I wanted to get the garage cleaned after a summer of projects. I also love to park in it for the winter and avoid a freezing car with frost on the window
A clean and organized garage = a less stressed out, happy me. So, we went to work.
We got two new gorilla shelving units against the wall and more bins to hide stuff in. We had a lot of things that needed to be brought to the dump.
When we bought our ’70s house, the garage had a large shelving unit and a DIY workbench made from the old kitchen cabinets and countertop. Although it’s not an ideal set up, we are making what we have work. Cleaning up and organizing always helps me see what is working with a space and what isn’t working.
One thing that didn’t work was our bike storage.
Finding a Solution for our Bikes
We would always hit our heads on the bikes hanging by their tires from the ceiling. Although our bikes were out of the way, they were right in the walking space from the man door into the garage. Since we didn’t have wall space to put them against the wall, we needed to find a different solution.
Jordan was researching how to store bicycles better online but couldn’t find anything that would work for our space.
He figured we needed a way to get the bikes down quickly and easily (they had to go on the ceiling, which was the only space we had left) and be out of the way so we could park the car. He also wanted it not to be expensive. We already had bike hooks for the tires that we were using, so he considered integrating a pulley to get the bikes to lay flat against the ceiling. We had dealt with hitting our heads long enough, so we attempted to maximize the space with this idea.
THE Simple, DIY Bike Storage Solution
Jordan used the bike hooks we had already and screwed them into studs in the ceiling. Then, he connected the front tire to the frame with a buckle strap so the handlebars would rotate when bringing it to the ceiling. He connected the paracord and carabiner under the bike’s seat and lifted the bike to hang on the tire hooks. Jordan then hoisted the bike up so that it sat right against the ceiling with the help of the pulleys. He then tied off the paracord to the cleat.
The paracord tied to a carabiner keeps the bike securely in place.
Using these pulleys and the line, we can hoist the bike up against the ceiling once it’s on the tire hooks.
To keep the tires from rotating, we connect a strap to the tire and the frame. This keeps the tires in place.
There you have it! A simple, DIY solution to your bike storage problem. Happy organizing!
