The Garage
The garage. Ah, the garage. What does that word mean to you? It’s very personal and can have some really charged, visceral responses! It’s a word that means so many things to so many people. It can be a great thing, a sense of pride, or it can be horrible thing, a sense of woe. By design, it’s a place in the home that’s supposed to house your car or cars. While there are certainly many garages that serve this purpose for many people, I personally know more people than not that have never, and will never, have the space or the notion to have a car take up most of their garage!
Type of Your Garage
For those of us that cannot or will not park a car in their garage, the space is used to house so many things for so many people.
Man Cave
Some people I know have a “man cave” in there with a TV, bar, and refrigerator. While I love to visit those people, I am not one of those people. Those people are lucky and pretty awesome.
Mr. Fixit
Some people have a ton of tools, landscape, and other building and maintenance-related items. I fall into that category, but in a very minimal way. I can do some things around the house, but I’m not exactly Mr. Handyman either.
Storage Space
There are many houses that simply use their garage for additional storage space. People have a lot of stuff today, and there is sometimes not great place to keep it. The garage offers that great blend of being a part of the house, but not really part of the house. You know what I mean?
Activity Center
Many people we know are stocked up with a lot of outdoor activity equipment and sports-related items. This especially holds true around the fall when all of the new and returning sports come into full swing after a summer of leisure! From mitts to bats to balls of all kind to sticks and more, the garage is a place that is loaded up with the kids’ stuff. Add in bikes, scooters, and sleds, and you have a real storage and organization challenge on your hands!! This is pretty much where the Sweeney garage fits in.
While there are home-related items for sure, the majority of the garage is loaded up with goodies for the kids. It’s the way it’s always been and the way it will be until the last of our three kids leave the nest. And I’m more than good with that. I actually really love it! I love when they play outside and play sports and want to really enjoy being a kid. It’s what it’s all about and I wouldn’t change a thing. I would, however, love to get a bit more organized.
Benefits of Cleaning Up
Getting more organized would be a nice thing, wouldn’t it? There are so many reasons to get more organized. Perhaps the best reason would be to help talk my wife down from her hysterical stress levels around how messy and packed the garage always is!! She was an only child and didn’t play sports, so there wasn’t all the gear that we have today with three kids that love all of the things.
Keeping the garage organized eliminates stress (in many ways) and allows you to maintain a clean and organized storage space in your garage for all of your kids play gear, or other gear/belongings that need to be up and off the floor to be within easy/quick reach. It’s better to look at and better for the kids when they are trying to grab something. There are all too many times we are rushing out the door to a game or practice and don’t have a minute to spare!! Getting everything in order in a great system is really a great gift for everyone in the family. Trust me.
Getting Organized
I looked up and down, left and right when trying to figure out the best way to get my garage in shape. We needed something really sturdy that will take a beating and last for the long haul. I also wanted something that looked great and was easy to assemble. It would also be great if I had a say in part of it and Vera (ever the designer) had a say as well. While there are a ton of options out there, I seemed to keep coming back to the same brand. Gladiator brand.
Gladiator brand is a leader in garage and household storage systems, delivering innovative solutions that allow homeowners to organize in ways that suit their needs, hobbies and design aesthetic. It offers easy-to-install kits as well as cabinets, workbenches, wall systems, shelving, tool storage, appliances and flooring. Gladiator brand products are sold through retailers like Lowe’s and The Home Depot as well as on the Gladiator website.
Space for Him and for Her
As I have mentioned, the vast majority of items that we store in our garage are for the children. On one side, we have all of our bikes and scooters. As a blogging family of five, you can imagine just how many wheels we have accumulated over time! On the other side, we have all of the balls, sticks, bats, and more. In another corner we have summer fun goodies like water guns and boogie boards, along with sleds and more. We live on Long Island and frequent the beach quite often in the summer. It’s important. It’s a thing.
In an attempt to better organize everything and remove it from plain sight, we thought a few Gladiator brand storage solutions would do the trick to start the garage transformation!
Enter the: Ready-to-Assemble Mobile Storage Cabinet, Ready-to-Assemble Full-Door, Ready-to-Assemble Jumbo GearBox, and Ready-to-AssembleFull-Door Modular GearBox!
All of these units are a home run, big-time awesome, baby!! Not only were they so easy to assemble, but the kids now understand how to organize everything that we store in our garage. Long gone are the days of throwing everything into our space and locking the door. Everyone knows where each ball, bat, rollerblade and hula hoop belongs. It’s pretty fantastic, really. The best part, Vera got one in white and I got one in Silver Tread (manly metal, baby).
Because the items we own are all different sizes and shapes, we had to install different Gladiator storage ideas to make everything fit. These are easy to assemble as well, a big bonus in my world. And in case you are wondering, the quality of this is backed by a hassle-free, lifetime limited warranty. Again, she got one in white and I got one in Silver Tread!! This new setup can either be freestanding or docked under a Gladiator® Workbench, so it’s really versatile and works well in just about any space.
A Revelation!
Wow, what a feeling!!! Finally, I have ample space for my tools and other assorted awesome stuff. And I mean awesome stuff. Hawaiian style beach chairs anyone?? I even have some awesome shelving now, too!! Vera and I (even the kids) are really pleased with the way that the garage turned out and we couldn’t have done it without Gladiator products! Finally, we took back control of one portion of our house! YES! Life is good, life is good!! This has been a real game changer for the family and one that I’m really happy we took the time out to work on. It’s been really great and one of the best moves we’ve made.
Find Out More
Gladiator brand products are sold through retailers like Lowe’s and The Home Depot as well as on the Gladiator website. You an also find them on Instagram (@gladiatorbrand) and Facebook (@GladiatorGW)!!
This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
12 comments
Wow! We need that in our garage! So amazing!
It’s funny, our house looks like that, but my garage is always perfectly clean! I want to be able to find stuff when I need it!
Our garage always looks like that! We SO need to organize it! Can I hire you to do my garage! LOL Yours looks amazing!
We are lucky we have enough room in our garage to park the car and protect it and it is also nice to walk in the house from in the garage. My husband does take care of the garage but could use some help organizing with those great storage systems.
We don’t have a garage at our house, but the first few pictures is basically what our basement looks like! With 4 kids, all those bikes and scooter’s and such make the room a mess. Those organizing tips were very helpful. Thanks!
Wow, you totally wiped that garage clean lol!! Looks like you are a couple hundred tons lighter in there!
Wow, that’s amazing! Look at all that stuff. I already know my husband and I need to go through our garages. We have two garages, and we just went through one over the summer.
Wow!!! That looks awesome. We did something similar in our previous garage and it was so life changing. We don’t have a garage here, but some day we will!
Our garage is a MESS! I need all the organization help I can get.
Wow! I am impressed! Your garage turned out so great! You did a wonderful job and those Gladiator products are really awesome!
We seriously need to do this in our garage. It is a very hot mess right now!
My garage is still loaded with boxes and totes from our move this past summer. I really need to get in there and organize it.