The History and the Future of Garage Organizer Systems

The original garage organizer system was just some basic shelves that were put up along the garage walls, usually just using scraps of plywood and pine that were lying around the house. I have to admit, this is still the type of garage organizer that we use today. It works fairly well for boxes, but not good for all the miscellaneous, odd shaped items that end up in the garage.

After basic shelves, came the evolution of a utility shelf. Often made out of metal or heavy duty plastic, and the plastic ones usually break completely down to shelves and supports. We have some of these also, both the plastic type that break down as well as heavy duty metal shelves.

Along with these basic shelves, we have the everyday cabinet that can be found in many ordinary garages. The garage organizer cabinet is usually made of metal or particle board. We have the particle board variety which is heavy and will be ruined if it gets wet. But it is very good for storing paint, stain, fertilizer and other household chemicals.

But in the last 15 to 20 years, the garage organizer has evolved into full systems. These systems range from grouped cabinets of various sizes and configurations to wall slat systems that are very versatile. These wall systems can hold a variety of  different hooks, shelves, baskets, caddies etc. that can hold an entire multitude of items from gardening tools to sports items to seasonal goodies to tools and bikes.

It seems like that would max out the ideas for garage organizers, but then somebody realized that there was an entire ceiling that was going unused. There are multiple overhead systems that take advantage of this fact, from a shelf that hangs from the ceiling (some on a pulley system) to special tote holders.

So with this innovative idea in mind, it made me wonder what will come next? What does the future garage organizer look like? Perhaps rotating shelves where everything has its own place, and it would be fully computerized. Just punch into the computer what you are looking for, and the shelves and cabinets would mechanically rotate until the desired item was front and center.

Perhaps some of the cabinets could even be kept in the crawl space above the garage and would robotically come down through a trap door when you did a search on the garage organizer computer system.

Better yet, think of Star Trek the Next Generation. You just walk up to a contraption built into the wall and say like Jean Luc Picard, "Tea, Earl Gray", or more appropriately, "Stain, Dark Walnut" and the item would instantly appear. The question is, do you store everything willy nilly in the crawl space and attic, or are they just molecules floating somewhere in space to reassemble when called upon. On Star Trek, I used to wonder if they had a storage hold full of anything you could possible need to appear when summoned, but I am pretty sure it was the latter molecular scenario.

Star Trek may not be the future of garage organizer systems, but it will be interesting to see what does evolve. But for right now, there are some great systems available to improve your garage storage needs.

But perhaps we won't need a garage, because cars will be obsolete. Beam me up Scotty!