Affordable & Easy to Install Garage Organization Options

This post is part of a paid partnership with Lowe's. 

Over the past year we have swapped out our garage doors, garage door openers, and put an epoxy coat on the floor. The saga finally came to a close this week as we finished all the garage organization, and I can't even express how happy we are about getting this part of our lives organized. We have a true two-car garage, designed to fit two cars and nothing else, but here's what our garage looks like now:

The biggest problem with our garage is that it's so narrow. Four inches from the garage doors to the wall on one side, nine inches on the other. So we knew that whatever we chose, needed to have a small footprint and large impact. After looking at all the options from Lowe's, we decided to go with the Rubbermaid FastTrack system, which was affordable and versatile.

There are a lot of similar systems to this, but the ease of installation and variety of accessories were what sold us. Each rail comes with the support and a cover. Simply level the support and screw it directly into the studs.

A single rail costs less than $10, and you can do so much with each one.

On the left side of the above picture, you can see all of the yard tools, as well as a couple shelves above. We used the steel hook attachment for the yard tools, and upright shelving units, shelf supports and wire shelves to hold boxes (paint sprayers, power steamer, buckets, etc.) above. For reference, the total cost for the two shelves was $53.86.

On the right side of our garage is shelving to the max. The steel shelves are perfect for paint cans and their shallow depth means A: nothing gets buried, and B: my truck can still fit in the garage! And the shelves cost less than $30 each. Jules has each can labeled on top, but is going to add a label to the front so we can easily locate touch-up paint. When sharing a sneak peek on Instagram, there were a lot of questions about paint freezing. Our garage is insulated and last year we also added a heater (you can see it in the corner 2 photos up), so it doesn't get too cold in here.

We also used a bunch of the black plastic bins to corral things that don't sit so well on a shelf. Caulk, painting tools, wall patching materials - all the little things that get cluttered and lost now have a place.

Below, we also used the same rails and cooler hooks to hang our extension cords, and the utility hook for longer things like paint poles, sledge hammers and crow bars.

Along with this, we also needed a workbench. But how do you turn a flat wall into a work space?

Pegboards are a great way to get hanging storage in tight spaces. We used a few heavy duty hinges to mount a butcher block below it that folds up and hangs from a chain for use when needed.

(Here's a photo of it in its usable state from when I was building it.)

And the last bit of unused space we had was the ceiling. The ceilings in our garage are so tall, so a hanging rack made a lot of sense for things we don't often use but like to keep on hand (folding tables), as well as scrap lumber.

The hanging racks are adjustable from 6ft wide to 8ft, depending on how your joists sit, and cost only $170. I climbed up into the rafters and added a few supports between joists to get placement where I needed it, and we now have 16 ft of storage in a space that is out of the way and has previously been unusable.

For our most used tools and supplies (hammers, drills, drivers, screws, measuring tape, stud finder, etc.) we have used this tool chest for the last few years. When we epoxied the floor I took the opportunity to rebuild the stairs so they had a smaller footprint, which allowed the tool chest to fit perfectly to the side.

It's especially convenient because we can grab our most used tools from the landing without stepping too far into the garage usually. It also has power, so all of our battery packs are always ready to go.

A lot of times, renovation progress comes in layers. But we can finally say that our garage is completed, and we could not be happier with it. How is your garage? Do you have any disorganized or unused corners you could turn into something that makes you happy?

Rubbermaid FastTrack Pieces Used:

Other Materials Used: