It seems like organizing your garage can be a never ending task. Here’s a way to simplify garage organization by using an old dresser to organizing the garage!
It seems like organizing your garage can be a never ending task. Lots of companies make millions of dollars selling all kinds of storage systems to try to make your garage just a little bit more organized. OK I’m about to confess — We’ve had this problem, too! I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? The cool thing is we found a great organization tool that cost us nothing…
We have a dresser that was given to us by a relative. It’s an old 1970’s style dresser with nine drawers. It is about three feet tall, eight feet wide and two feet deep. It was one of those pieces of furniture that makes one wonder, “Why would anyone ever have bought that?” It had the faux wood countertop on top and the drawer faces were covered with those really tacky twirly relief patterns people really liked in the 70’s. Still, much to my husband’s surprise, I could see the value in it!
I painted it black (except for the wood top) and then put in the garage to store stuff. Even my husband has been surprised to see how well it has worked out for us. Here’s what I did:
First, I designated each drawer as a place for one category of supplies, and I marked each drawer with a little index card that I stapled to the front of the drawer with a staple gun.
One drawer is for electrical items. This includes outlets, outlet covers, electrical testing equipment, wire crimpers, lamp pieces and any other electrical thing we are likely to use. (Just as with any organizing, don’t save stuff you’ll never use just because you can ;-)
We have a drawer for paint supplies: roller handles, paint brushes, sand paper and such. (We don’t keep paint there — We have a separate small plastic shelf unit with our stash of paint.)
The top left drawer is our nail and screw drawer. We have two plastic embroidery floss organizers, each with twenty or so slots. We use one organizer for nails and the other for screws. When both of these containers are in the drawer, there is still room for a few whole boxes of the nails and screws we use most often.
We seem to have problems with cords, so one drawer is just for cords. It includes a few lamp cords, cable wire, phone wire and other cords. I make each one into a coil and slide it into a toilet paper roll to keep it separate from the others. My husband likes to just wind each one up and wrap it like a noose.
There is a drawer that includes nothing but batteries, one for glues and adhesives and another dedicated exclusively to light bulbs.
Another drawer is for miscellaneous hardware. This is the drawer for felt chair legs, baby locks, door stops and all kinds of other items that don’t have homes in any of the other drawers.
We also have one drawer set aside for miscellaneous tools. This drawer is for those tools that we don’t use every day, but that come in handy every now and then. We use it for things like pipe wrenches, channel locks, a wire brush and extra socket sets.
On top of the dresser, I placed several small rectangular plastic containers the size of shoe boxes. One has hammers and such, one has screwdrivers, one has pliers and crescent wrenches. I have four or five of these all together. Essentially, they contain the tools we use most often. This arrangement also leaves us a little counter space on the dresser.
Using an old dresser for this purpose has made life so easy! I see them all the time at garage sales for $10. This is well worth the price for the amount of storage you can get and if you like to find new uses for things that otherwise might hit the landfill, an old dresser might just do the trick!
Think outside the box!
Tawra
Dear Readers:
We received this reader response after this story first appeared:
I recently saw your ” Use a Dresser to Organize Your Garage!” article (from Living on a Dime) on The Dollar Stretcher, and I just had to laugh because I believe I own your dresser’s little brother. It is a horrific, brown, 8′ wide, 1.5′ deep, billion-pound monstrosity with eight drawers that are so shallow that you cannot fit two stacked sweatshirts inside. My mother-in-law is to blame.
We have considered getting rid of it many times, particularly when we had last moved. However, at the same time, I was struggling to find space for all of my cookware, bakeware, and servingware; I do a great deal of cooking and baking, but my apartment kitchen is small and has very few cabinets. I had hoped to find an armoire-type cabinet to house it all, but even the unaffordable pieces weren’t deep enough to accommodate most of my pans and large dishes and platters.
And then I had a brainstorm. I pushed the monstrosity against the wall of the dining room area (a feat in itself) , filled the drawers with shallow pots, pans, baking sheets, muffin tins, serving dishes, etc, separating stacked items with bubble wrap, and covered the top with a long silk scarf and seasonal candles. It’s not quite as elegant as a traditional “server,” but it’s camouflaged well enough that people generally ignore it, and it will serve us at least until we are able to save enough to buy a house. Maybe some day I will even paint it.
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only person in the world who has given new life to an inherited monstrosity.
KMW
I love this story about the dresser. We have an old dresser in our basement with very shallow drawers that are the length of the 5 ft. dresser. We use it to hold the badminton rackets and other “play” items. It also holds the croquet mallets and balls (the depth of the drawers). One drawer holds a quilt that we only use in the yard. It has been a great success. I like your use for your dresser, too. I may move the one from my bedroom (looks suspiciously like yours) into the basement when/if we ever get another for our bedroom.
I have an old dresser that is about four and a half feet tall. We use it as an entertainment center in my bedroom. The tv on top, dvd’s in the top drawer, misc. medications and ace bandages etc in the second, books in the third, and sheets and pillow cases in the bottom
Last year my dad was updating his bathroom. He purchased new cabinets and countertops. I told him I wanted the old ones just for the purpose of putting it in the garage as a workbench station. He has since done another bathroom in his home and now we have two full-size bathroom cabinets with countertops in the garage. Here in Arizona many of us have the laundry room in the garage and these make excellent folding areas and work benches for all types of things. I love them even though they are not wonderful colors for the house, they are perfect for a garage. My old dresser I put in my office instead of buying other office furniture. The dresser holds electrical stuff, dayplanners, and one draw is designated for art/school supplies. I know I have saved alot of money by utilizing these items.
I agree this is a great idea. I actually have a pie safe holding small power tools like a drill,circular saw, jig saw, one shelf has plastic boxes with nails and odds and ends. These little boxes are actually recycled personal wipes (baby wipes to most folks) boxes. I use a cabinet about the size of a small dresser that houses my paint rollers, brushes and some left over paint and related supplies. I don’t have a garage, just an outside lawn building. I so dislike clutter that I started this idea several years ago.
I found an older cedar chest in decent shape at a garage sale for $5.00. I am using it in the garage to store extra winter clothing. The inside of the chest is realcedar lumber.
I have my grandmother’s cedar closet … it’s a beauty! After a couple decades noticed some moths were getting inside. Asked a furniture salesman what I should do — was it just too old? He suggested LIGHTLY-hand-sanding the inside area that was right next to hanging items and of course by the shelves. It released new oils from the wood, but in limited quantities. Worked like a charm. The wood can be hand sanded several more times. This cedar closet should be around, and working well, for my great-great grandchildren, too! Makes sense, yes? Good luck with your amazing find!
one suggestion is to make sure the bottoms of the drawers is sturdy enough for what you want to put in them.
they are made for clothes so heavier items might cause them to be damaged.
reinforce them with strips of wood or replace the bottoms with a heavier piece. easier to do it before you fill them than to try and get the drawer opened after the drawer is damaged.
been there done that.
What a great idea! I have an old dresser in the garage that is just taking up room. I was thinking I would just sell it in the garage sale, but now I think I’m going to keep it and use it for my tool chest!!! Thanks!!!
I love this idea. I do a lot of knitting and crocheting, thus a big mess in the family room and on the couch where I sit. Needles, hooks, scissors, yarn, yarn scraps, pattern books and single patterns.
We also have a 2 drawer dresser in the family room, empty, just because we don’t want to get rid of it…
voila, this post, plus the empty dresser will meet, and the family room can look much nicer.
Thanks for the advice on this…
I friend of mine is replacing an old mahogany desk and offered it to me. I love mahogany. Will I use it as a desk for my computer stuff or a sewing table. It has drawers for all my sewing stuff, so that might be what happens. So… what piece of furniture will it replace? It might even become a dresser for my bedroom! I like looking at things for what they can do, rather than what they are.
How about a picture? I’d love to see your dresser in use, and I’m pretty sure one could fit in front of the water heater, without obstructing it at all. (It’s on a raised platform.)
My husband grew up with those “perfect” dressers, so we actually looked for one for our first apartment together! LOL
One man’s treasure…
I don’t have the dresser any more. I had to get rid of it with this move. :-( Sorry!
I have a small dresser in my nook in the hallway containing craft items, fabric, extra birthday cards and things like that. I wouldn’t do without my dresser.
We had a waterbed with nice framed deep drawers on each side. We took the drawer frames, placed a nice top on each. Stacked them on top of each other. Now we have 8 drawers for storage and a working table in our garage.
This is actually a pretty practical idea. Dressers go out of fashion within a decade or two and the wood is rarely bad enough to be thrown out on the streets, and yet the whole thing may not be good enough to keep inside your bedroom.
You can add a splash of paint, or give it a deliberately rustic look to add some flavor.
Hi Jill and Tawra,
Reading your article has made my day! I also took an old odd piece of furniture (from the 6os) and yes I bought it new ( now I’m telling my age lol) and over the years as we redid the house I decided to keep it. One because it’s solid and has a unique shape and the other because back in the day my hubby painted a beautiful peace sign on it. When it was time to update my kitchen I decided to put that piece of furniture in my kitchen near a window and use it to put my cake pans, muffin tins etc in it. I also keep a plant sitting on top. Just goes to show what you can do with a little imagination!
I love this idea! I am queen of the second hand items and this is a great use for a piece of furniture heading out the door. It also makes your garage look organized and much more put together. We have a piece that has almost finished it’s time in our room that is earmarked for this. Thank!
Like Vicki, we used some old filing cabinets as well in our garage. Going paperless freed up some furniture!
Love it! Spending money to redo your garage is not worth it.
It was really helpful when you stated that garage dressers and cabinets can be made to organize tools and materials much easier. Ever since I’ve become more active in home-repair and car work, I’ve had a lot of trouble figuring out where certain tools go. If I can get a garage storage system to help me design a large enough cabinet for my own garage, I’ll surely have an easier time locating the tools I need.