For decades, garages have been nothing more than a place to keep a car safe from the weather or a place to store lawn and garden equipment or a spare fridge or deep freezer. Today, however, people are putting that valuable square footage to work to create everything from man caves to game rooms to entertainment spaces for large family gatherings. No matter what you need some extra space for, here are 8 tips and tricks to create the most versatile space and well-equipped garage.
1. Storage
There is perhaps nothing of greater importance in a well-equipped garage than storage. At some point, your garage needs to house a certain amount of traditional garage equipment. From tools to lawn and garden equipment to seasonal sporting equipment. What kind of storage you need is going to depend largely on what you want to use the garage for at other times. If it’s primary use is as a place to work on cars or build things, then you may want to opt for simple pegboard and overhead storage. On the other hand, if you want to use your garage during the holidays for family gatherings, as a game room or other entertainment area, then you might want to opt for custom built garage cabinets.
2. Flooring
There are a wide range of flooring options for your garage that range from the durable to the downright luxurious. You can opt for full or partial mats or floor tiles, have it custom coated with a durable epoxy or even just a good concrete sealer. Which one you choose will once again depend on how you want to use your garage. If you want to use your garage for entertaining or as a game room or man cave, you might opt for the custom epoxy or sealed concrete floor to keep oil spills or other fluids from sinking into the concrete and standing it. If you are predominantly using your garage as a workspace, you may opt for mats or tiles.
3. Power strips and extension cords
One thing you will want to be sure and have plenty of is power. Whether you need to hang work lights to rebuild a carburetor, decorative lights for a party or provide power to belt sanders and rotary saws, you will want to make sure that you can get power to every inch of your garage.
4. Rolling tool boxes
Another thing you will want to be sure you can keep handy is your tools – particularly if you have invested a great deal of money in professional sets. Rolling tool boxes also give you access to your tools where you need them, but then can be rolled out of the way when you want to repurpose your garage for a party or entertainment space. Putting your tools on wheels also makes it easy to transport them out of the garage as well, when the weather is warmer and you may want to tinker outside.
5. Lighting
There may be nothing more frustrating than trying to navigate a screwdriver into a small screw head or tighten a minuscule nut or bolt in poor light. In addition to having an appropriate amount of lighting it’s also important to have the right kind of light. Overhead fluorescent lighting can provide a great deal of light, but the bulbs also tend to cast a harsh, greenish tint that can make them inappropriate for some tasks. If you do any kind of painting or finishing in your garage that requires the ability to differentiate color, you might want to opt for soft white bulbs that will help you differentiate between a hard charcoal grey and a soft ash grey. LED lights are also a great help as they provide a strong, bright light that is free of harsh, colored overtones. There are also a wide variety of portable work lights available that allow you to light up any area of your garage or even allow you to finish up outside work even after the sun goes down.
6. Ladders and step stools
Keeping a variety of ladders and step stools on hand is an important part of having a web stocked garage. Garages tend to have very tall ceilings, which provides plenty of opportunities for overhead storage, but only if you have the appropriate means of retrieving and replacing items. You, of course, want to keep a ladder on hand that is long enough to reach your roof, but keeping a smaller ladder or two also gives you the opportunity to press them into use as sawhorses to create a makeshift workspace when you want to move your project outside.
7. Safety equipment
Regardless of what kinds of projects you work on in your garage, having the proper safety tools and equipment is of utmost importance. These can range from heavy gloves to safety glasses to a fire extinguisher. If you work on cars, you may want to keep roll blocks and a good set of jack stands available or even invest in a portable hydraulic lift. A good, powerful flashlight should always be kept at the ready in case you blow a circuit with all your power tools, and of course, keeping a well-stocked and comprehensive first aid kit at the ready is an absolute must.
8. Laptop or tablet
In the information age, no space is truly well equipped without adequate access to technology. The internet can provide a vast array of information and helpful how-to videos ranging from the proper size of oil filter for your car to how to cut floor joists to length to how to best preserve the thumb tip you just sawed off. While you can always take your personal laptop or tablet out to the garage, it might be wiser to keep an older and less expensive model out there. That way, if it somehow manages to get oil spilled on it or drilled through, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to replace it.
The Well Equipped Garage Infographic
