may be families in need benefiting from anything your donating as you no longer need it and or forgot about it.

 

[HSpencer]

Great start!! You may wish to look at some more uses of those plastic bins. I have used a lot of them. Also on Amazon, you can get some "Hyloft" shelves which are great. I just got through using them in my shop office. The smaller boxes are for small parts and manuals and office supplies. The other shelf is for cases, boxes, kits, and what not. LOL don't look too close as I am only 50% there in rehabbing the office!!! Still miles to go.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[G20-Budo]

Nice job with the progress. One step at a time for sure. And another positive is there may be families in need benefiting from anything your donating as you no longer need it and or forgot about it.

Funny you should mention that dubber. I have basically three piles. Recycling, trash and donate. There wasn't much that could be donated, but there are a few items. Most of it was really just junk.

Great start!! You may wish to look at some more uses of those plastic bins. I have used a lot of them. Also on Amazon, you can get some "Hyloft" shelves which are great. I just got through using them in my shop office. The smaller boxes are for small parts and manuals and office supplies. The other shelf is for cases, boxes, kits, and what not. LOL don't look too close as I am only 50% there in rehabbing the office!!! Still miles to go.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted!!

Herb - Thanks for the inputs. I was actually thinking of getting some kind of shelving in two areas of the garage. And *if* I have the room for it, try to install a tire rack (thanks to Rick for the idea).

I also appreciate the positive reinforcement. There are so many supportive people here that offer great advice.

 

[G20-Budo]

Ok, so I did a little garage layout in Visio. This is how it would look if there wasn't so much junk in there.

I also have some ideas of what I can do with the cabinets.. I'd like to either paint them or cover them with vinyl.

I also have a few other items I should be able to paint that I had NEVER thought of painting before coming here.. thanks guys!

 

[rydeshed]

Having a three car garage gives you so much space, which means heaps of potential. Looks good dude!

 

[chenthu]

Great progress, keep posting updates!

 

[dubber]

Another idea just came to be, depending on the colours and paint scheme you go with it might be interesting to do something unique with your fridge, as its a huge flat bright white surface atm. There are some really interesting fake Craftsman cabinets I've seen on here as a possibility or even just doing a vinyl wrap on the front in another colour. But as mentioned it will come down to matching it best to the surroundings. And that's even if you actually care that much about that detail. Either way i keep checking in here to watch the progress. Keep it up!

 

[HSpencer]

Great design sketch. I like your plan. You have a whole lot of room and as I stated before you can make this one look great. I am going to be very interested in seeing it come around. Keep up the good work.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[G20-Budo]

Having a three car garage gives you so much space, which means heaps of potential. Looks good dude!

Great progress, keep posting updates!

Thanks guys.. having a triple actually means there is more to clean, more to paint, more to organize, etc.. But I'm finding that I'm enjoying this project.

Another idea just came to be, depending on the colours and paint scheme you go with it might be interesting to do something unique with your fridge, as its a huge flat bright white surface atm. There are some really interesting fake Craftsman cabinets I've seen on here as a possibility or even just doing a vinyl wrap on the front in another colour. But as mentioned it will come down to matching it best to the surroundings. And that's even if you actually care that much about that detail. Either way i keep checking in here to watch the progress. Keep it up!

Funny you should mention this dubber, I was thinking of items to paint or leave as is. The freezer is one of those I'm not sure about? The walls will be white, with a three color stripe, so the freezer might just get the stripe?

Here is a list of items I'm planning to paint:

• Walls/ceiling
• Water heater exhaust
• AC system
• Workbench frame
• Workbench surface top (when I first painted it, I used some left over paint from my kids bathroom, Lakers Yellow and Purple ).
• Garage door supports
• Shelves
• Big tool-tool box

Items to wrap in vinyl:

• Cabinets
• Water heater

Great design sketch. I like your plan. You have a whole lot of room and as I stated before you can make this one look great. I am going to be very interested in seeing it come around. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Herb. I found that the sketch above wasn't exactly right, so I adjusted the sketch and uploaded a more accurate one.

I also created a to-be sketch, and here it is:

 

[aps63]

It reall helps to draw a floor plan out of where you want everything to go.
I did mine and changed it 20 times before I was satisfyed with the layout.
Good to have a plan. Keep it up.

 

[dubber]

Just had a thought. Are the cabinets on the left side moveable? Once you have cleared things out of it obviously. I'm wondering if your able to shift them down about 3 feet towards the main garage doors. Then swing your freezer to fill the gap that is left as a result where the cabinet used to start. Make sense? That way its not a huge flat in your face surface. Seems like it would be a comparable size to the cabinets so it could work visually and functionally.

Again just 2 cents. Although i'm probably close to a dollar at this point haha.

 

[G20-Budo]

It reall helps to draw a floor plan out of where you want everything to go.
I did mine and changed it 20 times before I was satisfyed with the layout.
Good to have a plan. Keep it up.

Paul, I'm already noticing that trend.. I have changed the floor plan a few times..and then changed things back..and so on. I'm just afraid I'm going to turn into an OCD monster like Rick. hehehe.

What I'm learning from the really nice garage builds here is.. once I finish it... it won't be finished. I'll continue to tweak it for some time. And I'm going into this with my eyes wide open.. I plan to enjoy the journey.

 

[G20-Budo]

Just had a thought. Are the cabinets on the left side moveable? Once you have cleared things out of it obviously. I'm wondering if your able to shift them down about 3 feet towards the main garage doors. Then swing your freezer to fill the gap that is left as a result where the cabinet used to start. Make sense? That way its not a huge flat in your face surface. Seems like it would be a comparable size to the cabinets so it could work visually and functionally.

Again just 2 cents. Although i'm probably close to a dollar at this point haha.

Dubber, that's a good idea. The challenge I have is, I don't have that much extra room. The soft water system is down by the garage door, and it has hard lines going to it, so not something I'm planning to move any time soon. If I could get away with removing one cabinet and then shifting them all down, I MIGHT be able to move the freezer? For now I'll just work to shift it over to the left, closer to the AC system, to clear up more room to the right.

That is a good idea though, and I'm open to more if you or others have them. Thanks.

 

[MacTexas]

You need more lighting. You may consider something like this for the porcelain fixture.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ATG0JU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

You could also wire directly off the plugs in the ceiling some porcelain fixtures and use cfl bulbs.

 

[G20-Budo]

MacTexas, thanks for your inputs. I completely agree with you, I DO need more lighting. I have two 4' dual florescent light fixtures, but that is not nearly enough.

I remember seeing in someone's thread, a link to two different threads that are supposed to help calculate the amount of lighting I would need for my space.. I've been searching around and cannot find those threads? Any suggestions on the amount of 4' florescent fixtures would be good for a triple?

 

[mike_81]

what I'm doing in my single car is converting the porcelain fixture to an outlet and running dual T8 fixtures plugged into that. they come with plug and pull string but the outlet is controlled by a wall switch. you could add adapters and what not to add additional capacity as well.

using this you could convert one, some, or all of your porcelain single bulb fixtures to two 4' dual bulb florescent fixtures.

 

[aps63]

Kyle -
Here are the links to the ones I found and used to calculate my lighting needs.


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150938


It sends you to this article(which is great) about how to calculate how much light you need.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/content.php?146-Lighting-the-Small-Workshop-by-Jack-Lindsey

 

[SiGmA_X]

Great start. You're going to have an awesome work space once the 'junk' is sorted and dealt with. Its a constant problem I have too

 

[bjh]

For organization, I found it useful to draw inspiration from typical hardware store sections ("paint department", "plumbing", etc)

For storage, I made a large bin wall for standard 12-gallon bins like these (though I got a much better price at Costco)

 

[Red Leader]

Kyle,

I wanted to offer you some encouragement. You've got some work ahead of you, but you are in the right place! Lot's of helpful tips here, lots of great folks to spur you on. Keep at it.

I see that someone gave you a 1 start rating. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I feel that such action is a little uncalled for. It is discouraging to post up your challenge and your work and then have it so quickly devalued by someone. I say keep up the great work and you'll get there. You'll have some days you win and some days you lose, but any day you get to be out there is a good day.

If you ever need any advice, thoughts or a friendly 'push', feel free to PM me anytime.

Now, about that rating...