Homeowners with families know how precious the garage is as storage space. Laguna Beach Garage are perfect to extend the limited storage space of your home, and if you optimize that space efficiently, you will be surprised how much you can store in there.
But not every home item is fit to be stored in your garage cabinets, especially if you live in the Laguna Beach area. With hot summers, the temperature can wreak havoc on some items like paint and canned food, to name a few.
The typical enemies of the items in garage storage are rodents, sunlight, and moisture – all of which can be found in abundance in Laguna Beach. To keep your valuables protected, here are some guidelines on what you should and shouldn’t store in your garage.
Things That Are Safe To Store In Your Garage
Here’s a rule of thumb: anything that you can use outdoors can be stored safely inside your garage storage system.
#Car Accessories and Supplies
If you have a car, it makes sense to store items you use for it in your garage. This includes tire inflators, wiper fluid, tire pressure gauge, jumper cables, and car cleaning supplies. Your garage is also the best place to keep things you often haul in or on your car, such as camping gear or bicycles.
You can hang the heavy-duty items such as roof racks, camping equipment, and even bikes on garage wall cabinets or stash them in overhead storage racks. This will not only keep the floor space free for parking your car but will also make the garage appear cleaner and larger.
For the smaller items, consider installing custom garage cabinets or Slatwall panels. This will keep everything organized and make it easy to find what you need when you need it.
#Sports and Gym Equipment
While a spare bedroom will be an ideal place to keep your gym gear so you are more likely to use it, you can turn a corner of your garage into a home gym. But make sure you keep a fan near the workout machines so as not to get a heatstroke during the summertime in Laguna Beach. Also, crack the door when using the gym equipment inside the garage.
You can also use this garage storage space to place your sports equipment. Large, clear plastic bins in your garage storage system are ideal for storing basketballs, volleyball, tennis, and soccer balls, along with a hand-operated air pump.
Designate a zone on a Slatwall panel to keep everything together. We recommend using a combination of shelving, baskets, hooks, and a dedicated hanger (which you can also use to hang your jerseys and soccer gear) for the job.
#Gardening and Yard Tools
All your outdoor extension cords, hoses, shovels, flower pots, lawnmowers, and other gardening tools can also be kept in the garage storage cabinets. You can also keep the picnic supplies, buckets of ice melt, and bags of potting soil that come in bulky packaging in there. Consider installing a pegboard to hang the tools where you can easily see them and grab what you need.
#Outdoor Entertainment Accessories
Since products made for outdoor entertainment can withstand harsh elements, most of them can be kept in the garage when not in use. This includes patio furniture, bicycles, pool accessories, plastic toys, outdoor lighting and fans, trampoline, etc.
You can hang stuff like lawn chairs from hooks on the garage wall to keep them out of the way. If you don’t have custom garage cabinets, you can use clear or wire plastic storage bins to store toys and small knick-knacks inside the garage.
#Couches/Furniture
Now, this is a matter of debate among homeowners in Laguna Beach, but in our experience, as long as you lay a movers’ pad over the wooden furniture, it can be kept safely in the garage storage.
If the furniture is fabric-covered, like a couch or an upholstered chair, make sure you either clean it thoroughly yourself or get it professionally cleaned before drying it and wrapping it in an adhesive wrap. This will protect it from any moisture damage in your garage.
#Rarely Used Items
Your garage is also a good place to store things you rarely use like kitchenware, old musical instruments, and exercise equipment (just kidding…or are we?). You can also use the garage as a temporary storage facility for stuff you are planning to get rid of.
Remember the rule of thumb we mentioned earlier – anything that’s designed for outdoor usage or is weatherproof and sturdy can be easily stored in your garage. This obviously rules out all the electronics, which will hold up better in your attic or basement (if you have one or both; a spare room or a closet is the best place for electronics).
Things That Should NOT Be Stored in a Garage
Articles that should never be stored in your garage storage cabinets fall into 3 main categories: delicate items, hazardous items, and items that will attract pests.
#Hazardous Materials
Items that are flammable, such as propane tanks that can leak and ignite, should never be stored in enclosed spaces like your garage. Instead, you should keep them in a well-ventilated area, preferably outside your house.
The same goes for gasoline; it should always be kept in an outdoor structure like a storage barn, a tool shed, or a separate garage, at least 50 feet away from ignition sources like a furnace or pilot lights. Make sure there are no open flames or electrical equipment near the space where you store gasoline.
Since summers in Laguna Beach can run quite hot, you need to be very careful about storing propane tanks and gasoline in a way that they are protected from the scorching sun.
If you are keeping dangerous materials you no longer need, dispose of them properly instead of keeping them out of sight and out of mind inside the garage cabinets. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially if you have children and/or pets.
#Books
If you have a book collection that you’re hoping to pass on to your kids or grandkids someday, a garage wall cabinet is the last place to store it. Vermin and insects like silverfish thrive in dark, dusty environments like basements and garages, and they love to binge on starchy stuff, like that glue that keeps your books together.
#Firewood
Okay, if you live in or near the Laguna Beach area – or anywhere in California to be honest – you probably don’t keep firewood stocked but this is too important to not mention.
Do NOT store firewood in your garage cabinets because it’s a magnet for pests. Regardless of where you live, firewood should be stacked at least 20 feet away from the exterior of your home, unless you want your living space to look something right out of a creepy-crawly horror movie.
#Extra Refrigerator
Many homeowners think that once they insulate their garage, it will be okay to keep some of their valuable stuff in there including an extra freezer. That’s a bad idea. No amount of insulation can change the fact that the garage is the most exposed area to outdoor temperature fluctuations especially when you live in California.
The heat can cause many items to crack, warp, or otherwise become damaged. Any freezer or refrigerator that’s in the garage during the summer is bound to use more than the normal amount of energy to keep the food cold. If you can afford to shell out a few hundred extra bucks on your electricity bills during the hot months, go right ahead.
#Photographs and Important Papers
No, you should not keep your birth certificates, passports, medical records, and property papers in your garage even if the custom garage cabinets you got came with a lock and key.
Don’t keep any photos in there either. They could be damaged by excess moisture in the air or water that may seep in during the rainy months. Printed photographs are easily damaged from any humidity, cold, and heat in the environment.
#Food Items
Storing any kind of food – be it for your pets or canned goodies for yourself – is like issuing an open invitation for pests to come into your home. If you must keep pet food in your garage storage, place it inside a tightly sealed metal or plastic container first.
As for the canned food, it needs to be stored at temperatures between 50-70 degrees to remain unspoiled. Since humidity can be an issue in a garage, it can cause the cans and any metal lids on food jars to rust, resulting in a deadly chemical reaction within the edibles inside.
Contact Us For Custom Garage Storage Solutions in Laguna Beach
Garage Excell is dedicated to ensuring that your garage is set up to meet all your storage needs. Regardless of the configuration or size of your garage (sloping floors or ceiling, windows, pillars), our experts can help you design a garage storage system and organization solution that works.
If you and your family are finding it hard to carve out enough space to make everyone happy – let us help. Our made-to-order garage storage system solutions will make it easy for you to make the best use of personal and shared space and stay so organized that Marie Kondo will be proud!
With a combination of custom garage cabinets, overhead racks, Slatwall storage, shelves, and garage flooring, our designers can transform your garage into an absolute masterpiece of beauty and utility. Call us today at 877-573-6637 or contact us online to set up a free consultation.