We have a large storage shed for things like the snow blower, lawn tractor, garden tools, extra wood, wheelbarrow, etc. Then we have a storage area under the sun room that holds bikes, decorations, coolers, etc. The garage is used for of course the cars, electric and manual tools, anything you would need to use in the winter and you don't want to go outside for or stuff you don't want frozen.

Look for garage storage on Pintrest, I'm sure you'll get plenty of good inspiration there.

sounds like a hoarding question. i have a full basement. i have a full garage. nowhere else to put stuff. either get a bigger house/garage or get rid of some stuff. are you asking where to divide stuff? what goes in basement vs shed vs garage? thats your call

Hang as much as you can on the walls ... snowboards and surfboards. If the strollers fold, they can hang.

Pictures of the garage would help.

I feel your pain! Do you have a basement where the baby things can go? Is your garage tall enough and deep enough for a loft unit? We had a loft in a former garage and I loved it for all the stuff we stored “just in case.” The bonus is that you can hang stuff under it too, like the sporting equipment.

Hi all, sorry for the delayed responses! I really appreciate all your input, it's definitely helping!

I'm really considering those garage ceiling shelves. I think that would solve a lot of my issues for the longer term storage of items I don't plan on using on a regular basis or until we have another child.

I bought a small shed awhile ago, but it's really not enough room for anything significant. Just a few small items and our landscaping tools.

@stoveguyy it's definitely not a hoarding question. I went through and actually inventoried all the stuff in my garage to see what we don't use, and all the items I listed are either stuff we use or stuff we'll use if we have another child. It was mostly a question for organization. I have a very small house, no basement, a 2 car garage and a tiny shed. I guess I was looking for specific ideas as to which items I could hang up and what kinds of ideas people had to do that.

i added shelves on end of garage and now have shelves on both sides. my 2 car garage is not very roomy anymore. we only have 8' ceiling with rooms above so we are limited. we live in MN and cars WILL be inside garage during winter

We had a pulley system for a couple of boats in the garage, made it so easy to get them out of the way.

maybe keep the umbrella stroller in the car! And by the way, if you want to have more children, a sure-fire way is by getting rid of the strollers and stuff. Happened to us lol. But storing baby clothes with elastic waists for 5 years? The elastic didn't survive. Also, although my two have birthdays just a week apart, Baby #2 was a full season bigger than the other so for years he could wear the hand-me-downs for about only 2 weeks before they burst at the seams.

Build UP UP UP! (I live in NYC, and that's what we do w/ our buildings; it works!)

If you aren't a woodworking sort of person, I'm absolutely sure that there is someone in your town who can build you crude but sturdy shelving to fill any one section w/ floor-to-ceiling shelves.

The biggest problem is that often these sorts of shelves aren't adjustable, and you end up w/ big gaps between shelves that aren't filled with the stuff. That leads to wasted space OR to stacking stuff in a way that makes it hard to get it out.

So you might get some graph paper and a tape measure/yardstick and figure out how much space you need for the stuff you plan to store.

Some thoughts on that:
• Some shelves can be more closely spaced; they don't have to all be the same distance apart.
• You could choose a single style of plastic bin for stashing stuff inside, and have shelves spaced to exactly accommodate them
• you could divide a shelf and create a small section of it that's got more, more-closely-spaced shelves for other smaller stuff.


And hanging stuff from the rafters above the cars is a way to make that space more useful. (Of course, you have to move the car to get to it, and you want to be sure stuff doesn't fall, but...)

I think you'll want lots of different kinds of storage.

A little googling will find you lots of ways to store bikes.
Put them close to the door that people will use. If they are kids' bikes, you want to be sure the kids can get them out/down easily.

You can hang them by their front wheels from hooks on a specialized mounting bar on the wall, like this one (you could mount it low down for kids, though it might be harder for them to wrangle)--and of course, it makes the bikes stick out into the room
https://www.hayneedle.com/product/monkeybarstoragemb005smallbikerack.cfm


Or using S hooks underneath one of those Closet Maid wire shelves


Or simply specialized wall hooks you can screw to the existing 2x4s (or, if you want to space them more closely, attach a slab of plywood to the 2x4s, and screw them to that at whatever spacing you want)
http://a.co/gddFpOh



This one hangs the bike flush against the wall (and again, you do not have to install it all that high--you only need to hang it a tiny bit higher than the bike would be normally, which might make it easier for a kid to stash his own bike there, if he only has to lift it about an inch or two)

http://a.co/fcgjxJt

Here's another specialized flush-to-the-wall solution
http://a.co/gVlLicz

You can do that with those heavy-duty screw-in utility hooks (from the wall or rafters).
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-5-16-in-x-7-in-Screw-In-Utility-Hook-01217/202305570


or similar
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Heavy-Duty-Padded-Arm-Hanger-18042/202305548?MERCH=REC--PIPHorizontal2_rr--202305570--202305548--N

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Heavy-Duty-Double-Arm-Padded-Hanger-in-Gray-18044/202305549?MERCH=REC--PIPHorizontal2_rr--202305570--202305549--N


These guys hung adult bikes from the ceiling:
https://www.todayshomeowner.com/video/how-to-hang-bikes-in-your-garage/

If you don't want to lift the bike, it might be sensible to get a bike stand, simply so the bikes don't fall all over and get int he way, and you can designate a spot for them. (You could even cut a piece of plywood for a platform, andgbolt or fasten the bike stand to it, so IT can't move around)

Amazon has lots of solutions

a bike stand:

https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Bike-Products-01-Stand/dp/B00459INNS

a two-bike stand
http://a.co/csqOQCV

pulleys

Oh, the bikes thing reminded me: the harder you make it to get something out of the storage, the LESS likely it is that you will use it.

So, bikes should be easy to get to, so you'll be encouraged to use them.

The generator can go somewhere less accessible (I don't know if it's too heavy to put on an upper-ish shelf, but if not, that's where I'd put it. If it is heavy, then it could go behind something, or maybe way down on the lowest level, (hich is actually often harder to see/reach. If you really need it, believe me, you'll drag it out!)

Same thing for baby clothes or snorkeling gear, which you won't get out until you really need it, and then you won't be put off by the difficulty getting it out.

High chair, bassinet, etc.--they are light and could probably go on the very top shelf (slide a clear garbage bag over them to protect them). You'd need a ladder to get them down, but I think I'd feel OK w/ lifting a highchair off that space.

So, folding table and chairs, maybe they need to go against the wall by the door to the house.

Also, remember that you can put stuff on the ENDS of your shelving system (or you can create a very vertical space among your shelves.

You can also mount shelves to the wall *above* your BBQ grill and the bikes. Basically, create a lower "nook" to slide them into, and have shelves above.

Thanks so much for the detailed info! That helps so much! I'm gonna start picking out different storage/hanging devices.

I have this fantasy of installing a bookcase / shelves next to a doorway or opening, but placing them 3" or 4" away from the wall. And then slide big flat things BEHIND the shelves (that's why "next to a door," so there's room to slide them out).

And maybe install ledges on the back side of those shelves to hold those flat things up off the ground, or maybe make it possible to store one of them higher up (double-deck).

What made me think of that was this item from your list:

2 folding tables (when guests come over)

Set some deep shelves (as deep as the folding chairs are wide) by the door to the house (if there is one, or any other door) far enough out from the wall to fit those tables, and then install one ledge low down on the back side of the shelves so you can slide one table in to rest on it, and another ledge above it to set the 2nd table on.

You could install those big utility hooks I linked to above, or a 7" ladder hook, on the end of that bookcase to hang the 6 folding chairs on, some low and some high. I don't know how many folding chairs would fit in the 7" depth, but it would be one way to keep them from falling over, etc. And they'd be close by the door and easy to use.

Not sure if all 6 would fit; you'd probably need 3 hooks, and I don't know how easy it would be to maneuver chairs off the top hook (Most are 38" high--so if you put the lowest set of hooks so the support is about 39 inches above the floor (not to lift so much as to keep them from falling over) and the next set 39" above that, then thelegs of the top set of chairs would be 78"/6.5' from the floor, so most people would be reaching over their head to get them--not so smart from a safety point of view, probably. If there are stairs, you could reach them more easily, maybe. Or experiment with hanging them upside down from the cross-brace, and that might let you control them better when taking them off.
EDITED TO ADD: I just looked it up, and most steel folding chairs are 2" thick when folded, so 3 would fit on each hook.

Here's a 7" ladder hook. Not so good for bikes because it doesn't have much of a front "lip" the way the one above does. But probably easier to get the chairs off it.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-5-16-in-x-7-3-4-in-Screw-In-Ladder-Hook-01219/202305568

and...there's the Auxx Lift...
a platform on wires w/ a motor that you can raise and lower
https://auxx-lift.com/

I used the space behind shelving for a round folding table and still have large pieces of scrap wood between freezer and wall. Works really well as the foundation sticks out a few inches. I did have shelving units a few inches away from one another but tended to put too much in there and things got tangled and annoying to get to so do it but watch out. Ladders, folding chairs and wire dog crates/exercise pens, furniture movers fit but so easy to put too much in one slot. One ladder is fine, two will tangle up.

Before anything else measure the garage to see if you actually can use it for 2 cars. Mine is 18' wide, not wide enough for 2 cars even if there is nothing else in the garage. Guess my master plan to regain that last foot of width will never be implemented.

I have 18" deep shelving units on one side for bins and such and maybe 6" of stuff hanging on the opposite wall so about 2' of garage width is taken up. Above the hanging stuff I put up wall mounted shelving at top of door height to hold bins for light weight things occasionally used like old comforters and sleeping bags. Perhaps the baby things you are saving for later can go there. Since you have bulky, fragile and heavy things like that generator and air conditioners I'd be looking at building wall mounted shelving several feet above the floor so they can be stored low and safe on the floor. Possibly store bought shelving could be assembled with the lower shelf above the floor or maybe it is easy enough to get them off a low shelf.

Be careful with the 'rafters'. Mine are 2x4" ties that keep the walls and roof from spreading apart and not designed to carry weight. The light bulky things like surfboards and snowboards can go up there. If the rafters are 2x6" or better maybe you can hang shelving from them, I would never dare with 2x4".

Since I had scrap wood and a Kreg pocket hole jig I made up my own hooks for ladders, chairs and the like. A piece of wood that spans 2 studs is the base and I cut 2 triangles that are just shy of right triangles so they pointed up just a bit, cut off the sharp tips, used the pocket hole jig to make a strong joint then screwed to the studs. Definitely stronger than the basic metal hooks I already had too. I reused them but my wood ones are better.

Just don't put the generator on the Auxx Lift - LOL!

I like Talley Sue's suggestions. Never put good stuff like baby things out in a shed. Mice will invariably nest in it, and then you will want to throw it out.

Wow! It sounds like you need another storage space for the likes of surfboards, generator, and the like.

Have you prioritized the things in your garage lately as to their importance in your life? Perhaps some of it could go away? Maybe you don't need so many folding tables. Maybe now that you have a child, you dont' use the equipment as often?

You are trying to put ten pounds of "stuff" in a five pound sack and there is not much to be done about it other than not doing it. There is probably not even enough wall and overhead space to realistically store that much stuff in the space for one car. There is just no magic that can happen that is going to change this except to decrease the amount of stuff or add on to the space. You need to alter one end of this equation or it is not going to add up.

It sounds to me that you could really benefit from having a dedicated storage space for that outdoor and sports equipment ,such as a small shed where these things can be properly kept and be accessible to actually use.

Beware of overhead storage space and many of the other storage suggestions. Many of these suggestions are expensive and labor intensive to install. Many do not allow easy access to the stored item and once something is stored, it is rarely used.

It may also get rarely used if it is stored on the floor of an overstuffed garage where you need to excavate it in order to use it. And, you have to consider whether it is being "stored" for the reason that life has changed and you no longer use it. That is one of the biggest obstacles for many of is to realize that you may not be as actively engaged with that item as you once were, or imagine yourself to be or will ever be again.

It sounds like you need either some serious re-prioritizing or you need a shed to house the outdoor stuff. As I said, ten pounds of stuff in a five pound sack....there is no magic to make that happen.

It occurs to me that you have both surfboards and snowboards, and a child.

You live where there is both surf and snow? Maybe one gets used more than the other?

Then, you have a child? And, maybe another?

That sounds like a lot to wrap yourself around. Perhaps either the snow or the surf might be the main thing and you get rid of the other.

I recommend that you keep the child!!

Once you have that second child, you may be doing quite a bit less of either snow or surf.

I saw my kids go through this having to change their expectations after the children started to come. My son went from a Jeep and a dog to a nice safe SUV. My daughter gave up her convertible for a van that will carry two kids and grandparents. Life changes when you have a young family.

By the time the kids get old enough to be left for the day and you no longer have to spend your Saturdays at the youth soccer games, you will want a new surfboard or snowboard.... or you will find something else to do.

Those boards will soon be buried under the debris of raising a family.

It is a normal course of life. Your youth gives way when you become a mommy or a daddy. They are here to take your place in this world. But, first they need your complete time and attention, which you are happy to give because you love them so much!

I would put a tag on all the goods - with today's date. If they aren't used in 'X' months - sell them. You have too much stuff.

You need 2 garden sheds, one for garden stuff and one for sports.

i will bet that the weed whacker will get much more use in the near future than either of the boards.