Weekend Project: Reclaim your garage with a garden shed

The statistics from one garage-storage-and-organizing company (Word file) indicate that many U.S. homeowners have packed their garages with so much stuff that there's no room for the car. While my car could squeeze into my garage, all the clutter required me to pull out the car or climb over it when I needed to grab a tool or access the electrical panel to reset a circuit breaker.

But that's no longer the case, now that I had a new shed (shown) installed, which is admittedly more of a multi- rather than a single-weekend project. I had planned to do the project with my son this spring and summer, but as the weeks went by and since the site preparation was going slowly, I settled for a model whose price included installation.

If you don't want to install a shed, consider holding a garage/yard sale to get rid of stuff you no longer need or try to do a better job organizing your space. For instance, if items like a leaf blower or other outdoor power equipment are taking up valuable floor space, stow them on hooks or other hardware. (Read "10 Questions for . . . Katherine Steiger, Professional Organizer" for advice on uncluttering your home.)

If you do go the shed route, follow these pointers to make the process go more smoothly:

Follow the letter of the law. It might be tempting to put up a shed without notifying your town, but you're better off abiding by building and other codes. The roughly $200 I spent for a building permit and certificate of occupancy means that the shed won't be an issue when I sell my house.

What's more, by consulting with the town early, I ascertained that the 8x10-foot model I was considering would not require a setback from the property line, a plus since my backyard isn't especially spacious. And if your neighbors are more informed about town or municipal requirements than you are, you could potentially be ordered to move or remove the shed.

Weigh all the options. Sheds come in many sizes, styles, and colors, and with numerous options. For mine, I chose vinyl siding (no need to paint the shed), vents (to air out the gas-powered gear), a pressure-treated wood floor (to hold off the critters), a little window and planter, and a code-required anchoring kit to better secure the shed during storms. Remember, each add-on bumps up the price of the shed.

Prep the site. If you're installing a shed kit, follow the manufacturer's guidelines to prepare the site. If you're hiring someone to assemble it, follow that company's instructions. The challenge at my house was that on two sides we needed to level the site by cutting into a hill (and find a place for all the dirt). We also had to dig down a few inches to situate a bolted-together 4x4 border. Drainage around and beneath the shed is also important; we laid about a cubic yard of a crushed-stone mixture typically applied before asphalt, and half that of gravel. If you’re lucky, your driveway will be near the shed site. Mine isn't, so it took my son and me about 40 long trips pushing the wheelbarrow between the front yard and the back yard. Also be sure there's adequate clearance all around the site where the shed will go.

My shed got installed last weekend, and now that the building inspector has approved the project, I'll soon have the certificate of occupancy. Next, I'll lay down a coat of wood preservative on the shed floor and then tackle the next big weekend project: emptying the garage.—Ed Perratore | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Once you get a new shed and have more storage space, autumn sales on lawn gear might entice you to buy. Check out our tools-and-power equipment and lawn-and-garden pages and free buyer's guide to mowers and tractors, string trimmers, snow blowers, and leaf blowers. For more information on sheds, read "Building a Shed," by Joseph Truini.

10 Questions for . . . Libby Langdon, Interior Designer

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . . , Senior Editor Daniel DiClerico speaks with Libby Langdon, a New York City-based interior designer who appears on HGTV's Small Space, Big Style; her new book, Small Space Solutions, is due out in March 2009. Here, Langdon reveals her favorite paint colors, shares several space-expanding tricks, and talks about the latest in lightbulbs.

What's your attraction to small spaces?
While traveling the country for my first show, Design Invasion, I saw that people have space constraints everywhere you go. I realized that I have a lot of tips for people who are intent on making their tight quarters feel larger and function better.

What are a few of your favorite tricks of the trade?
• Use full-scale shelves and cabinets. Pieces that go all the way up to the ceiling visually draw the eye upward making the ceiling seem higher and your space feel larger.
• Put your walls to work by mounting shelving to display collections and store items that would otherwise waste precious table space and create clutter.
• When hanging drapes, mount the rod where the ceiling meets the walls. This will also expand the space visually.
• Avoid using all wood furniture, which gives a room a clunky feel. Mix in glass-topped tables to give the room a lighter, airier and more open appearance.
• Position a large mirror on the wall directly opposite a window or a door with panes in it. This will amplify the available natural light.

Can color be used to expand a space?
People are often petrified to paint a small space a color because they think it's going to make it look smaller. That can be the case if you paint all four walls a bold hue. Instead, choose an accent wall, maybe the wall that your headboard is on in the bedroom (see picture) or that your sofa is on in the living room. Paint that accent wall a rich, wonderful color and keep the other three walls a neutral, mellow color, like a soft tan. What happens visually is that the dark wall recedes and it tricks the eye into thinking the space is bigger than it is. (Learn more about specialty paints.)

What advice do you have for choosing paint colors?
Flip through a few design magazines to find colors you like. Nine times out of 10 they'll list the names of the colors in the resource guide at the back of the magazine.

What role does lighting play in opening up a space?
Layers of light add depth and dimension and make a small space seem visually much larger. This might mean a combination of overhead fixtures, undercabinet lighting, wall sconces, and table lamps. Always try to light all four corners of a room. If you can't see a corner, it's as if it isn't even there. I can't tell you how many times I go into small rooms that are lighted by a single lamp. Even in a small room, four or five lights are not too many. You also want to think in terms of tall, large-scale lamps. People tend to fall into the "small space, small accessories" trap. But a tall lamp will spread a lot of light, while again tricking the eye by creating a sense of scale and height.

You use a lot of lights. Are you a fan of compact fluorescent lightbulbs?
I do like CFLs for efficiency but not always for the quality of their light. I prefer LED lights, which manufacturers say last up to 60,000 hours. I find the quality of LEDs to be brighter and truer. I've found some that are around $40, so they're starting to come down in price.

(The quality of light from CFLs has improved. CFLs labeled "soft" or "warm" white will more closely resemble incandescent lightbulbs, while those tagged "bright white," "natural," or "daylight" will give off a whiter, crisper light.)

Inside Consumer Reports Test Labs: Kitchen-cabinet organizers

“Top drawer” took on a new meaning when Bob Karpel (in the video right), a Tech/Appliance Program Leader for Consumer Reports, and his team put a wide array of pullout drawers, refuse/recycling containers, and rotating lazy Susans through a series of grueling tests as part of our August 2008 report on kitchen-cabinet organizers. At prices ranging from $20 to $220, these add-ons can be a cost-effective upgrade to kitchen cabinets.

Here’s how we tested the gear:

Ease of Installation
One of the heavily weighted factors in our Ratings is ease of installation. Each of the 28 organizers we tested was installed in a typical kitchen cabinet. Those models with clear instructions and modest tool requirements (typically a screwdriver, ruler, and cordless drill) earned higher marks.

In general, bottom-mounting slide-out drawers and refuse/recycling containers were easy to install, but those with side-mounting rails proved difficult as a one-person job. Three of the refuse/recycling containers mounted directly to a cabinet door, which entailed the extra step of shimming out the side-mounted rails with wood blocks.

With the lazy Susans, centering and leveling the center posts and fitting all the needed large parts into a restricted cabinet also proved difficult. Note that if you have stone or composite counters, you’ll need to add a spacing block inside the cabinet to attach the lazy Susan’s top spindle mount.

Pulling-Force and Spinning Usability Testing
Bob added weight to each drawer component, then measured the force needed to pull it open. An alarming surprise: After durability testing, the stop mechanism on one low-priced unit worked only when its front section was heavily weighted; otherwise it just slid free of the rails.

Bob loaded each lazy Susan with some common kitchen items and turned each unit a set number of times to test for smoothness, stability, and sagging. Considering the installation also, the least-expensive model was best overall. And one model had a nice feature: an internal spindle with special grooved threads to allow quick shelf-height adjustments.

Durability Testing
Bob’s “pièce de résistance” for this project was a “durability rig” (right) that used a pair of electric motors and a couple of crank arms to pull the drawer components in and out thousands of times; it also rotated the lazy Susans back and forth. Bob felt this setup would simulate five to 10 years of use, depending on a family’s size and lifestyle. The testing machine was set to push each drawer unit against its stop.

Women want a clutter-free home

What do women want?

That age-old question should be on the minds of builders, remodelers, and manufacturers of products for the home. Why? Because 91 percent of all new household purchases are made by or influenced by women, according to Paul Foresman, who earlier today at the International Builders’ Show delivered the “Her Home in 2015” seminar, which focused on the design and amenities that women will want—and expect—in their homes in the coming years.

The typical American woman is stressed, and builders/remodelers and manufacturers need to design spaces and products that will make her life easier and her home a haven from the madness, says Foresman, director of business development for Design Basics, a home-plan-design company and runs the quarterly publication Her Home.

Some other key points Foresman made during his presentation:

• Household messes cause stress, but cleaning is no walk in the park either. The solution? Provide women with products and spaces that are easier to clean, say showers without doors.

• Women want to eliminate clutter in the bathroom, kitchen, and garage. They’ll expect to see well-designed storage systems that can rein in the mess.

The simplest stress reducer I can imagine? Have everyone in the house put his or her stuff away without nagging. My colleagues and I agree that would alleviate a lot of tension.—Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman

Essential information: Read our report on closet and garage organizers to find the best products to unclutter your home.

Q&A: I'm agonizing over organizing. How can I get my home in order?

My No. 1 New Year’s resolution was to organize my home, including the garage. Any tips for managing the mess?

You’re not alone. Getting organized ranks high on resolution lists, up there with losing weight and spending more time with family and friends. The National Association of Professional Organizers even designates January as Get Organized Month. This drive to organize spells big business for manufacturers of de- and uncluttering products: The storage-and-organizing industry is a $6 billion business, and Americans will spend $8.6 billion on organizing products in 2011, according to the Freedonia Group, a business-research company.

But while plastic bins and drawer dividers can be part of an organizing strategy, buying them is not the starting point. “I try to steer my clients away from buying products, at least in the beginning,” says NAPO president and Boston-based organizer Standolyn Robertson. Instead, she gets homeowners to figure out how they want to use a space. In a garage, that might mean creating space for a small plant-potting station—“not to mention the $80,000 worth of cars that are currently parked out on the driveway,” says Robertson.

Once you’ve figured out what function a space will serve, it’s time to purge and purge again, as our colleagues at ShopSmart note in their March 2008 issue. Debra Proctor, an organizer based in Raleigh, North Carolina, stresses the importance of sorting. She has clients take everything out of a given space and sort it into three piles: essentials, useful stuff that they’re not crazy about, and items that no longer serve any purpose. She has them sort through the useful pile again until only the bare necessities are left.

The next step involves getting rid of unwanted items. Some of the cast-asides will merit a date with the dustbin. But keep them out of the landfill, if possible, by observing local recycling laws. For example, rather than toss paint cans out with the household garbage, take them to your local household-hazardous-waste station. Learn more about dealing with leftover paint here and disposing of other household materials. And visit our Electronics Reuse & Recycling Center.

For items that are still in decent shape, find charities that will take them off your hands for free. Some organizations will even come to your home and haul away the goods—and you might even earn a tax deduction in the process. Click on each category below to find an organization that will take your items.

Appliances    Automobiles    Books    Building Supplies    Cell Phones    Computers    Electronics    Exercise Equipment    Furniture 

Other options for getting rid of your stuff include Freecycle and Craigslist. Remember, your trash might be someone else’s treasure.

Once you’ve parsed, purged, and passed along, you’re ready to find a home for the stuff you’ll be keeping. “Placement is important,” says Robertson, emphasizing that you should keep objects near where you’ll use them. In other words, don’t store DVDs in a separate room from where your home theater is.

The execution stage is the time to make any purchases that will help keep things in their proper place. We’ve tested pro-installed and DIY systems for closets and garages. Some of the DIY systems delivered nightmarish results—wobbly parts, confusing instructions, indifferent customer service—while others were as good as professionally installed systems for a lot less money and required only your time and basic tools.—Daniel DiClerico

Essential information: Share your ideas with or get advice from other readers in our new home-organizing forum.