Garage Organizing for Only $14
I know – garage organizing for $14 – you’re intrigued, right?! Because garages can so easily become a breeding ground for messes.
The garage at our house is my husband’s domain. He likes to organize it – and is really pretty good at it! But we aren’t ready to make the big upgrade to get all the nice garage cabinets and matching sets, so in the meantime, we are using lots of decades old dorm room drawers and hand-me-down shelves to store all the little things that can’t hang on our tool peg board.
Then he asked me to organize {happy dance}
One day out of the blue he said, “If you ever have extra time I would love for you to organize the black drawers in the garage.” I tried to play it cool so he didn’t know how excited I was. Yassss…I always have time to organize. But here’s the catch, he said. There’s always a catch you know. He didn’t want to spend hardly any money on it.
The BEFORE
This is where we started, folks.
I know I said my husband is pretty organized. This is not a great sample of his work. These drawers were way past out of control! You literally couldn’t see what was in there.
It always gets messier before it gets better
One of my favorite parts about organizing is finding a solution to solve a problem. Well, was I in luck on this project!
I took everything out so I could see what all we had. Here it is in all its glory.
Yep – every.single.thing. Then I organized by like items and took everything out of the bag and package so I could more easily figure out how to categorize them to put back in the drawers.
I measured the drawers and then off to the Dollar Tree I went in search of some containers to help. Because well, we had a minuscule budget.
You guys…I found every single thing I needed at the Dollar Tree for $14!! No joke! It can be done.
Time to put it back together
For all organizing projects, I like to add empty bins to the space first. One, to make sure they fit. And two, to make sure I like how they look before I get going. I decided to put all of the nails, screws and small items in these great gray interlocking bins from the Dollar Tree – they had the square size and the rectangular size.
I got three different sizes of bins that I could organize together to fit in one drawer. A larger bin {in blue} – I honestly wasn’t thrilled about the blue but got over it when I remembered it only cost $1. Then a medium bin with a lid for things that don’t need to be as accessible. And then a small open bin with handles for other items. Things were looking up already.
The BEFORE + AFTER
I started with the small stuff because it made up the majority of the crazy that I had laid out on the work bench. It’s amazing how organizing by size into small bins can make such a difference!
Check out the new top drawer. I can’t find these little interlocking bins online, but I found them at the Dollar Tree in the kitchen organizing bins section. I think they were probably made to be drawer organizers. They were $1 for a 3-pack.
And here is where the second drawer ended up. I added one more 3-pack of these interlocking little gray bins. And I also found the matching rectangular version that were 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree.
Then I moved on to the larger items for the last three drawers.
The blue bin and square bin with lid are similar to these I found online, but usually you can find something similar at the Dollar Tree any time you go in.
Oh, and the rope. I almost lost my cool untangling that rope.
For only $14, this was money AND time well spent! We can find everything we need quickly now, and my husband loves it.
Want more?
Click Here for all my latest organizing blog posts.
Did you know I am a professional home organizer in the Kansas City area? I’d love to help you get your spaces organized. I offer a FREE 15-minute phone consultation to start so I can hear more about your organizing needs and offer you a custom quote.
Today is the day!
