Tuesday, August 5, 2014

24 Garage Update: Family Bike Storage

The garage is coming along swimmingly and I have been going nook by nook to clean, create zones, organize and label.  Last week I shared my excited over our new outdoor toy storage system.  Today, I am sharing our final solution for our bikes.


You can catch up on our garage story and progress here.  Long story short, the entire space is getting brand-spankin' new storage so that it is simple to maintain.  We built in boatloads of overhead storage which I will share when I finish installing the hardware and organizing the contents.  The upper cabinets we built have gotten many of the larger items up and off the floor and tucked away out of sight.  All we want left out on the walls are the items we use daily; such as lawn toys / games, sports equipment and bikes.

In the past, we have hung our bikes from the ceiling with simple hooks found at the hardware store {seen here}.  Don't get me wrong, those little hooks were rockstars for us for years!  They held the bikes securely off of the ground and did their job giving us floor space.  Problem was that the kids could not get their own bikes down, so they were not hung up high.  Even I struggled safely removing my bike on my own, which really limited how often it was being used during the warm months.  We really wanted a solution that would allow us to keep the bikes off of the floor, yet be easy for the entire family to access at a moment's notice.

A few years ago now, we were given the opportunity to try out the Monkey Bar Garage Rack.  We had been using it to store many of our garden tools and it worked wonderfully for that.  This year, we have been making an effort to streamline how we use our spaces, so we moved everything garden related to our garden shed.  Hello empty garage storage rack!

The Monkey Bar system comes with a variety of attachments depending on the types of items you are attempting to store.  Because we already had the rack portion, we just needed to locate some updated hooks designed for hanging our five bicycles.  You can purchase the entire kit here, however, I just needed five hooks so I turned to an online auction site to pick them up at a fraction of the price.


Installation was pretty straight forward and simple, the most important piece being that you need to locate studs to support the weight of the bikes plus the system.  The rack offers some flexibility to allow for the brackets to be placed into studs without compromising available storage. 


The hooks clamp onto the bar, yet slide back and forth when no weight is applied {they do not slide when objects are hanging from them}.


Label fanatic Jen came out to play and whipped up some simple hanging tags for each hook.  We have found that placement determines the ease of removing the bikes from the hooks, so I created a label for each hook based on each family member and their bike size.


The labels were created from Martha Stewart metal rim tags {purchased at Staples} paired with vinyl numbers cut with my Silhouette, although any sticker would work!


The labels are hanging with twine and are visible from both ends of the rack as I labeled both sides of the tag.


Although the bikes are still heavy, this girl right here was able to get them all hung on her own!




This is not a sponsored post, but I am sharing a product we use so here are a few pros and cons:
  • Con: Bikes are heavy no matter how they are stored, and this system still does not allow my youngest to retrieve his own bike.
  • Pro:  I am cool with that because he does not have permission to ride it unsupervised anyway.  And the rest of the family can simply remove and put back their bikes without too much effort.
  • Pro:  The bikes are now accessible year round; keeping them off the lawn and garage ceiling and protected from the harsh Wisconsin elements.
  • Con:  The hooks do tend to slide a little when placing the bikes on the rack.
  • Pro:  When you release the weight of the bike onto the hook, it doesn't move at all.
  • Pro:  The rack is heavy duty and I trust the installation and strength.
  • Con:  The individual hooks were not easy to locate for purchase.  I was happy to find them on an auction site, but I didn't see them made available without re-purchasing the entire bar kit or spending a hefty amount on a set of three {here are two options}.
  • Pro:  The bikes seem to take up far less room up on a wall than scattered all over the garage floor.
  • Pro:  Our garage is starting to look amazeballs, with the exception of my spray painted floor.


Here is what we still have left on our garage to do list:
  • Finish step and door for house entry
  • Touch up paint/Touch up trim work
  • Install updated lighting
  • Organize and label upper cabinet contents
  • Organize and label floor cabinet {not pictured}
  • Finishing touches and details

It is very exciting to see this list shrinking daily!  I am so ready to have this project coming to an end after two years of dreaming!

24 comments:

  1. Jenn, you always make everything look functional and pretty. In the 1000 sq. ft. of space that is my home, I wouldn't have space for a bike rack, but if I had a garage, I would totally copy this ;-)

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  2. Looks great! What a wonderful solution!

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  3. This looks great! I so wish we had a garage, then all my husbands hobbies could be moved there for storage instead spread randomly throughout our house. I like how low you have the bikes, my Aunt and Uncle have something similar but theirs hang all the way up by their ceiling and it seems like they never get to use their bikes because they are so challenging to get down. I cannot wait to see more of your garage!

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  4. So clean and crisp!! Love this organization!!

    xo, Taylor

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  5. Looks amazing as always!
    Bikes are tricky to store!

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  6. This looks great. We hang our bikes like this in the basement. (we don't have kids yet but between the two of us we have 3 bikes!) One thing we did which might help you protect that white wall - we used about a 12" piece of PVC pipe cut in half the long way and screwed that to the wall so that the rear tire has a more durable place to land.

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    1. The first thing I thought of was black tire marks n white wall. Great tip!!

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  7. I love this system and have been giving a quote to install it. Unfortunately, our garage is last on our list of to do's

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  8. WOO-WHEE!!! What a transformation!

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    1. I feel the same way! It is getting there slowly but surely!! :D

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  9. What kind of bike do you have? I need one but don't know where to start!

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    1. Hi Gina!
      I purchased a Schwinn Cruiser a few years ago and really love it. It has a nice retro feel to it, and rides great!

      xoxo!

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  10. Thanks for sharing! We love biking and recently finished an 80 mile ride with the kids in the trailer (never again, ouch). We were just discussing storage options for our bikes and I think this one might be a winner for the new house.

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  11. Love the look of this storage. The system is Pricey, but seems worth it. Can you tell me if it's easy to get the bikes down? For instance, is it hard to get just bikes 2 and 4 down and leave the others? I would love to do this in my garage someday...

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    1. Hi Nicole!

      It is not too bad retrieving a bike from the center, however, we have a little space between our bikes having two large and three smaller sizes. My husband believes there is even more room when you alternate hanging your bikes front wheel to back wheel. I would imagine it would be a little trickier if all of the bikes were full size, but it may state more details on the manufacturer website as different systems are designed for a different number of bikes to store.

      xoxo!

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  12. This looks so great!! I'm in the process of overhauling our garage as well, and what a daunting task- we're still trying to figure out where everything should go. I live in Wisconsin too, and the winter can be brutal on the garage it seems, all the salt, sand and snow make a mess of everything.

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  13. Is your garage door going into the house painted blue. Love your garage

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    1. Yes, I recently painted both doors in our garage, the one leading to the house and the other leading to our back patio. :) Loving the blue, made such a huge difference already. Just need to do something to clean up the stair stepping into the house and do some touch ups.

      xoxo!

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    2. Are the doors metal? What tyoe of paint and brushes/rollers did you use?

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    3. Yes, the doors are steel, and I just used a nice mini-microfiber roller {the roller covers that state "best" on the packaging to ensure a smooth finish}. You can snag more door painting details here: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2013/06/june-monthly-challenge-we-painted-front.html

      xoxo!

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  14. I never thought I would say this...but I have major garage envy!!! Might have to put off my plans for in the house and move to the garage.

    Erin
    upsideofchaos.com

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  15. This looks amazing! I'm going to try to copy this and see if it will work for us. Clearing the floor of all our bikes will make a HUGE difference.

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  16. I am definitely looking into this. We just moved to a bigger house with a bigger garage which really helps, because without enough storage space everything becomes a nightmare. I have four bikes and a kayak. Our family loves doing outdoor stuff, but you need the space to store the gear. Thanks for the great idea Jennifer!

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