Three Ways to Maximize Garage Storage Space

Beach and camping gear, snow shovels and sleds, tomato cages, ladders, patio furniture, rakes, hoses, and boat seats—the amount of stuff that you keep in your garage is seemingly endless. The amount of space you have to store all of that gear, however, is definitely limited.

Overhead storage space is the obvious answer, because you don’t want to devote precious garage floor space to stuff you only need occasionally, and you don’t want bookshelf type shelves either (and which also take up floor space). You need serious, heavy duty storage methods designed to hold serious, heavy-duty stuff. Here’s a quick look at three types: ceiling racks, high wall shelves, and hoists.

Shelves suspended from a ceiling are designed to bolt into joists on a garage ceiling, so they are capable of holding a lot of heavy objects. Some 4x8-foot models are designed to hold up to 600 pounds of equipment. The better ceiling racks feature vertical sections that are adjustable in length, so you can customize the amount of space between the ceiling and the rack itself. Some come with hooks that allow you to hang items, such as bicycles, below the rack so they’re easily accessible. Ceiling racks are ideal for storing storage tubs and other large items.

The idea here is to place large shelves high off the ground so your floor space and most of your wall space is clear. These allow you access to smaller items that might get buried behind other gear on a ceiling rack. If you have a lot of smaller items—electric saws, containers of weed killer or insecticide, boxes and bins of items that you need to access fairly regularly—high wall shelves are the ideal solution.

These devices utilize pulleys, which allow you to lift objects to the ceiling and lower them to the ground by pulling or releasing a rope. Hoists and lifts are ideal for large, bulky objects such as bicycles that would be difficult to place in a ceiling rack. Some of these are designed for lifting specific objects, such as bicycles. One type of hoist is made specifically to store vehicle roof rack cargo boxes on your garage ceiling. A rooftop carrier is big and bulky, and your garage ceiling is the perfect place to store it in between vacations.