Getting Your Garage Ready for Colder Weather
Whether you’re looking forward to the cooler days and nights or not, autumn is firmly upon us with no signs of turning back. There’ll still be the odd warm day where you can get away with just a sweater — or even a t-shirt, if you’re lucky — but for the most part, it’s time to start planning for winter. One of the most used rooms when it comes to transitioning into colder weather is the garage, as it becomes both a storage area and one with heavy foot traffic (think: snow blower, shovels, etc.). Having it well-organized will make handling the late fall and and winter a lot easier, so read on for Harkraft‘s best tips you need to know.
Get the Storage Space You Need
There’s a difference between what you want and what you need, and winter necessitates the latter. Depending on where you live, there may be bylaws when it comes to keeping your sidewalk and city part of your driveway clear of leaves and snow, for legal reasons. The last thing you want is someone slipping on something on your property and making a solid case against you, so make sure what needs to be clear is clear. Plus, keeping a tidy front yard helps add curb appeal to your home and contributes to an overall clean-looking neighborhood.
What this means is having the gear you’ll need in close and easy access. Get a lot of snow? Have shovels or snow blower and salt in a place where you can roll it out quickly. But to do this, you’ll have to move things around first to get that storage space. Your summer yard equipment, like rake, hose, fertilizer and everything else can be moved to the back of the garage or go in cabinets. You won’t be needing it again until next year, so make the switch now when you’ve got the time.
Have Your Smaller Pieces of Equipment in a Dedicated Space
What we mean by this are things like bags for leaves, work gloves, cleaning supplies and the lot, the types of things you can generally carry in one hand. They’re relatively small and portable, and can be tucked away neatly on shelves. You can also choose to group them accordingly, such as putting leaf bags by the rake or paint supplies and work gloves/goggles by the hose. Whatever theme you decide on (e.g. grouping by size, grouping by use, etc.), keep it consistent.
And for things that are holiday-dependent, like Halloween decorations or Christmas lights, it’s easiest to get a large cardboard box or plastic container to store them in. Just make sure to either write in marker on the side what’s in there, or attach a sign to it if you want to reuse the container for other stuff.
Store Your Larger Items Well Out of the Way
With the exception of a few hardy souls, bicycles generally get put away when the mercury drops. Although there’s nothing wrong with cycling around on a chilly day (it just takes a bit of extra layering up), it’s next to impossible once the snow hits the ground. This is when having overhead racks comes in super handy because then you can hang up your bike(s), both getting it out of the way and leaving floor space free for other items.
Conversely, the colder months call for winter-specific sports, like hockey (skates, protective equipment, sticks, pucks, helmets), snowshoeing, skiing, snowboarding, and ice fishing. Depending on how often you engage in winter hobbies, you’ll want these items either easy or relatively easy to access, which means not storing them on the loft level or tucked away in the back of a cabinet. The idea is to be able to walk a clear path to where this gear is, but triage it so the necessary stuff (e.g. snow shovel, rake, etc.) is first on the list.