10 Helpful Tips to Declutter and Organize Your Shed
Clutter can accumulate quickly in a garden shed – but fear not, with a few simple touches, your tool shed can soon be an organized, junk-free haven. Follow these simple tips and tricks to create a tidy space to store all those important outdoor items.
1. Clean Everything Out
No organization job is successful without a thorough clear out – so sorting your tool shed should start with emptying everything out first. This step also plays a big role when organizing garages, offices and other spaces. This will undoubtedly be a big task, so take this on when you have a day spare to dedicate time to the job.
Take everything out of the shed and then go through the following steps:
- Place everything into categories
- Organize into ‘keep’ and ‘throw’ piles
- Identify if anything needs fixing/can be repurposed
- Sweep and clean the inside of the shed
- Clean everything before it goes back in
- Fix or replace anything that needs it
Once you’ve sorted everything into groups, streamlined and updated your tools, you’ll be ready to make the most of your newly organized shed.
2. Put up Floating Shelving
The more floor area that’s used, the less room you’ll have to move around or access tools and other equipment. Adding floating shelves is therefore a great idea – especially if you have a smaller space to work with.
Floating shelves offer a sleek and simple solution for your storage headaches. You won’t see any supporting elements such as brackets or nails with this type of shelving, so it can create the illusion of more space.
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3. Add Adjustable Shelves
When you’re looking for how to make shelves in a shed, floating shelving isn’t your only option. Installing adjustable shelves is simple, as you can add the brackets to the wall and then move shelves according to what you need to store at the time. This is a versatile choice as it can expand along with your requirements, moving different shelves, hooks and drawers around.
The organization of your tool shed can be solved simply by adding an adjustable shelving unit to one wall. It’s a capture-all option as you could add a ledge for your work boots, drawers for smaller items, shelves for pots and hooks to hang larger tools, like shovels.
4. Use Hose and Cable Organizers
Tired of tripping over cables the moment you step into your shed? Putting an organization system in place to tidy away cords and hoses in your shed can’t be left off the list.
Hanging secure hooks is a popular choice for organizing cables and hoses. This means you can simply loop your hose or cord over the hook – then you can hang the number of hooks you require, depending on how many cables you need to tidy away.
Another option is to install reels on the outside or inside of your shed to store a hose. This can seriously cut down on space and avoid tripping over a tangled hose every time you need to tend your garden.
5. Add Magnetic Tool Bars
Magnetic bars aren’t just for storing your kitchen knives – adding magnetic tool bars to your interior shed walls can organize and maximize space.
Just like a magnetic bar in your kitchen, adding one to your tool shed can make it easy to pick up and store away those tools you use often. Just make sure the bar and wall fixing are strong enough to manage the weight of the tools you want to attach to it.
6. Store Nails and Screws in Jars
Accounting for the nails, screws, bolts and tacks that clutter up your shed is important. Organize all these tiny items in separate lidded jars according to their type and store them away with a clear label on the jar.
This helps to tidy your space and offers quick access to a nail or tack when you need one. Another tip for making your space as efficient as possible is to store these jars close to your tools so you can quickly grab everything you need for a job in one go.
7. Reuse Pallets
If you can get your hands on an unused pallet or two, these can create amazing storage solutions for your shed. Pallets are versatile and with a saw, hammer, and nails you can create a rustic storage area for your tools. Take it one step further and get your paint brushes out to spruce up your new tool storage organizer.
A large pallet can hold rakes and shovels, or hang a pallet onto your shed wall, attach hooks and nails, then place tools and garden equipment easily.
8. Use Pegboards
Another super simple idea for organizing the inside of your tool shed is a pegboard. All you need to do is securely mount the board to the wall, then pop hooks into the holes. From here you can hang anything you want – both large and small tools and even clothing you wear to do your gardening.
Pop a pegboard up on the wall of your shed and you’ll have a full view of everything, so you can easily grab the item you need at that time. You can pick up a pegboard at most DIY or home improvement stores.
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9. Make Use of Wooden Crates
Wooden crates can be easily obtained and offer an affordable storage option. You can keep all different types of gardening equipment in wooden crates and neaten up shelves at the same time.
If you already have a shed organization system in place, such as a shelving unit, crates can be slotted in. Alternatively, crates can also be stacked neatly in one area of your shed. Once you have your wooden boxes, turn this into a fun craft session for the whole family – paint them in different colors and create fun labels to keep everything neat and organized.
10. Place Shed Items into Storage
If you have items that you’d like to keep but you’re unsure if you have the space – a storage unit can be a fantastic option. This way you don’t have to throw away or sell items that you want to keep, but don’t really have space for.
Find a storage unit in your area to keep bulky items, like your lawn mower, garden tools, grill, hose and anything else that’s taking up space safe until summer.
