Garage Organization Tips for Sports Lovers

If you and your family are into sports, it’s likely that you’ve accumulated a great deal of sports equipment over the years. The most natural space to store all of this equipment is, of course, the garage. But how do you keep all of that stuff from taking over the garage and crowding your car’s parking space, especially with kids who may not be quite as organized as you are? Here are some tips to keeping sports equipment efficiently organized in the garage.

Make use of hooks.

Take an inventory of your sports equipment and consider how many items can be stored on space-saving hooks installed on your garage walls. You’ll likely be surprised. Tennis rackets, baseball mitts, golf club bags, backpacks, life jackets, helmets, and bicycles, for example, could all be stored on wall hooks in your garage.

Try a bungee cord ball keeper.

Have you seen basketballs and volleyballs at the store kept in large containers fashioned with bungee cords that allow you to carefully fish out the ball that you want? Try this simple organizational technique at home by creating a bungee cord “ball keeper” of your own. It’s as simple as mounting a top and bottom shelf to your garage wall and then attaching long bungee cords vertically between these two shelves.

Try an old pallet.

Another easy, do-it-yourself type of storage involves using an old wooden pallet. Sand and then stain or paint it if you like, and then turn it on its side and place it against the garage wall. In that open space in the middle of the pallet, you’ll be able to store things like baseball bats, hockey sticks, and even skis and ski poles.

Don’t forget about shoes.

It’s likely that your household has a collection of shoes tailored for certain sports as well, such as baseball shoes, running spikes, and roller blades. Consider adding a shoe rack to your garage’s organizational system to keep all of these shoes in one place—and to keep your kids from tracking mud into the house.

Organize by sport.

One simple way to make sure that your garage remains organized the way you intended it is to organize your sports equipment by sport. Consider incorporating shelving in your garage and designate each bin on the shelf for equipment for a certain sport—then label your bins. Keep baseballs and mitts in one bin, for example, and your bike helmet, lock, and air pump in other.

The more infrequently it’s used, the higher up it goes.

This rule applies if you have decided to incorporate high shelving in your garage’s organizational system. You likely have some sports equipment that sees almost everyday use, and other equipment that might be restricted to a certain time of year or is simply used less frequently. So, when organizing your garage shelving, be sure that you are placing those lesser-used items up on higher shelf levels.