Moving out of Michigan means I’ve had to say goodbye to my dirt-cheap rental house with a two-car garage, and welcome a one-bedroom apartment that costs over twice as much and has absolutely no wrenching space (there is a two-car tandem parking spot in a parking garage, but wrenching is strictly forbidden). This means all the crap I had in my garage (and there was lots) is going to have to go into a single office. Here, let me show you, and if you don’t mind, I’d love to see your setup, too.
The garage at my house (The House of Misfit Jeeps) on Rochester Road in Troy, Michigan was a legendary wrenching spot. Many rusty Jeeps went from zero to hero in that enclosed, oil-filled icebox; it’s where I pulled my first engine, it’s where I learned to weld, it’s where I shot one of my favorite video series (David Dissects), and it’s where I became an expert on dealing with rusty fasteners.
The real reason why it’s so legendary is that it’s always been a bit of a shitstorm. I mean, look at this place!:
That’s an engine hoist on the left; on the far side of it is a Jeep 4.0 inline-six. There’s a radiator on the right, a bunch of seats from Jeep XJs and ZJs there in the center, the rear section of a Jeep J10 cab, poles for a portable garage there in teh corner, a welder on the floor, and on and on. The place was a nightmare, which is why it took me a while to turn it into this:
Anyway, more on that later. What you need to know for now is that I have to fit all the tools and parts that I had in that garage into this space:
Yes, I did manage to sell/part with some of the stuff shown in that initial picture, but then there are also things that I need to store in this officer that aren’t in that photo — a dozen 31-inch tires, for example. I have no idea how I’m going to pull this off.
I’d love some ideas on garage storage solutions, so please show us in the comments!
I know, I know, our comments don’t allow images (yet!), so if you could, tweet or Instagram a photo of your garage setup. Tag @the_autopian on Twitter or @theautopian on Instagram, and paste the link to your post in the comments section.
I always love seeing garage setups, whether big or small, as they sometimes help me get ideas on how to best optimize my space. And they’re just cool to look at.
I really feel for you David, losing storage space has to be the worst thing imaginable.
Hopefully it will be worth it to get away from the land of the midnight rust.
I have a basically 1.875 car garage that I have absolutely packed with machine tools (mill, lathe, 2” belt grinder, CNC plasma table) and a 4ft 2 post lift.
I really need a bigger building, but im torn between building one and getting the hell out of New York state, for climate and cost of living reasons.
Current Project on the lift
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN3EHv7Giu1qwwVfE-bltUnW_iLw1TFVMhC7R0ZCAoh-LePmEvElSFcbrudvk01DQ?key=Zzd4ZDZXeG8tN2NXdTJYQ3M1QlBnVG9wVTdMNzB3
The “machine shop” side of the garage
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN-TGq3BKaGnyOjtBN25icwPcRbSNu8pYLyBRO00B8t_xDF0Ne8trJ1qPmCkBz3Ug?key=SFFYdEdPdDNEaGZfRThsQWlsM21qbDlPTWg4WXVn
A view from outside https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMKsKFIllvwVVUsoJwy0690ZUC-lbfJJLcGyF24TiaPNxOCyWDEUQbYCHs1LJCNrg?key=dnpFckFzU1dKMmt2M2d2UkxScTIzUGRkTGlIU2hB
Prediction: no standing room left in the office by the end of July, and you will be working out of a booth at the local McDonalds
Don’t tell my wife or kids, but I bought our current house for the garage and yard and then worked to make the house livable. A standard double garage was never big enough for all my stuff. Now I have a 30’x30′ detached garage space (over half the size of the house) and nearly an acre so that I can have my 2 campers in the back yard. The garage space is actually pretty organized, and I’m constantly adding shelves, getting rid of things I haven’t used, and adding tools. Kitchen cabinets from the house moved into the garage when we remodeled. I have a rolling toolbox for most of my hand tools and quite a few old file cabinets for larger corded tools. I have a lot of woodworking tools (ducted dust collection, table saw, router table, etc, and most of it is on wheels. I have a couch and rolling chair that I pulled from a US Auto junkyard Range Rover. There’s a 55″ TV above my workbench on a mount for watching instructional videos or movies. I have a great stereo out there too, as well as a garage fridge stocked with beverages. The MGB gets a permanent spot in the garage, as well as the lawn tractor. I scored a great engine lift during covid that was a former rental lift. It came on a cart in 5 pieces and takes up less than 2′ square of floor space. I love my garage, but I do wish the ceiling was higher and the doors were bigger. The ceiling is at under 8′ and it’s two single 8′ wide by 7′ high doors, so it’s really tight to get most cars into. There’s also a wall down the center because the garage was originally 15’x30′ and they doubled it with an addition. So they’re only a doorway and window between the 2 sides. It’s a great space though, and far better than most of the houses in my area. My dream would be to put up a pole barn to store my campers, but I’d have to get a variance to do so in my town.
I looked at a house once that had the garage majal, better than yours. Two story detached w/man cave upstairs. Full height with a hoist. Etc etc etc.
Unlike you, this guy never quite finished any of the projects inside the house. Everything was half done or half-assed.
It will shock you to learn the sale was due to divorce.
Yeah, I was smart enough to know that the garage upgrades waited until the house was remodeled and in good shape and that the tool purchases were to support house upgrades. The house was in really bad shape when I bought it (almost uninhabitable) and I had 3 months to get it livable before moving in (new plumbing, new bathrooms, kitchen remodel, floors refinished, make sure the smell of cat urine was gone, all rooms painted, etc.) Remodeling is still a huge strain on a relationship and you have to work on that relationship as much as the house and garage. It’s so hard for others to see your vision. We all love the place now and it was a great move overall.
My solution was to rent a 10×25 storage unit nearby until I bought a couple of acres with a pole barn in a nearby small town. Since I doubt there’s anything that could be reasonably called a “small town” and “nearby” to where you are now I think you’re SOL. 😛