Genius ways to clean up your garage

This sturdy ball corral holds a herd of balls and lets kids easily grab the balls at the bottom without unloading all the ones on top. It’s built from 20mm plywood and 2x2s. We made our ball corral 600mm wide x 840mm high x 300mm deep.

The hooks on Bungee cords can be a safety hazard for kids and adults alike. So cut the hooks off the cords (or use elastic cord available at camping, sporting goods and hardware stores). Thread the cord through predrilled holes and secure with knots. Drill the holes slightly larger than the cords to make threading them easier.

We added plumbing hooks and short gutter troughs on the outside of the corral to make it easy for kids to stash smaller balls, helmets and mitts.

Shelves and cabinets are great, but when you’re in a hurry (and kids always are), it’s nice to just throw and go. Find complete instructions, including diagrams for cutting the wood, here.

Recycling bins tend to take up way too much floor space. Here’s an easy project that will get them up off the floor and out of the way, and it costs almost nothing. Find simple DIY instructions to build this project for your garage here.

Shelf brackets designed to support clothes hanger rods aren’t just for closets. The rod-holding hook on these brackets comes in handy in the garage and workshop too. You can bend the hook to suit long tools or cords. Closet brackets are available at home centres and hardware stores.

Here’s how to store your lawn and folding chairs so they’re out of your way. Take two pieces of 1×4 lumber (any scrap lumber will do) and create some simple, cheap, and useful brackets on the wall. Cut each board 200mm long with a 30-degree angle on both ends. Fasten pairs of these brackets with three 5cm screws to the side of the exposed wall studs, directly across from each other, and you’ve got a perfect place to hang your chairs.

If all the stuff in your garage is within easy reach, you’re probably wasting lots of storage space. The high spaces may not be prime real estate for often-used tools, but they’re perfect for long-term storage. Deep shelving or cabinets near the ceiling can hold a ton of seasonal stuff like holiday decorations or camping gear.

If your garage does double duty as a parking space and a workspace, a rolling workbench is essential. It lets you convert your garage into a workshop quickly and rolls up against the wall to restore parking space. The version shown here began as a standard rolling bench made from 2x4s and plywood. Then we added a slick feature: Heavy-duty shelf brackets that make it the Swiss Army knife of workbenches.

Maximise the overhead garage storage space under your garage doors, by adding on to your existing garage door track with J-style hooks. Hang long items like ladders, yard tools, even a few spare pieces of 2×4.

Here are more garage storage solutions you never thought of. 

When it comes to garages, there’s no such thing as enough space. One product we find useful to free up some floor space is a bicycle hoist. It’s easy to install and very easy to use. When shopping for a hoist, beware of models that have undersized ropes. They can slip off the pulley wheels and jam. Look for one with a good, hefty rope.

Don’t waste all that space between joists in a basement or garage. Screw wire shelving to the underside of the joists. Don’t forget that wire shelving also shines on walls.