How to Organize a Storage Room, Garage and Laundry Room

Storage rooms, basements and garages hold the things you don’t use every day: holiday decorations, camping gear, memorabilia, kids’ clothes in the next size up. Because you don’t use them daily, they’re easy to ignore until you can’t find anything. A good system means you can find anything in seconds.

Here’s how I approach these spaces as a professional organizer, plus a simple laundry routine to go with it.

Step 1: Clear the floor and declutter

Pull everything out, or at least off the floor. Sort into keep, donate and toss. Be honest about things you’ve been storing “just in case” for years. If it’s a big job, our decluttering service can help you work through it.

Step 2: Plan your zones

Group what you’re keeping into zones:

• Holidays (one section per holiday)
• Camping and outdoor gear
• Sports equipment
• Tools and home maintenance
• Household backstock
• Kids’ clothes in between sizes
• Memorabilia
• Food storage, if you have a food storage room
• Craft room or hobby supplies

Put the zones you use most near the door and at eye level. Heavy things go low. Things you rarely need go up high.

Step 3: Add shelving if you need it

Open shelving keeps everything in view. Measure the room before you buy, including ceiling height, windows, vents and any furnace or water heater you need to keep clear. Deep shelves work best with large totes. Space the shelves so your totes fit with a little room on top.

Step 4: Choose two tote sizes

It’s often helpful to have two sizes of totes for storage rooms, a large and a small. Matching totes stack neatly and make the room look calm. These are the clear totes I use (you can also find similar sizes at Walmart):

• 58-quart clear totes: unused clothing, like kids’ in-between sizes, or bedding.
• 20-quart clear totes: smaller things like photos, memory books and out-of-season sports gear. They stack well on the larger totes.
• 41-quart underbed totes: great under beds. I often give each child a memory box for school projects, awards and photos under their own bed.
• 64-quart totes: big, bulky things like holiday decorations and camping gear.

Clear totes let you see what’s inside, and a label on two sides means you can read it from any angle. My labeling guide has more tips.

Step 5: Store holiday decorations so they’re easy next year

When you take decorations down, sort as you pack: keep what you used and loved, and donate the rest. Pack each holiday in its own labeled totes, wrap lights loosely so they don’t tangle, and put fragile pieces in a smaller tote on top. Next year, you only pull the totes you need.

Step 6: Organize the garage

Garage organization follows the same steps, with a few extras:

• Block out a day and pull everything onto the driveway so you can see it all.
• Use the walls. Hooks and wall storage get bikes, tools and yard gear off the floor.
• Make a grab-and-go zone near the door for things you use often, like sports bags, scooters and the dog’s leash.
• Use the ceiling for seasonal things you only need once a year.

For more, see our garage organization service.

Step 7: Set up an easy laundry routine

Laundry rooms often double as a mudroom or extra storage, so give each job its own zone: washing, folding, and a spot for shoes and bags if that’s where the family comes in.

Here’s a simple routine I like: keep a tall hamper where each person undresses for dirty clothes. Use 2-bushel laundry baskets to carry clean clothes back to each room for folding and putting away. I prefer the 2-bushel size because it holds about one load of laundry.

Step 8: Keep it up

Twice a year, walk through the storage room and garage. Donate what you didn’t use, re-label anything that changed, and put things back in their zones.

Get help from a professional organizer in Utah

Orderly Nest Organizing’s professional organizers help families across Salt Lake County, Northern Utah County and Southern Davis County with storage room, basement and garage organization. Book a free consultation, or browse all of our favorite organizing products.