I've been told the ultimate no-no is to mess with a man's space. However, I have my man's permission so I'm forging ahead. I found this board while searching for garage organization tips. For Father's Day/27th Anniversary, I am doing a preliminary set-up of my husband's garage he just built. I wanted it to be a surprise, but thought I better get some basic permission first. He doesn't know exactly what I'm doing but said that anything I do will be an improvement and a start and to feel free to have at it.
He just completed (except for sheetrock) building his dream garage/workshop. I don't know exactly how big, but it's huge - 3 cars with lots of elbow room between them and a large workshop in back, bathroom with laundry facilities, a huge shelving unit for recreational equipment with room to park his 4-wheelers underneath it (must be 10 ft tall and 30 ft long?). His tools were still in the crawl space and while he had a large workbench and another one in the crawl space, other than that nothing was really organized yet or even hauled out of storage into the garage.
He is out of town and gets back on the 27th. I want to have it done by then. I have hauled everything out of the crawl space, including the second workbench (I'm so sore I can hardly move!). He has a ton of stuff because he used to do contracting and because we have been doing an extensive remodel of our fixer-upper home. A good chunk of it he had already organized and labeled into bins so it was just a matter of hauling it up out of the crawl space and creating storage in the garage.
I am trying to do everything low-budget and nothing built-in. Just setting things up so he can use the space while he thinks through how he wants to eventually do the organization - slot? grid? cabinets? shelves? peg? Whatever.
I bought 3 5-ft inexpensive shelf units. I also have the large workbench (more than 3 cabinets long) and a smaller craftsmen workbench. I made some temporary shelves at the back of the workbench for his various labeled bins. Then I set things up in "workstations or centers" and bought some extras like rolling stools, undercar creeper and such
Car Center
Rolling cabinet w/car tools
Shelving unit- lubricants, antifreeze, filters, car manuals, etc.
Creeper
Rolling pneumatic stool
Yard Center
Home Repair/Remodeling - Painting Bin, Sanding Bin, Sheetrock Bin, Flooring Bin, Plumbing Bin, Safety Equipment, Measuring/Marking Bin, Cutting Bin, Electrical Bin, etc. - One of the shelf units and the back of the workbench
Craftsmen Tool Bench - not sure what to put in here? was thinking hand tools? Or leave it empty for him to set up when he gets home
Large Work Bench - He has lots of hardware, nails, screws and various "fastener" power tools that I put in here. The roofing nailer w/its "ammon", framing nailer w/supplies, coil nailer w/supplies, electric stapler w/supplies, masonry gun w/supplies, etc. At the back of the workbench are those drawer units w/misc. hardware. Another rolling stool at the workbenches
Woodworking/Cutting Area - This has various table and hand saws, clamps, vises, levels, marking tools, measuring tools, sawhorses
Other things to think of for convenience sake???: I've added shop paper towels on dispensers in several places, hand soap in several places, a radio/CD player. I need to get a first aid kit and an eyewash station out there. I'm going to put in a shelf w/his shop-related magazines and books. I'm thinking about buying a small mini-fridge if I can do so and come under budget.
I've got about $100 left in the budget. Any suggestions? When I'm all done I'm going to take pics, create a quick webpage and send him the link as a surprise. I can share the link here when I finish (hopefully by Thursday) and get your last minute suggestions.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer. I was glad to find this website because I know he'd love a place to talk about the best way to set-up a new garage when he's ready to tackle it. But for now, I'm just trying to make it workable for him.
Charity
He just completed (except for sheetrock) building his dream garage/workshop. I don't know exactly how big, but it's huge - 3 cars with lots of elbow room between them and a large workshop in back, bathroom with laundry facilities, a huge shelving unit for recreational equipment with room to park his 4-wheelers underneath it (must be 10 ft tall and 30 ft long?). His tools were still in the crawl space and while he had a large workbench and another one in the crawl space, other than that nothing was really organized yet or even hauled out of storage into the garage.
He is out of town and gets back on the 27th. I want to have it done by then. I have hauled everything out of the crawl space, including the second workbench (I'm so sore I can hardly move!). He has a ton of stuff because he used to do contracting and because we have been doing an extensive remodel of our fixer-upper home. A good chunk of it he had already organized and labeled into bins so it was just a matter of hauling it up out of the crawl space and creating storage in the garage.
I am trying to do everything low-budget and nothing built-in. Just setting things up so he can use the space while he thinks through how he wants to eventually do the organization - slot? grid? cabinets? shelves? peg? Whatever.
I bought 3 5-ft inexpensive shelf units. I also have the large workbench (more than 3 cabinets long) and a smaller craftsmen workbench. I made some temporary shelves at the back of the workbench for his various labeled bins. Then I set things up in "workstations or centers" and bought some extras like rolling stools, undercar creeper and such
Car Center
Rolling cabinet w/car tools
Shelving unit- lubricants, antifreeze, filters, car manuals, etc.
Creeper
Rolling pneumatic stool
Yard Center
Home Repair/Remodeling - Painting Bin, Sanding Bin, Sheetrock Bin, Flooring Bin, Plumbing Bin, Safety Equipment, Measuring/Marking Bin, Cutting Bin, Electrical Bin, etc. - One of the shelf units and the back of the workbench
Craftsmen Tool Bench - not sure what to put in here? was thinking hand tools? Or leave it empty for him to set up when he gets home
Large Work Bench - He has lots of hardware, nails, screws and various "fastener" power tools that I put in here. The roofing nailer w/its "ammon", framing nailer w/supplies, coil nailer w/supplies, electric stapler w/supplies, masonry gun w/supplies, etc. At the back of the workbench are those drawer units w/misc. hardware. Another rolling stool at the workbenches
Woodworking/Cutting Area - This has various table and hand saws, clamps, vises, levels, marking tools, measuring tools, sawhorses
Other things to think of for convenience sake???: I've added shop paper towels on dispensers in several places, hand soap in several places, a radio/CD player. I need to get a first aid kit and an eyewash station out there. I'm going to put in a shelf w/his shop-related magazines and books. I'm thinking about buying a small mini-fridge if I can do so and come under budget.
I've got about $100 left in the budget. Any suggestions? When I'm all done I'm going to take pics, create a quick webpage and send him the link as a surprise. I can share the link here when I finish (hopefully by Thursday) and get your last minute suggestions.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer. I was glad to find this website because I know he'd love a place to talk about the best way to set-up a new garage when he's ready to tackle it. But for now, I'm just trying to make it workable for him.
Charity
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Thanks for all the tips. I'm sure that he'll be posting pics of his garage construction pics at some point in the future. I'm going to share this board with him. He still has some things to finish and would probably like to get feedback. Plus, he'll be drooling over the garages I saw in the gallery.