Desperate Gardener Seeks Help Whipping Shed Into Shape
What would be the best way to organize this shed?
hen we moved here late last fall, we pretty much threw all the garden tools and equipment in the shed and turned our attention to arranging the inside of the house. Now that mud season is here and spring will soon arrive in earnest, I need to whip the garden shed into shape.
Do you have a favorite organizing system? Rubbermaid?
Closet Maid? Homemade? Anything you’ve re-purposed to keep things tidy, like small hand tools in a shoe organizer or gloves hanging from a clothesline? Any tips for keeping things neat without spending a fortune? I’d love to hear your ideas and your hard-won experience. Send help soon!
Tagged as:
shed,
tools
About the Author
Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.
In its own way, frost may be one of the most beautiful things to happen in your garden all year . . . Don’t miss it. Like all true beauty, it is fleeting. It will grace your garden for but a short while this morning. . . . For this moment, embrace frost as the beautiful gift that it is.
~Philip Harnden
in
A Gardener’s Guide to Frost: Outwit the Weather and Extend the Spring and Fall Seasons
You can also build a narrow work/potting bench along part of one side wall for projects and build a shelf underneath for pots and amendments. I wish I had all that space to work with!
If you are a visual person, when it comes to finding things, then pegboard is one of the best ways to go. After realizing I am more visual (learner as well), the more I can see the more easily I can quickly find what I want. I don’t do well with putting things in bins, even if they are clear, as the items don;t seem to find their way back in the bins. However if everything has a place on the pegboard, it is easier to hang it back up quickly. Seeing you have overhead supports, you can utilize that space also by using large hooks, or suspended racks for items not used too frequently. Have fun with it!
To hang shovels, spades and rakes, put some really large nails in a long bit of hardwood, in sets spaced about two inches apart, for your tools to hang upside down supported by the nails. Attach the long bit of hardwood on a pleasant height on your shed wall. Works well!
We use a variety of things, mostly put together from what we have on hand. Clear bins are a must though, so you can see what is inside. Our shed is small, so ultimately there is some “getting it all in there so the door will shut” involved, but we try to organize it at least in the spring and fall. Yours looks spacious enough for just about anything you want to do in there.
We have a large building which we use for garden tool storage among other things. My hubby built me a sturdy set of shelves using 4 x 8 OCR boards as the shelves. I have 4 shelves, each 16 feet long and 4 feet deep. Their height varies so a variety of items can be stored. It provides loads of space. Unless they have changed pegboard so the hooks don’t fall out, I’m not a fan. Instead I have nails and hooks hanging on the vertical wood supports of the shelving units and use them to hang smaller tools. I also got one of those larger plastic drawer storage units and store extra hand tools as well as my drip watering system hookups and bits and bobs.
For shovels and the like I also prefer nails. Two nails wide enough to support the shovel blade. Luckily I have a whole wall of wood, but you could probably use add a sturdy board between some of the vertical building supports you have and use that for holding tools. Cheap and sturdy.
Wow, that’s a great size shed you’ve got there! Personally I fully intend to ignore my shed-cum-workshop, at least for the time being, so I have absolutely no helpful advise.
I agree with the other commenters. Pegboard is fantastic for storing tools in the garage or shed.
Peg board is what I use for hanging tools~
I am a peg board girl myself:-)
I have a wall of pegboard in my garage and all my tools are hanging from it. I like it. It isn’t that costly (compared to those really fancy organizing systems). I also have shelves. I did figure out that one of the keys to putting stuff in plastic bins is to use clear bins so you can see what is inside of them and to label them, too. Good luck!
Go to Pinterest.com, the virtual pin board, and type in “tool shed”. All kinds of ideas people have gathered from around the internet world come up.
Oh, good idea. I am registered on Pinterest, but haven’t been on much.