Egg Cartons Are An Unexpected Way To Maximize Storage In The Garage

Staying on top of odds and ends in the garage can be a difficult and overwhelming process. It demands that you know where things are stored but also that you can easily retrieve them when the moment calls for it. While many options exist for optimizing your garage storage, the truth is that many of them are expensive or difficult to implement, especially when it involves installing shelving, cabinets, or pegboards. Fortunately, there is an easy hack that will deliver seamless small item organization for no money and very little effort or expertise.

Your used egg cartons may normally wind up in the recycling bin, but next time you've finished a dozen eggs, save your container and repurpose it in your garage. Their pre-divided design gives you multiple perfectly sized compartments for storing everything from loose parts and hardware equipment to small sporting goods. Best of all, they are completely free.

Your empty egg cartons are chock full of potential for keeping your garage organized. One unique but clever way to use them is for storing extra golf balls, as each sporting sphere will fit perfectly in an egg compartment. You can fill a number of cartons with golf balls and stack them up when they are not in use, easily accessing them when you're ready to play a round. Or, if you're more of a ping-pong aficionado, use them for storing these small, lightweight balls that often have a way of bouncing out of sight.

If your egg cartons are opaque, remember to mark the outside with the contents for easy inventory location. In case your styrofoam or cardboard egg cartons are difficult to write on, you may want to bust out your label maker or simply use painter's tape and a Sharpie to create your content labels for the cartons.

Beyond your golf and ping pong balls, you can utilize egg cartons to manage storage of extra small, round light bulbs (like the ones on your best outdoor string lights) to prevent accidental shattering. Egg cartons are also ideal for holding nails, screws, nuts, bolts, and other hardware odds and ends. Remember to keep these hardware-containing cartons out of reach of little ones who may inadvertently wreck havoc by mixing up the compartments.

If you're looking to lend some order to your kids' messiness, use one of your extra egg cartons to organize their sidewalk chalk. Another simple but ingenious application for old cartons is to use them for storing plastic Easter eggs or holiday ornaments when they aren't in use. If you generally purchase colored cartons, you can even employ a color-coded system to keeping track of what's where: Use pink for kids' items, yellow for hardware, blue for seasonal items, white for golf balls — or whatever system best suits your sorting sensibilities.