Alright friends. My organized garage tour is almost finished! I shared the inside of some of my organized drawers the last time we talked garage and today I’m sharing the inside of my organized cabinets!
I’m so annoyed at myself for not taking “before” cabinet pics! Often when I get on an organizing roll I just start puling items and sorting quickly and I forget to take pics of the madness that was there to begin with. So you’ll have to trust me on this one.. they were a mess! Just random items stuffed inside each cabinet with no rhyme or reason. I pulled every single thing out of our cabinets and spent an hour just cleaning them. I got a ladder and some soapy water and just started on the top shelf – scrubbing, rinsing and drying. Once they were clean I made piles of like items and decided how I wanted to organize everything. Below is what I ended up with starting with the tall cabinets to the right of that first window.
These cabinets are where I’m keeping food storage and extra household items. This is the Costco run spot! I know this goes without saying because most of you know me well by now, but I’ll say it for the people who maybe don’t. I am in no way an expert on food storage or planning or cooking or really anything food related! So don’t judge the contents! Just sharing for the sake of organization. ;) I’ve always tried to just buy extras of the items my kids naturally eat. While this isn’t the most glamorous food storage (and there is much room for improvement), it has definitely come in handy! I’m always grabbing food from the garage when we run out and I don’t have time to go to the store. While we were all stocking up on food before everything shut down because of Covid I took the time to plan out meals for 3 weeks (really simple things I make often) and I bought what I needed for those meals. A lot of that is gone now because we ate it so I’m going to do that again! It felt so good knowing I could feed my family for a few weeks without going to the store if I needed to.
I’m using the right side of these cabinets for other household items I buy in bulk – garbage bags, paper towels, Ad’s extra allergy medicine, etc. We are lucky that with San Diego’s mild climate we can store anything in this garage and it never gets too hot or too cold. I keep some water on the bottom of these shelves and then we have other water storage in this corner of the garage..
Aside from water I also use this spot by the door for boxes that come in the mail – packages that come in before I can deal with them and returns I need to make.
When the cars are all parked we don’t have a lot of space so I had to keep a small opening for that type of stuff!
Moving on to the cabinets on the right side of the bikes! (Details on our bike/scooter system here.)
When we had a local company install our cabinets the first thing I told them I wanted was adjustable shelves! I love being able to customize the inside of cabinets to our needs by moving the shelves around. I removed a lot of shelves during this little makeover so that I would have bigger spaces on the bottom for tall items. On the left I’m storing our small vacuum and pressure washer (since I took this pic we’ve replaced our old pressure washer with this one and we love it!). Then random things like jumper cables, extension cords, etc. are above them. The top right shelves hold Kenny’s motorcycle gear and helmets and below that is all of our paint!
I can’t believe how much we’ve used our original paint since we moved in to touch things up or for new projects. I had some plastic liners from a paint store leftover that I placed under the paint cans so they don’t ruin the shelves. Then I just added simple labels to most of the cans to remind me what paint goes where! If I forget I have my paint printable to help me. :) (You can download my paint colors and get access to all of my printables HERE.)
Organized paint! I love it. :)
Moving on to the last section of cabinets on the far right!
This cabinet is a bit of an extra and I’m grateful to have some room in it for anything else that comes along I need to store! For now it’s holding some of my outdoor rugs, our bike pump, crutches from my knee surgery (I have to save them for surgery on the other knee at some point – SOB!), and then all of the extra cabinet shelves I’m not using.
The last cabinet on the far right is all of our camping gear. Tents and coolers and sleeping bags and lanterns and tarps and chairs. ALL the camping things.
Last section of the cabinets – organized and done! Angles sang at this point of the makeover.
I sing off key and have a terrible voice (just ask my family) but I sang with them anyway. ;)
I keep our large Yeti Cooler next to this slat wall with Kenny’s trailer and an old dirt bike I’m ready for him to sell/donate. He keeps his main motorcycle parked behind our bike rack (in-between the cars) and one motorcycle is more than enough for me. ;)
We have our main central vac unit in-between the two garage doors with a vacuum I use to clean out our cars.
I vacuum my car often because.. 3 kids.
This pic shows the vacuum location better.
We also put in this cool hidden garage storage when we built our house because we had empty space in the gable above our garage. We use it for all of our extra building materials (extra tile, wood floor slats, etc.), outdoor Christmas lights and some of my seasonal porch decor. You can see more details on this added space in this post. I wrote that post 4 years ago in 2016 and one of my first sentences is about how I was determined to get my garage organized that year. Ha! Only took me FOUR more years. Kole looks so little too. Feels like 4 weeks ago!
Now that my garage drawers and cabinets are clean and organized I have no shame leaving them wide open all day long!
But that would be weird. So I don’t. :)
It makes my day every time I open one of them!
And that’s enough for me.
If you’ve been with me a while you know that getting my garage organized has been an ongoing project on my to-do list for YEARS! I slowly chipped away at it for so long before it looked like this so please don’t feel discouraged if your garage is a hot mess. We have so been there. I’ll try to write a post sometime this Fall on garage organization tips I picked up along the way that really helped. I learned a lot with this massive project! If you have specific questions or things you want me to cover let me know in the comments.
Now. Let’s see if I can keep it this clean!
Challenge accepted.
:)
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I am in AWE, Erin! What a fantastic space this is! I am SO happy for you to have finally gotten this orgainzation project complete. And who cares how long it took right? It’s that feeling of finally finishing that makes it all worth while. I’ve been away from teaching for almost 20 years now (gulp, really?!-wow) and just last week…LAST week I recycled the last of the papers from my teaching days. Oh man, I cannot tell you how good it felt to get that project off my mind. So, I can appreciate the time and effort that went into this project. You getting this done gives me hope that I, too, one day will get my garage in shape. Thank you, Erin for being a great source for inspiration. I so appreciate all you share. :) Have a great day and week!
Thank you so much Jeanne! YEA for recycling your papers! I only taught for 6 years and still have some files lingering in my office.. ha. You’re doing better than I am in that area! I’m thrilled you like the garage.. so happy to finally have it done. I’m proof that there is hope for us all! ha. ;) Enjoy your week sweet friend! xo
This is amazing!! I can’t stop looking. My garage looks like something out of Mad Max. I keep trying and have decided to be more ruthless about purging. Now if I can get hubs on board…..No one needs 75 cords.
Joette! Ha! I assure you we had a Mad Max situation over here for YEARS too so I get it! You made me laugh. That really is the secret.. you have to RUTHLESSLY purge. Let it all go! 74 of those cords.. GONE! Kidding! Kind of. ;)
Everything looks fantastic, Erin! My husband has so many hobbies and tools that it’s expanding to our other house!!
Thank you so much Michelle! So funny because I always wished Kenny was more into home “fix it up” stuff but after hearing about so many women dealing with the crazy tools that come with that I’m thinking maybe it’s good that he isn’t..ha!
Be glad he is not an “accumulator”, if I sent you pictures of my garage you would just start hyperventilating! I fear if we move to an even bigger garage that would fill up too! How do you rehabilitate an “accumulator”? Any suggestions are welcome!!
Ha ha.. you sneak in when he isn’t around and start tossing stuff! Just don’t tell him you got that advice from me. ;)
Looks great, Erin! We’ve lived in our home for 5 years, and JUST completed our garage organization project! And yes, the angels sang!!
YEA Kim! Huge congrats. SO happy for you! It’s honestly the BEST feeling isn’t it!? Such a huge accomplishment. I wish I could come and take a tour and we could high 5 for an hour and then treat each other to lunch! ;)
How did you do your beautiful garage floor? Paint over the cement? What kind of “paint”?
Hi Susan! It’s Epoxy! You can put it on yourself or hire someone to do it. We’ve absolutely loved it and I would totally recommend it! SO much easier to keep clean and it just looks nice. :)
Must be a good question from “Susans”, as I was going to ask the exact same thing!!
Can you tell us the brand and color you used? We’ve seen some with spots in the coating, and can’t tell if you did that or not. We just moved into a new home, and would like to do ALL the things you did in your garage!! Just waiting for some of the Texas heat to subside before we get started.
Are you talking about the floor Susan? If you are I can’t remember the brand/color. We hired someone to do it because my neighbors did it themselves and they had a hard time getting it to lay flat/right. I didn’t trust us with this one! Ha. The guy who we hired showed me samples and I just chose the gray Epoxy that was the closest color to my cabinets and paint. Definitely wait until it’s cooler! Garage cleaning is hard enough without the added heat! xo
Beautiful, Erin!! Your garage is my “dream garage” :). You inspire me with every project that you share!! My husband has collected a lot of tools through the years, since he really is a jack of all trades! He is constantly organizing his workshop. I’ve shown him your garage for inspiration :)
You are too kind Patty! Thank you so much! :)
Great job! You have fun no matter what your doing! Great tips! You are motivating me!
Thank you Darla! Getting the garage done has been my most rewarding project because we are in and out of it so much every day.. feels good to have it done. You’ve got this! :)
Hi Erin, Are your cabinets custom built? We are moving soon and would love to have similar storage cabinets and drawers. If they are custom, would you have a good suggestion of ones you can purchase?
Thx in advance.
Hi Amy! We had a California cabinet company come and install them. I worked on the design and then they showed me what they could do that matched it. :)
Erin, the garage looks fabulous! We just moved from our home of 10 years into our lakehouse we built 3 years ago. I am in the midst of an organizing nightmare! Any tips on how to combine “stuff” of two homes to make one? We did not bring any furniture….just stuff. Lol
I love all the drawers and cabinets in your garage, and I am thinking the closed cabinets would help with extra overflow. Were these specially ordered ?
Thanks! Love your blog 😊
Thank you so much Denise! I had a California closet company install the cabinets. I had an idea of what I wanted and they showed me what they could do to make it happen. I feel you on the moving “stuff”.. it’s so hard! I remember when we moved into this home I had purged a lot of stuff before the move. Then I moved what we kept to this house and some of it sat in boxes for years! I finally realized that if I didn’t even NEED/MISS it for 2 years why was I keeping it around? My advice is to ruthlessly purge! It’s the only way to stay organized and not have to spend your time just moving stuff around. If you don’t absolutely love it or use it often.. let it go! New house – less stuff. :)
When we moved house 5 years ago I was delighted that the previous owner had left the paint cans, labelled, just like yours! So thoughtful and such a great idea!
Love that Jan! So nice it was already done for you.. score! :)
Hi Erin,
Great inspiration for those who want to tackle their garages!
Are these cabinets made of wood or metal?
Thank you! Wood! :)
Love these garage organization posts. Ours is definitely on my list of things to organize (again). I’d love to see a photo with your vehicles inside too just to get the full picture of how it all fits together. Another thing taking up a ton of room in our garage are our large curbside trash and recycling bins. I’m guessing you have a different place to store those? Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you Kim! I’ll have to take a pic with our cars in sometime.. it’s tight but we can fit 4 now. We keep our trash cans (2 recycle and 1 for food) on the side of our house.. I’ll have to share a pic of that too! :)
Ohhh Erin it’s so wonderful! I am so jealous haha! At the beginning of 2020 I asked my husband of we could organize our garage this year. He kinda laughed and didn’t commit. It drives me NUTS and I loathe looking for anything. The biggest problem is that I need/want his help and input but having it be a priority for him is the challenge. I have been tempted to just start, but our joke (and it’s partly true) is that I purge too quickly and I would hate to get rid of stuff we actually need. Ugh!!! So looking forward to your tips!! Truly! Have a wonderful long weekend!!
You are the sweetest Genelle! Thank you! Oh my word.. I so get it! Honestly the garage is the hardest spot to organize! It’s where all the stuff lands and you need your husband’s input.. one of my biggest challenges too. You’ll get there! Hopefully faster than me.. it took me 5 years.. ha. ;)
What a great job and a great space. Will be easy to maintain now. I notice that you have the Yocada mop listed and hanging with your tools. Do you use that to clean your garage floor? If so, does it work well (I remember Kenny on his hands and knees a few months ago helping with that task). I’m wondering if that mop and a pressure washer will get my garage floor back to it’s previous state right after we had it done. Pressure washing and broom doesn’t seem to do it. Thanks.
PS I really enjoy your blog posts and Instagram account.
Thank you so much Carol! So sweet of you. And yes! We use that mop for the garage although in the video you’re thinking of (that I shared on IG stories) he was using a different mop. I think this will work well for you. I’ve found that it’s not so much about the mop but more the muscle behind it which is why this is a job for Kenny.. ha. I can’t push hard enough to scrub the really tough stains out of the garage floor but he can. :)
Your garage looks amazing! I love the cabinets, slat wall, and floor as well!
Although we are organized, a hardware store has nothing on us – our garage has every kind of tool, nail, screw, switches, outlet plates, multiple types of rakes and shovels…my jaw is on the floor seeing such a refreshingly minimal amount of things in your garage! Maybe I missed it…do you have a mower, leaf blower, fertilizer spreader, weed eater, etc.?
Jae you made my day! So happy you like it! We had a lot more tools too but we really weren’t using many of them so out they went! We actually hire a company to do the maintenance on our yard so I don’t have to store a lawn mower. Thanks again for your sweet words about my garage! xo
Your entire home is beautiful, inside and out.. We are in the process of building and are having difficulty choosing exterior color schemes. We are leaning towards something similar to the colors on your house. Just wondering what color garage doors, gutters, and roofing you used. Thanks for sharing your amazing ideas!
Thank you Carrie! Our roof is actually a custom color! I just picked out white garage doors and gutters so I don’t know the exact white paint that was used on those. Sorry that’s not more help. Good luck with your build.. so exciting! :)