If a man's home is his castle, his garage often ends up being…well, let's face it, the royal landfill. In fact, according to a survey of 2,000 homeowners conducted this year by The Container Store, the garage wins top honors (or is that dishonors?) as the messiest spot in the house, with 46 percent of respondents calling it their most difficult storage area to keep organized.
That was decidedly the case for Esquire's editor-in-chief, Michael Sebastian. When he, his wife, and their two young daughters first moved into their home in the New Jersey suburbs, they filled the attached garage with storage boxes—which, two years later, remained in exactly the same spot. Preoccupied with bringing the rest of the 1970s house into the 21st century (they ditched the shag carpeting but kept the light-up disco ball in the living room), they didn't give the garage much thought at all—unless they were tossing more junk into it. "There were tools and sporting goods and bikes, and that sort of stuff, but also boxes and boxes and boxes of packed books, Christmas decorations—you name it," Michael recalls.
One thing you wouldn't find in this garage? A car. "You could barely get a human in there," he recalls. "We had carved out a walking path," but the space was so jam-packed, "my wife was embarrassed to have the doors open because neighbors would walk past with their dogs." And while their 8- and 5-year-old daughters kept their bikes and outdoor toys in the garage—standard enough practice—"there was lighter fluid next to the hula hoops and soccer balls," Michael says. "I was always like, 'Don't go in there!'"
The family wasn't unaware that this chaotic space needed their attention. But other home-improvement projects kept taking precedence, and by the time they were finally ready to confront the space, the amount of clutter was overwhelming, too much to handle on their own. It was time to bring in the big guns. As Michael explains, "it makes so much sense to have an expert who can look at a room and envision a solution."
Visions of Order
In those classic '90s movies, someone with a discerning eye is always looking at an outcast and seeing the beauty hidden behind the oversized sweaters and messy hair. In the case of the Sebastians' garage makeover, that eye belonged to some fairy godparents from The Container Store, which offers free custom space design, installation, and in-home organization services. Michael took advantage of all of the above, starting with a home consultation. "A design consultant from The Container Store came to our house, surveyed everything, and then within a handful of days returned with a plan using Garage+ by Elfa that was pretty much pitch perfect," he recalls. "I have a passing interest in interior design, but they have this fresh angle—it's like the garage came into view for them."
The proposal's details included hanging the bikes on hooks to free up floor space, replacing cabinetry repurposed from the kitchen with lockable wall shelves and freestanding mobile lower cabinets from the brand’s Garage+ by Elfa line, and adding clear weathertight totes as well as fluted bins for concealed storage, and wall-hanging bags for oddly shaped objects such as balls and toys. With a place for everything and everything in its place, and the floor cleared of debris (and that lighter fluid), the garage would be primed to fulfill its destiny: providing a place for the family car to reside.
But before the fun part—installing the new Garage+ by Elfa system and marveling at the beauty of the new-and-improved space—came the strategy. Those boxes had to be unpacked, the unwanted detritus gotten rid of, and systems put in place to ensure that chaos wouldn't eventually just take over the garage again. And that's where The Container Store’s In-Home Organizer service came into play.
The Method Behind the Makeover
"We had always wanted to organize this garage," Michael says. "But without this service, that would have just meant unpacking the boxes and shoving everything into a corner." A corner that would, inevitably, have soon taken over the entire space once again.
Instead, two organizers from The Container Store came and spent a day with the family, helping them decide what to toss or give away (myriad DVDs they hadn't watched in decades, for starters), reviewing what remained, and developing a system for where it should all go. Per the brand's methodology, this involves creating "zones" of items by category, need, or ease of access. For the Sebastians' garage, this means distinct zones devoted to kids/sports/play, the yard, holidays, tools and utility, and "grab and go" items the family might regularly pick up on their way to the car, such as boots, raincoats, and umbrellas.
Once that plan was put into action—and excess items donated or temporarily stored inside the house—there was room in the garage for the walls and floors to be patched and painted. Next came the installation of the Garage+ by Elfa system, which encompassed the following:
- Utility tracks with a variety of hooks, installed around the garage door and on one wall, for hanging items ranging from bikes, beach chairs, and skateboards to rakes, leaf blowers, ladders, and an artificial Christmas tree. This immediately freed up floor space and, according to The Container Store In-Home Organizer Jamie Hord, “created slim storage to help the car fit in the garage—a goal that we wanted to make a reality.”
- Adjustable shelving, higher up on another wall, to hold oversized items such as sleds, buckets, coolers, and large holiday decor.
- Accessible, low-profile drawers the Sebastians' young daughters can reach, filled with kid essentials in categories including, says Hord, "chalk, bubbles, games like cornhole and bowling, water toys, snow toys, and skates."
- Mesh bags—which Michael says remind him of laundry hampers—for soccer, basket, and beach balls that were previously "just scattered around the garage." Now, he marvels, "they actually have a home you can drop them into until you need to take them out."
- A pegboard to store small tools and utility items, while also keeping them visible for easy access. (This is part of a workshop area created on the back wall, separate from the toys and sports equipment on the side walls.)
- Remote-controlled LED lighting under the upper cabinets, to provide dimmable task lighting above the work surface.
- Finally, freestanding lower cabinets for heavy tools (like a table saw) and gardening bags, and wall-mounted upper cabinets for lighter tools and utility items.
Garage+ by Elfa 11' Garage Solution with Tall Cabinet
Garage+ by Elfa 3' Wall Shelving Solution
Garage+ by Elfa Garage Drawer Set Matte Grey
Garage+ by Elfa Track Square Mesh Storage Bag
Garage+ by Elfa 2' Pegboard Matte Grey
like-it Deep Fluted Stacking Storage Tote Green
Garage+ by Elfa Tall Cabinet Solution
Garage+ by Elfa Freestanding Lower Cabinet Solution
Garage+ by Elfa Wall-Mounted Upper Cabinet Solution
Within each zone, every space is labeled so that, as Hord says, “everyone in the family knows not only where to find something, but where to put it back!” This is the small, good thing that gives Michael faith that his garage won't fall back off the wagon the next time life gets busy. "They have made everything so straightforward, so simple, and so turnkey that it feels like you would actually have to be proactive in wanting to make a mess in this space," he says. “Now it's so easy to say, 'Okay, these balls go here. These tools go here.'"
The Happily-Ever-After
The entire transformation took only about two weeks—and now, with all those balls, tools, lighter fluid, and Christmas trees safely in their own little homes, the Sebastians finally have room to park their car. (In fact, they have room to park two—except that some of the open space is currently claimed by the girls' electric toy off-road vehicle.)
But the new version of the garage has brought them much more than just parking space. It's the realization of that common real estate dream where you discover another room in your home, one you've never used before. "It's suddenly a new, exciting space," Michael says. "We've even been keeping the door to the garage open again. On rainy days our daughters go in there and ride their bikes around in circles."
Many other potential uses remain under consideration as well. “My wife loves games, so she's like, 'We could put a foosball table in here,'" Michael laughs. "And as a spillover space, it's not embarrassing in any way—in fact, it's a point of pride."
So much so that those dog-walkers whose gaze the family once dreaded may soon have something to look forward to. "My wife wants to have a garage-warming party with the neighbors," Michael says. Not that she’s the only one eager to show off the metamorphosis. "I'm going to be showing everyone pictures, like they're photos of my kids," he predicts. "Like, 'Check out this garage!'"
