Organizing Your Garden Shed

There is nothing more counter-productive than a messy, over stuffed, and disorganized garden shed. A garden shed should be thought of as a large closet. Closets are more functional and efficient when organized, as are sheds. Even a bit or effort at organizing your shed can go a long way.

If you can’t find your tools, and have to dig through half empty bags of potting soil and broken garden ornaments, this may lead to your gardens’ worst enemy – gardening procrastination. If you think about your shed like a big closet, and the only way a closet can be useful is if it’s organized, then maybe you’ll finally decide to get a handle on your shed clutter.

The first thing you need to do to get things organized is to clear out the shed. Everything will get dragged out into the backyard. Make 3 piles – 1) most used things, 2) useful things you never use, and 3) broken or useless things. Those three piles at the end of the reorganization will be 1) fixed, shined up, and put back, 2) given away, and 3) thrown out.

Once the shed is empty give it a good cleaning. This is also a good chance to do some annual maintenance on some the shed contents. Sand off some rust spots on your garden tools and apply a new coat of anti-rust paint. Oil any parts that need oiling and generally give everything a good wash. Do not return any item to the shed unless it is cleaned and in working order.

Also now that the shed has been cleared out of all the usual clutter that is inside, you should take stock of what will be going back in, and make sure that you have sufficient shelving and hooks to keep everything within easy access or reach. Leave room between tools so you aren’t pulling 3 things down every time you want to get just one rake. And consider upgrading the fancy spikes to actual plastic covered hooks that are designed to hold any size and shape of tool. Making a spot for everything, with a little extra storage space left over for the inevitable garden season purchases, will help you keep your garden shed organization from deteriorating back to it’s frightful unorganized state by next spring.

Now you can put everything back into a better organized shiny clean garden shed. Knowing that everything has a place, and that you’ve gotten rid of the stock pile of broken tools and cracked pots, will make gardening such a easy chore now. Although it might seem like a lot of work to reorganize and fix everything up, it will be well worth it in the end.