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.

But how do you go about organizing your gardening stuff? Well, it may be hard to do, but the first thing you need to do to get things orderly and organized is to totally unpack your shed. Take out the rolls of wire would only be useful for fencing in a horse and a few cows (unless you have livestock, then it’s alright), remove the 12 cans of designer stain that have long ago separated because you left them in the shed all winter and they froze. Throw out everything that can’t be used, give away anything that you haven’t used in a year.

Now that your garden shed has been cleared out, this is a great time to fix it up, patch any holes, put a few more shingles on the roof, and repaint the window frames in this years hottest backyard trendy color. You can also use this time to look at that pile of tools you will be keeping and fix any wiggly handles, spray paint any metal with a colorful rust paint enamel, and oil up your shears and clippers.

Before putting items back into your shed take the time to add shelves and or hooks. Although an assortment of three inch nails hung your father’s gardening tools, times have changed. In my opinion, those nails are an invitation for spiders to create string art in your shed. Go to your local hardware store and purchase some proper hooks. The hooks are inexpensive and sturdy and plastic coated. Proper hooks and shelving are a worthwhile investment.

The last step, and for me the most fun, is putting back the deemed essential garden shed items each in their own spot, with room to find and access everything required for effective gardening. Now that everything has a spot, and your garden shed is the picture of organization, you will be more likely to approach your gardening with less dread. Garden shed organization is definitely worth the effort.