Everything in its Place: Organizing Your Storage Shed

You're thinking about buying a vinyl storage shed. It seems like a good solution to the clutter that seems to have swallowed your garage.

But then a thought creeps up and begins to nag at you.

"What if the shed becomes cluttered?"

Fair enough. That's a reasonable fear, especially if you're someone who's always struggled with keeping things organized around the house.

But it doesn't have to be that way with your new vinyl storage shed. Here are a few storage and organization tips to help your vinyl shed work for you.

1. Hang up a pegboard

This is a simple solution for holding tools and other supplies. A pegboard keeps everything in plain sight and gives you some extra floor space.

Once you hang the board, put hooks in its holes to hang tools, baskets filled with supplies or other accessories.

2. Put chemicals in a box

Storage sheds are good places to store chemicals such as pesticide, weed killer or gasoline for your lawn mower. All useful tools, all extremely dangerous and, in some cases, flammable. A well-organized storage shed is a safe storage shed, and vice versa.

Put all of these chemicals in a storage container, such as a heavy-duty plastic bin. Keep chemicals in their original containers and away from sunlight.

Make sure pets and children can't get to them, and if you're keeping fuel and fertilizer in the same space, make sure it's ventilated and they aren't close to each other.

3. Hanging a hose

Do you have to wrestle with your garden hose every time you get it out for the summer? Is it a tangled mess by the time you’re ready to put it away in the fall?

Put an end to this problem with this simple trick: Hang a large hook with a steep angle and wrap the garden hose around it to keep it in place.

4. Adjustable shelves

The best way to save space is to work up and keep things off the floor. Adjustable shelves give you the flexibility to store supplies of varying sizes, while preserving precious floor space.

But don’t fall into the trap of having cluttered shelves. Stock those shelves with plastic or metal bins to allow you to organize your things.

5. Put up a calendar

We’ve seen this idea on a few different home and gardening websites, and while the notion of a calendar in your vinyl shed might seem silly at first, we have to admit it makes sense.

It’s a good way to plot out larger landscaping projects or just smaller, week-to-week chores. You can also use it to track the different planting/harvesting schedules for the plants growing in your garden.

6. What not to store

While your vinyl shed offers you a wealth of storage solutions, there are some things that you shouldn’t keep in your vinyl shed:

• Pet food – Keeping pet food inside vinyl storage sheds is like sending out a dinner invitation to nearby mice, raccoons and other animals, not to mention insects. If you have to store pet food or bird seed, make sure it’s in a secure container.
• Paper products – Again, these can attract insects, who’d be just as happy to eat the paper plates you use to serve food at your cookouts as they would the food itself.
• Paint – Your shed can get very hot in the summer, and paint stored in extreme temperature can lose its consistency. Keep paint in a cool, dry place like a basement.

We explored the question of what to store – and not store – in a vinyl storage shed in greater detail earlier in the year. The bottom line: By keeping questionable materials out of your shed, you’ll be giving yourself more space.

Are you interested in installing a vinyl storage shed at your home? Turn to Swingset & Toy Warehouse, where we offer an array of sheds, each with a pressure-treated lumber foundation, color-keeper vinyl siding, and a lifetime limited warranty.

Stop and see at one of our four New Jersey locations. We’re confident you’ll find a vinyl shed that fits your backyard and all your storage needs. It’s just up to you to keep it organized.