How to Organize a Garage You Can Actually Park In
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know what’s coming.
Rain. Lots and lots of rain. 😂
Which means this is about the time of year when I become VERY passionate about being able to park your car in your garage.
Think about it: your car is probably one of the most expensive things you own, and yet somehow it ends up sitting outside in the rain because the garage is filled with camping gear you haven't touched in three years, half-empty paint cans, kids' toys they've outgrown, and boxes you put out there because you didn't know where else to put them.
And listen, I'm all for using your garage for storage. Mine definitely is!
But your garage shouldn't become a storage unit for things you rarely use while your car gets kicked out into the elements.
After organizing more garages than I could possibly count, I've learned that a functional garage really comes down to two things:
Keeping only what deserves the space.
And making what you keep incredibly easy to access and put away.
So with rainy season right around the corner here in the PNW, I thought I'd share the garage organization products we use again and again, plus a few things I would (and wouldn't!) recommend after years of organizing garages professionally.
First, You Have to Make Room for the Car
Before we talk about shelving and storage bins, we have to talk about the stuff (because no amount of organizing is going to fix having too much of it!).
The garage has a sneaky way of becoming the go-to place for anything we don't know what to do with inside the house. The donation pile goes out there. The things we might sell someday go out there. The random project supplies go out there… Then one day you open the garage and wonder how you're supposed to fit an entire vehicle in there.
If that's your garage right now, don't start by buying bins.
Start by asking:
“What am I storing in here that's more important than being able to park my car?”
You might be surprised by how much you're ready to let go of when you look at it that way!
I have an entire step-by-step garage organization guide that walks you through decluttering, sorting, categorizing, creating a functional layout, and maintaining your garage, so start there if your space needs a full overhaul.
Once you know what you're keeping, THEN we get to the fun part: giving everything a home!
Start With Really Good Garage Shelving
If I could choose one product that makes the biggest difference in a garage, it would probably be high-quality shelving.
Here are two of our favorites that allow you to use the vertical space in your garage instead of letting everything slowly migrate across the floor.
1. Whalen Industrial Shelving
We use the Whalen industrial racks from Costco in client garages all the time! They're sturdy, hold a LOT, and give us enough space to create clear categories instead of stacking miscellaneous boxes on top of each other.
The downside?
They're not exactly the most convenient thing to haul home from Costco. 😂
This is one of those little things I love about working with our team! We source and deliver shelving for our organizing clients, so you don't have to figure out how you're getting several giant shelving units from Costco into the back of your car and then home.
We show up ready to create the system for you!
2. Brightroom Wire Shelving
Another favorite of ours is the Brightroom wire shelving from Target. These are great if you want flexible open storage without the visual weight of a big industrial rack.
And yes, I said “open storage” intentionally…
I Typically DON'T Recommend Closed Garage Cabinets
This might be an unpopular organizing opinion, but I generally don't recommend closed cabinetry in garages.
And it's not because it can't look nice! But every extra step between using something and putting it away becomes another opportunity for that item to land on the floor instead.
Open cabinet door. Put item away. Close cabinet door.
It doesn't sound like much, but when you're carrying groceries into the house, helping your kid find their soccer ball, putting away gardening supplies, or trying to clean up after a project, those little barriers matter.
You can still make a garage look great without hiding everything behind doors. More importantly, everyone can see where things belong.
How to Choose the Right Bin
Not everything in your garage needs the same type of bin, and one of the biggest things we think about when organizing a garage is how often you're reaching for what's inside.
For things you don't need every day, we typically use a combination of black storage totes and clear Sterilite totes. Clear bins make it easy to see what's inside at a glance, while black bins can give open shelving a cleaner, more cohesive look. Either way, LABEL THEM! You don't want to pull down six identical totes looking for one thing.
And for the things your family grabs all the time, I'm a big fan of skipping the lid altogether.
We love these open, non-lidded bins for kids' outdoor toys, gardening supplies, pet supplies, household overstock, and anything else you're constantly reaching for.
It sounds like such a small thing, but removing a lid removes one more barrier to putting something away. That's something we think about constantly when creating organizing systems: How can we make this as easy as possible to maintain?
Because the easier something is to grab AND put back, the more likely your family is to actually keep using the system. And that matters way more than creating a garage that just looks perfect in a photo.
Give the Bikes a Proper Home
My husband, Dan, is an avid biker, and he's always advised against storage systems that hang bikes improperly from the wheels or handlebars. If you're going to hang a bike, you want to make sure you're using a method that's appropriate for the bike and supporting it correctly.
But for most families, I love the simplicity of a standing bike rack. All you have to do is roll the bike in and you’re done!
And if you have kids, they can put their own bikes away. Any organizing system that lets kids independently put their own stuff away gets bonus points from me!
Use the Walls for Awkward Garage Gear
Some things simply don't belong in a bin…
Rakes.
Shovels.
Brooms.
Sports equipment.
Long-handled tools.
That's where a Gladiator GearTrack comes in! We install these in client garages all the time, and every organizer on our team is trained to do it. And you don't need to be particularly handy to install one yourself - if you know how to operate a drill, you can do this!
Getting those awkward items onto the wall keeps them visible and accessible while freeing up valuable floor space.
Think Twice Before Adding Overhead Storage
While I will always advocate for utilizing vertical storage, I generally don’t love overhead garage storage systems.
Yes, garages have a ton of unused space near the ceiling. And yes, technically you can fit a lot up there. But if putting something away requires you to get a ladder → carry it into the garage → climb up → wrestle a giant bin overhead → climb back down → put the ladder away...
How often are you really going to do that? Probably not every time.
For very rarely accessed items, overhead storage can make sense. But for most families, I'd rather create enough breathing room that what you own fits onto accessible shelving.
The easier something is to put away, the more likely it is to stay organized.
My Very PNW Garage Must-Have: A Dry Mat
This one isn't technically an organization product, but I couldn't write a garage post heading into fall without including it.
I have these garage dry mats in both my garage AND our warehouse.
They're incredible!
When you pull a wet car into the garage after driving through PNW rain or snow, the mat catches and absorbs all that water instead of letting it spread across the garage floor.
If you've ever watched the puddle underneath your car slowly make its way toward everything you're storing along the garage walls, you understand why I'm obsessed!
The Best Garage Organization System Is the One You'll Actually Maintain
After organizing so many garages over the years, I've become much less interested in squeezing the maximum possible amount of stuff into a space - I'd rather help you own the right amount of stuff and make it incredibly easy to use what you have.
Here at The Orderly Space, we're constantly asking: “How can we remove one more barrier to putting this away?”
Your garage is an extremely hardworking part of your home. It needs to store the camping gear and Costco overflow and gardening supplies and bikes and all the other things that don't necessarily belong inside.
But it should also work for your actual, everyday life.
And here in the PNW, I'd argue that includes giving your car a dry place to park. 😉 So before the rain officially settles in, go stand in your garage and take a look around. If your car isn't fitting inside, start there.
What are you storing that's worth more to you than the space your car needs?
And if the answer is, “Jennifer, I don't even know where to BEGIN with this garage,” that's exactly what we're here for.
Our Northwest Washington based team can help you sort through what's accumulated, decide what deserves to stay, source the right garage storage products, install systems, and create a garage that's easy for your family to maintain long after we leave.
Schedule a complimentary consultation and let's get your car back in the garage before another PNW rainy season is in full swing!
