The Garage: Phase Two

The garage overhaul has been progressing in fits and starts but with no beautiful "ta da" shots to show off. I mean lets be real, this is a heavily used family space that won't ever be perfectly organized with absolutely everything in its place, as much as I'd like it to be.  

So anyhoo, I've mostly completed the welcome wall (phase two) where the garbage used to be with a few details yet to be added (hooks for keys and backpacks). We almost exclusively enter and exit the house through the garage, so this area is where a lot of stuff gets deposited and needs to be stored. 

This is how it used to look.  The big wide shelf was a junk repository and the shelves were a mishmash of items and kind of hard to get to because of the wide counter below.

On the other (west) side, we kept the bins that hold shoes and jackets on that black shelf. The bin system for jackets works really well for us even though it looks like a bunched up mess. We have an embarrassingly large selection of outerwear to accommodate San Francisco's strange and variable weather (you kind of need it if you spend a lot of time outdoors like we do). The wire shelves were good for jacket bins but weren't an efficient way to store helmets and other stuff.

The idea was to move the garbage to the other side and make the shelving on this side more efficient.

I bought and installed this simple wall mounted shelving system from Discount Builders. It was easy because the brackets screwed into the studs.

The only thing I don't like about this system is the gap that is left between wall and shelf because of the bracket. It doesn't look good and small items can roll off. 

 I did this to get around that.

 This is very easy to do with pine because it is so soft. 

Hand cut two kerf lines with a japanese saw and then knock out the block with a chisel and mallet. I varnished these shelves later so that they feel smooth and sealed.

As part of the reorganization, I repurposed this chest for jacket storage. It used to live at the back of the garage holding random sportswear. I'll probably always leave the lid open in the future to discourage stuff getting placed on top of it (that would be a pain, wouldn't it?).

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this area helps to keep us more organized. (No more helmets all over the place!) I'm already anticipating needing to make a few adjustments (like moving the shredder to make room for one more jacket bin) and making better use of the wall by the tire pump. Still lots more to do but getting better bit by bit!