5 Lowe's Finds To Help You Organize Your Garage

If you've never spent that much time in a garage, or are perhaps new to having a garage at all, you will probably be unfamiliar with the trials of keeping it from becoming an absolute mess. It's easy to throw all your used boxes and broken gadgets you tell yourself you're going to repair someday in the garage, but it is oh so difficult to take them out — or, at least, store them properly.

While it's no substitute for a bit of discipline, Lowe's is full of finds that can help you keep your garage organized. After all, you can't keep everything in its place if you don't have a place for everything to begin with. 

Lowe's may not be the only store that sells tools to help organize a garage, but it's certainly one of the most affordable. Many of the products highlighted here, which come in various shapes and sizes and offer varying levels of mobility, aren't from big brand names, but they're valid and affordable alternatives to the more expensive products you can find at other hardware stores.

The Kobalt stackable mini tool boxes are available in various shapes and colors and offer a cheap way to organize all your small tools and tiny materials. The ones we recommend here are the 3-drawer steel toolbox and the smaller 2-drawer variant that you can stack on top of the larger one. These are genuinely tiny, with the smaller box measuring just 10.8x5.9x5.9 inches. The drawers hold five pounds each and have a combined capacity of 248 cubic inches.

These, then, are great for storing very small tools and materials, but admittedly not much else. Even a slightly larger-than-average hammer will stretch the limits of these boxes. They're the perfect companion for some of Lowe's adorable mini tools, but might leave you wanting for a larger storage solution. Thankfully, there are other options for that.

The mini toolboxes are neat, and at prices ranging from $22 to $32, they don't really need to be anything else. Pick a color that fits in your garage, or get an NFL-branded model in your team's color. It will be cheap, look neat, and as a bonus, will offer safe storage for your small tools and materials to boot.

The Gladiator GearTrack is a modular system for hanging your tools on the wall, similar to the rails present in Ryobi's Link Modular System. Instead of nailing a tool hook directly to your garage wall, you would install the Gladiator rails before fastening hooks to them. This will allow you to move the hooks around as needed, without drilling new holes in the wall. Did you get a new tool that takes up more space on the wall than you anticipated? Or perhaps you measured incorrectly when first mounting the hooks? No problem; just move one of the holders further away from the rest, and you're golden.

You may want to buy a bundle to start with, but since this is a modular system, you can also buy components piecemeal as and when you need them. The modularity also means that you're free to expand your storage setup with whatever hooks you need, as long as you have enough space on the rails and the hook is compatible with the GearTrack system. Compatible tool holders include many multipurpose hooks, baskets such as Gladiator's 24-inch mesh basket, and even small shelves like the Gladiator 12-inch steel shelf hanger.

Keeping your garage clean and clutter-free is great for getting to your tools fast, but being able to carry them with you or get them out of the way when necessary is even better. If you're looking for something cheap, Craftsman makes lots of toolboxes under $100. But if you have the space, and money is not too tight right now, one of the best storage solutions you can invest in is a modular and portable toolbox system like Craftsman's VersaStack.

The VersaStack three-unit tower is possibly the best value-per-dollar proposition in the VersaStack system at $139. It's a bundle of three mobile storage solutions that all lock together for easier and safer transportation. The tower comes with a rolling toolbox at the bottom, a deep toolbox at the center, and a 10-compartment organizer unit on top. You can change how you stack the boxes and add new VersaStack products to your pile.

The rolling toolbox and the deep toolbox are spacious enough to hold many large tools and bulky materials, though you will have to stick to the weight limits: the rolling toolbox holds 100 pounds, while the deep toolbox is rated for 66 pounds. Meanwhile, the organizer unit is all about keeping various small parts separate, and, according to reviews, it does that job very well.

Lowe's sells a lot of different tool cabinets, but we're highlighting the Craftsman 27-inch 4-drawer rolling tool cabinet because it has over 1,000 (mostly positive) user reviews and a relatively affordable price of $177. There are larger units than this available at Lowe's, but they're more expensive, so they're best suited for someone who already knows they like working with big metal cabinets.

 As a bonus, there's a good chance that the 27-inch Craftsman 1000 will fit in your garage, since it's just 27 inches wide and 18 inches deep. According to Craftsman, it offers over 8,000 cubic inches of storage divided between four drawers. Two of those are about 3 inches tall, while the other two reach 6 inches. While this unit is affordable, keep in mind that Craftsman is one of the best brands for tool chests and drawers, so you're not skimping on quality.

Each of the four drawers is rated for 50 pounds, while the whole thing can hold up to 500 pounds. The cabinet can still hold an extra 300 pounds even when all the drawers are full, so you can use it as a movable work surface or as a place to put toolboxes and other organizers. Put Kobalt's stackable mini tool boxes on here, and you'll have a dedicated space for the tiny materials and tools that would get lost in the big drawers of the Craftsman.

Since you're reading an article about organizing your garage, you may have already filled your garage's floor with cabinets and workbenches, possibly with a big stepladder and other tools resting against a wall. If you're looking for more space, you need to look up. They may be a pain to install, but wall-mounted cabinets are one sure way of finding extra space when you've exhausted all freestanding options. Gladiator's full-door wall-mounted cabinets are a good choice, since they're not too expensive (some models retail for $200) and are compatible with Gladiator's GearTrack channels, making them more versatile than many alternatives.

If you don't have any GearTrack channels and aren't interested in them, don't worry. As many user reviews point out, this cabinet can also be installed directly on the wall studs. Either way, it's rated for 150 pounds per cabinet and 40 pounds per shelf. It's not ideal for storing very heavy materials, but it'll be perfect for the bulky but lightweight stuff, like cleaning supplies, spare light bulbs, and small parts organizers, that tend to accumulate in garages.

The cabinet we selected comes with two full-sized doors and two shelves that can be removed or repositioned, but other Gladiator models offer two shelves with two ¾ doors and a single large door with a single shelf. Warranties vary based on the model, ranging from 10 years to a lifetime limited warranty for Premier-branded units.