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Garage Organization: Skate & Ski Storage

Our garage is not going to win any beauty contests, but with a little organization this utilitarian space has become really functional for my family of five.  This year I’ll be sharing with you some inexpensive ideas that allow us to store all our junk AND park our cars in here.

Let’s start with winter gear, shall we?

Skis can be a pain to store because they don’t always stay standing if you lean them against a garage wall – particularly when there are kids around to ((accidentally)) knock them over.
We used to store our skis in the rafters of our garage ceiling:
To access the skis, one of us would actually climb up onto this ledge next to our outside fridge,
and pull the skis and poles down whilst praying the whole time not to fall.
Really smart, right?
A better, slightly less precarious way to store them?
These rubber coated hooks which are, in my humble opinion,
one of the greatest inventions of all time.
(Just wait until you see all the ways I have used these to organize!  Yes – I’m positively giddy about them.)
Screw them into a wall somewhere in your garage, hang the skis by their tips and BAM –
suddenly your garage is starting to look like a ski store showroom.

I hung the coordinating poles right from the skis too.  Now no one is knocking leaning skis over or making life threatening climbs up into the rafters, and even better, MY CHILDREN HAVE NO EXCUSE TO LEAVE THEIR STUFF LYING AROUND THE GARAGE WHERE IT CAN GET RUN OVER BY A CAR OR TRIP THEIR MOTHER!!!!

The wall o’skis was a super easy solution and now I’m wondering why I didn’t do this ten years ago.
Okay, skates.  The other bane of my winter existence.  The munchkins use their skates frequently, and I am super glad that we can eek some fun out out of the frightful winter weather, but skates strewn about the garage that I have to step over while carrying bags of groceries into the house?  Uh uh.
Again, rubberized hooks to the rescue – this time super long ones commonly known as ladder hooks.
One pair of skates can fit on a hook, and each of my kids has their very own hook.  Aren’t they lucky ducks?
The screw of this hook is quite long so I used a scrap piece of wood to beef up the wall I was attaching it too.  I also pre-drilled the hole, using a drill bit that was slightly smaller than the screw so it would fit in there nice and snug.
{If a girl has to wear her brother’s hand-me-down hockey skates she’s gotta add a little style to them, right?)

In this picture below a snowboard is leaning against the wall, but I found a way to hang those too!  Check out this post on how I mounted a snowboard on the wall of my son’s room – this little trick would be great for a garage too as it allows you to hang and remove the snowboard easily.

Don’t you love when you figure out a system that actually works?
If you can’t get enough of garage organization, come see how I got my kids’ Ripsticks and scooters off the floor of the garage and onto the wall, where they are easy for munchkins to grab (and put away!)

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Comments

  3. You are such a New England family with all of those skis and skates 🙂 I'm loving how you organized them and appreciate the tip on those rubber coated hooks. Our garage is definitely in need of some help! Have a great weekend Lisa!

  4. Great ideas, I love a pretty organized garage, unfortunately ours won't be showing up in any blog posts! I'm anxious to hear what else you use the hooks for. Happy weekend, my friend!

  5. You are so smart Lisa!! What a great idea! Those hooks are perfect for skis. I grew up in Minnesota in the snow and this would have been perfect for our garage. Have a great weekend Lisa and stay warm!

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