So far, so good.  The garage is coming along.  Lisa and I spent the better part of an afternoon cleaning up what was mostly my mess in preparation for the drywall contractor.  We divided my stuff into several piles: trash, basement, shed or stays in garage.  I’m not a fan of just moving the mess into the basement, because I’ll have to clean that up at some point, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.  Ideally, I’d like to keep my mechanics tools and car related gear in here, my carpentry tools in the basement and the garden tools in the shed.

The purpose of the cleaning and sorting is to get everything off and away from the walls to make it easier for the contractor.  It also gives us a chance to do some needed organization and upgrades.

On top of the drywall work, I removed the wiring for the mounted garage door opener button from the wall as well as the wiring for the door sensors. They’re still functional, just not run on the ceiling at the moment. Last year when I installed these parts, I was disappointed by how short the lengths of wire were. Instead of running the wire in the corners, I didn’t have enough slack and had to angle them across the ceiling. That’s something I aim to correct by splicing in additional wire when I rerun it.

Lisa and I are still deliberating what else we’d like to keep in the garage and how to store it.  I’ve already started to collect a couple Craftsman storage units so I might try to stick with that, but I’m still keeping an eye out.

Here are the Craftsman shelving systems I’ve been checking out…

I’ve already got the full length floor unit, so I might mount one of these wall cabinets to keep with the theme.

(Image Courtesy of Craftsman)

They also have a metal pegboard that could be useful.  Although I’m not sure how much of my gear I’d like to display.  Generally, I prefer to keep my tools tucked into cabinets and out of the way.  Keeps them cleaner.

But, these are attractive options and fairly inexpensive.

(Image courtesy of Craftsman)

Another option is from The Container Store and their “elfa” system.  They offer some storage solutions for regular garage type items, not so much the tools.

I really like this free standing mudroom.  I’m not really sure if this particular unit would fit well with the space we have available for it, but if Lisa really likes it, I could always shuffle some things around to make it work.  This item is depicted in the entryway of a home and not it a garage, so I wouldn’t keep coats on it in our garage, especially with all the insects we get in there during the spring and summer.

(Image courtesy of The Container Store)

Here’s another shelving unit that caught my attention.

Almost the same thing as the above mudroom, except not freestanding.  This unit mounts directly to the wall.  Our neighbors have this in their garage and it looks awesome.  We may have to steal this one.  And by steal, I mean wait until they’re not home and remove it without their permission.  Or I could just go buy my own.  We’ll see.

(Image courtesy of The Container Store)

So how about your garage?  Any good storage solutions we could borrow?