The changing season comes with a lot of changes around the house too. Flowers and flags are replaced with pumpkins and ghosts. Lemonade is replaced with apple cider. And racquets and swim trunks are replaced with snowboards and gloves. As you prepare for the cooler seasons, take some time to organize your storage spaces. Not only will you feel better when family comes over for the holidays, you'll have less work to do when spring cleaning arrives. If you're unsure of how to store sports equipment for winter, we can help. Here are a few simple garage storage ideas for exchanging summer sports equipment for winter toys.
1. Utilize Vertical Storage
This is probably the biggest and most important tip for any storage struggles. Since many Americans are choosing smaller homes, saving floor space has become a storage essential. To get around the issue of space, the keenest organizers are taking advantage of vertical space. This means storing as much as possible off the floor and on the walls or in the ceiling. When looking for places to store sports equipment, especially big gear like bikes and rafts, start looking up.
2. Gather Like Gear
To keep storage simple and make finding equipment a breeze, store similar gear together. Create a space for all sports balls to go, put bike equipment like helmets next to the bikes themselves, and store golf gear in one place. This will make the varieties of sports equipment feel more organized and make it easy to switch between seasonal gear.
3. Peg Boards or Slatwall
Something that can help you utilize vertical space, especially in garages or sheds, is installing peg boards or a slatwall panels. These pieces line the wall and make it easy to hang baskets or bins so your space stays organized. Instead of building your own wall from scratch, use Flow Wall. Similar to a horizontal slatwall, Flow Wall is more durable and easy to install. And Flow Wall has endless accessories to meet all your organizational needs.
4. Repurpose Old Items
You can use found items or extra things around the house to help you build storage for your sports equipment. Use large laundry bags to store balls, cabinets for rollerblades and cleats, and wood pallets to build vertical storage spaces for hockey sticks and baseball bats.
5. Ball Claws
If your family regularly reaches for sports balls, ball claws can be an easy way to make them accessible without having to dig through seemingly endless ball pits. Ball claws take advantage of vertical storage and they're visually appealing if you want to store sports equipment in a more public place, like the mudroom or basement.
6. Out With the Old
When you are going through summer equipment, pull out the items that are old or falling apart. Stinky or broken sports equipment is no good anyway. Keep track of the items you toss out and use Christmas and birthdays to replace them. Nothing is better than new gear, and you'll keep old, broken items out of your storage.
7. Labeled Bins
Instead of creating accessible storage for summer and winter gear, use labeled storage bins to house items that are out of season. Then, when the weather changes, pull out the bins and exchange those tennis racquets for ski poles. If you use storage bins for other items, like clothes, you know how important it is to have a clear, easy-to-read label on each bin. Save yourself even more time by buying clear bins so you can simply look in and know what to grab.
8. Stow in the Ceiling
Expand the storage space in your garage by turning to the ceiling. Overhead racks are the perfect place to store larger items like watersport equipment. Ceiling storage can also be a great place to put extra bins if you don't have room inside. There are numerous DIY tutorials to help you build your overhead storage, but remember to use caution and have a helper handy.
9. Simplify Play
Some sports equipment can be tucked away when it isn't in season, but other items‚ like basketballs and helmets that can be used year-round‚ should be easily accessible to keep your storage in order. To make this smaller, all-season gear easy to access, store it in detachable buckets or bins that can be removed from their storage space and then replaced when play is over. Large pails or open bins are great options for these situations.
10. Hang it Up
To help achieve the golden rule of always using vertical storage, take advantage of items you can hang. Hooks are easy to install and they work great for large and small items. You can easily hang anything from bicycles to golf bags to backpacks without taking up too much space. And hooks make cleaning and organizing a breeze.
PRO TIP: Add labels over the hooks so kids know where their backpack goes and everything gets put back in the same place every time.
Conclusion As you transition your house from summer to fall, take advantage of the seasonal change by organizing some of that longstanding clutter. Sports equipment is often bulky and in the way, but it's so easy to organize if you take the time to set up a system that works for your home. We hope these quick storage tips help you move from chaos to cozy in your home this fall! Sources http://www.sportsmomsurvivalguide.com/clever-sports-equipment-storage-solutions/https://unclutterer.com/2009/04/24/ask-unclutterer-storing-sports-equipment/
