Garage Organization: Inside the Cabinets

My garage organization has been a work-in-progress for the last couple of years.  I work on it when I'm in the mood - mostly because it is a huge project and I didn't want to get overwhelmed and totally abandon it.  In the beginning, I made a list of what needed to be accomplished and broke it down into smaller projects so it would be easier to get done.

I previously mentioned in other posts that I was able to get some organizing done over the holidays and this was one of them.

What a great "before and after", right?!

The previous homeowner's had installed lots of cabinets in the garage, which I'm grateful for.  If you remember my garage workbench post, then you saw all of my cabinets.  There are 7 shorter upper cabinets and 2 longer cabinets.

However after the first 2 years of owning & working on the house, the cabinets were a big 'ol mess.

Before I could rearrange everything inside the cabinets, I took everything out & gave them a good cleaning.  Then, I wrote out a list of categories of how I wanted everything separated and once I did that, I put everything into their appropriate piles.  I mentioned in one of my other organizing posts that all throughout last year, I would pick up different bins & baskets from various places (mostly the Dollar Tree) knowing that I would need to use them in the linen closet, pantry, and garage.  So using those bins & baskets and my trusty label maker, I got to putting everything back and it's all looking very organized and very easy to find things now.

The bright green/yellow bins sort of match my Ryobi drill driver & it's case.  ;)

I don't have much up in the upper cabinets, but I am storing things like cleaning supplies & pesticides in one, tiling supplies in another, and other misc things.  I even have an empty cabinet or two left.

I'm so glad I finally got that done.  It was taunting me for the last couple of years.  But, now that everything is all organized and labeled, it will be easier to keep it this way.  I did this about 2 months ago and so far it's working out really well for me.

I still need to clean off the workbench and rearrange some of the shelving to make a place for my sliding miter saw.  Right now I have the saw sitting on the workbench, but since it's a sliding miter saw, it doesn't function on the workbench since the sliding arm hits the pegboard wall.  Ultimately, I want to build a whole new workbench with casters on the legs (using my current table top), so I can leave my saw on top of it & just roll out the workbench when I need to (just like this one by Shanty 2 Chic).  This will make it easier for clean up too because I'll be able to roll it outside the garage and make the mess out there.  :)  All of the other things I want to get done in the garage (I want to paint the walls, maybe paint the concrete floor, make my laundry area prettier and the new workbench) are all big-ish projects, so they might get done later on down the road, but as far as getting everything organized, it's almost all done!

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY