Win the Storage Wars at Northstar

Believe it or not, a garage is valuable to any home. According to HomeAdvisor, a garage increases home values by tens of thousands of dollars, while providing necessary storage space and adding protection for vehicles. At Northstar, a beautiful master-planned community located just outside of Fort Worth, two-car garages are a standard feature of their homes and some of our floorplans offer three-car garages. The builders at Northstar, some of the best in the country, know the value of space utilization, and the floorplans of these homes are carefully considered for maximum functionality.

Just Do It!

Do you dream about someday parking your car inside your garage but there’s no room? This is a familiar scenario for many people. If a garage is not set up with designated spaces for storage, they tend to become catch-all spaces for everything – including the kitchen sink!  If you clean out the garage, it could also function as a workshop, an exercise studio, an art studio, or just about anything else you set your mind to. The sky’s the limit, but first, you need to get organized. Here’s how.

Find Out What You Have?

The road to garage nirvana starts with the first step. According to the experts at SpaceWise,  “No matter how clean you think your garage is, there’s still a chance you might have items—like expired first-aid kits or broken tools—that you don’t need.” 

Start at the beginning by cleaning out the whole garage. To give yourself a clean slate, do the following:

• Take inventory.
• Throw out any expired or irreparable items.
• Organize the remaining items into three piles: keep, sell, and donate.
• Prepare your items for a garage sale. 
• Figure out what to do with your belongings after decluttering.
• Sweep out any debris and wash and reseal your garage floor.

Save Space by Using the Ceiling

Garage floor space is at a premium, so how do you reconcile that? Look up. A great way to get clutter off the floor is to hang it from the ceiling. Garage planning experts suggest using large hooks, screwed into a ceiling support board to hang up the bicycles, toy wagons, and wheelbarrows for yard work. The best part of this strategy is the price. Six of these large hooks cost less than $10.

Let’s Hang Out

One secret to reclaiming the garage includes using every available space, especially the walls. SpaceWise suggests, “Using pegboards is an easy way to incorporate hanging storage in your garage for lightweight and smaller items. This garage storage solution is great for massive storage walls, keeping tools over a workbench, or adding a coat and bag rack next to your door. Customize and arrange your tools to your liking on a pegboard by including specialty hooks, shelves, baskets, and more.”

Habit Stack 

“Habit Stacking” is a term used to describe building new habits by stacking them with ones you’ve already formed. Apply habit stacking to the organization of your garage by using plastic bins to declutter. 

According to FamilyHandyman, “Plastic storage bins are one of the great garage storage systems to separate and organize your equipment by sport or season. Unfortunately, they usually get stacked against a wall somewhere, which makes getting to the bottom bins difficult, especially for your household’s littlest teammates.” 

With just a little elbow grease, the easy storage solution is to use the company’s storage towers.  Having different color bins makes finding what you need easy, and you can even use the sides of the wooden frame for wall-mounted accessory items like fishing rod holders or utility hooks for lightweight equipment.

It Comes Down to the Wire

According to SpaceWise, “If you’re looking for budget-friendly garage organization ideas, consider using wire shelves instead of cabinets in your garage! This garage organization tip is great for storing various items, from gardening supplies to seasonal decor.” Wire shelving units provide the strength of metal shelves but without the bulkiness. Regardless of whether you choose wire shelves or metal shelves for your garage, be sure there’s enough clearance underneath them to make sweeping your garage floor easier.

Small Hardware Storage Solution

Maybe you’ve heard the expression (attributed to Ben Franklin) “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.” It’s true. Smaller hardware items like nails, screws, and washers are only important when you need them! Storing these little items can be as simple as designating hardware parts to the compartments in a clear tackle box!

Reclaim Your Space and Free Time

Ben Franklin also said, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” Imagine going out to your garage and finding a washer for the faucet or the baseball glove you put away last winter instead of spending an hour or more searching high and low. 

Once your garage is organized, you’ll have lots of free time to enjoy the fabulous amenities at Northstar. If you haven’t made the move to this (highly organized) master-planned community, why not take a look today? You may learn all the ways your free time can translate to fun family time. Just tell them Ben Franklin sent you!