It Was Time to Utilize and Organize the Space I call My Garage.
Photo by Kelvyn Ornettte Sol Marte on Unsplash
We now have enough room, and I have my three car garage.
What upgrades should we make, and where would we get the biggest bang for the buck? We had a list of projects we wanted to tackle, but the main focus started with the garage. We were going to everything to make the garage the best place to store everything. This was one of the main reasons for our move, after all.
We started by buying another garage door opener for the single garage portioIt needed to be be WIFI enabled and belt-driven. This entailed a full-on install as the previous owners had never used the door as anything but a manual operation. As an accompaniment to this necessity, we also had to replace the worn-out garage door wheels on both doors. The combination of a newly tuned-up door and belt-driven opener provides a very quiet experience. As is always necessary, we have the doors set up to automatically close within 15 minutes. I get notifications sent to my phone alerting me to openings and closings of the door. This can be both good and bad if you have kids as they seem to be opening and closing the doors relatively frequently.
Our doors had been tuned up and were in excellent working order. We could now focus on the floor. We opted to have the floor coated by a company specializing in polyaspartic floor formulations. These are more resilient compared to epoxy and promise great UV/Stain resistance. Given the availability of a number of color patterns, we were immediately sold. The coating could be applied in a day and vehicles could be parked on within a few days afterward. Our only downfall during the week of application was finding a home for the items we had already had within the garage. All of the items had been moved to the driveway and barely tarped. Not the best plan on our part as we received an overwhelming amount of rainfall over the next few days. Needless to say, there were valuable casualties when we gambled with the erratic Michigan weather.
Garage Floor (media by Jeff Clos)
We now had a floor we really added a whole new dimension to the garage. Next up, storage. We utilized every last bit of space within our previous garage from the house we moved from. I was a very big supporter of the Rubbermaid FastTrack system. They have a plethora of hooks, rails, shelving, etc. We decided to continue with the FastTrack system in the new garage. We could conveniently hang the bikes, the yard tools, a few power tools, ladders, and the list goes on. The railing system can be bought in various lengths. Our main focus was on the 84 inches and 48-inch options. We had the wall space and no lack of items that needed hanging. I continue to play hockey in my later years and find the basket system to be extremely helpful in organizing my equipment while keeping everything looking neat and tidy.
Rubbermaid Fasttrack System (media by JC)
The Convenient Murphy Ladder (media by JC)
Our garage was quite a bit higher than the previous garage and we had to invest in an additional extension ladder to be able to access the attic within the garage. We had found out our existing extension ladder was short by a few feet. As happy as I am with the Murphy (pictured) brand of ladders, they are extremely convenient/easy-to-store but come up short when trying to place in a 12-foot entrance within our garage. They currently top out at 11 feet in height. We would need something at least 14 feet in height to be able to reach the entrance and exceed it to walk into the attic. We needed access to the attic if we were going to be able to add the overhead ceiling storage we were aiming for. Our quick fix was to purchase a 17 ft extension ladder from Harbor Freight. I would not be caught flat-footed again.
I am a huge proponent of overhead storage in garages. We had maxed our storage within our previous garage and used a combination of shelving and overhead storage. We had purchased two such overhead shelving units and now we had to mount them. To do this we had to access our attic and reinforce where needed. To say the whole process was easy would be less than honest. Mounting one unit was hard enough, but with it, we gained experience and the second was easier. This is not a one-person job and it is highly recommended to have all of the needed tools before proceeding. Having two ladders is a must. I could write a whole article based on this experience, but it would most likely be filled with many expletives. The saving grace is a place to store less often used items in the garage, but take care in not filling it with never used items.
(2) 4′ x 8′ Overhead Storage (media by JC)