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Five Reasons to Use Overhead Storage Racks in Your Garage

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Property Target

 

Five Reasons to Use Overhead Storage Racks in Your Garage

By  Askari Sabbaghi

   

Don't own as many cars as Jay Leno but still have more than will fit in your garage?

You don't have to be a talk show  host with a passion for rare and vintage autos to find yourself with more vehicles than space in your garage.

Leno has a garage bigger than most people's houses, and since even that isn't room enough, he stores some of them at the Burbank Airport, a few miles from NBC studios, where he tapes the Tonight Show.

So what do you do if you own three cars, but have a standard two-car garage and don't have the deep pockets of a celebrity?

You could (a) park the extra vehicles on the street, (b) park them on the driveway or (c) rent space for them at a parking garage.

Solution A could annoy your neighbors and maybe net you a lot of expensive parking tickets, depending on your city's residential parking restrictions.

 Solution B could inconvenience you -- if you have to play Move That Car! every morning, especially when it's raining or snowing outside.

http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/10/18/17/05/F26q0.Em.138.jpegAnd Solution C could prove both annoying and inconvenient -- between the cost of storage fees and the time it takes to make a trip to the storage facility to retrieve your auto.

But you might like option D -- storing your extra cars on a hoist, such as the one made by Automotive Equipment Company and pictured at right.

There's a lot you can do with your garage's overhead storage area even if you don't own more cars than you can fit on the floor of your garage.

Here are 5 Great Uses for Your Garage's Overhead Storage Area:

1. Seasonal Items

You don't need ready access to everything in your garage.  So while it makes sense to store bicycles and golf clubs on wall-mounted units in your garage if you use them frequently, but why keep lawn furniture, snow blowers and hockey gear there when you can conveniently store it overhead?

2. Basement Items

Not all Vancouver-area houses include basements, the largest storage space in most people's homes.

If you have to fit all of your storage items in your garage, limiting your options to floor space, garage wall cabinets and garage shelves may not give you enough room.

Use your garage's overhead storage area for basement mainstays such as holiday decorations, camping equipment, coolers and futons.  This is also a great place to hide Christmas presents before you're ready to wrap them.

3.  Bulky and Awkward Items

Riding lawn mowers, hockey gear, tires and such don't fit neatly on the floor of your garage or in wall organizers.  You can conveniently store them overhead and, if the items are too heavy to easily lift, you can install a hoist to safely put away and retrieve those items.

4.  Dangerous Items

If you have children or pets, you want to keep unsafe items such as antifreeze and motor oil out of reach. Place them in plastic containers (to make certain they don't spill and ruin your car's finish) and put them in overhead racks.

5.  Easily-damaged Items

Floods can destroy paperwork and dropped tools can break a box full of delicate china.  Weather is not easily predicted and accidents can happen to anyone.  Keep precious items safe from natural and human disasters by storing them in your garage's overhead space. 

 

Askari Sabbaghi is the owner of Clever Quarters. 

Since 2005, Clever Quarters has been helping Vancouver residents with all of their home organization needs.  Its team of professional designers help businesses and homeowners in the Vancouver, British Columbia create custom closets and storage solutions that are both beautiful and functional.