I have 3 areas to store garden stuff, depending on what it is. Our garage is out since that was taken over for a model railroad. We had a shed at our old house and quickly learned it should have been twice as big, so built a 12 x 16 shed where we are now. This is great, but fills up quickly with lawn tractor, snow blower, and other larger equipment, although I do store 5 gallon pails, garden ornaments/statues and other larger garden items in there. Then I have a much smaller utility shed where I keep most tools like shovels, spade, fork, rakes, and stakes. This has worked out so well to quickly throw larger tools in at the end of the day and it's sort of "in" the garden with easy access. Our shed is on the other side of the property so my laziness would get the best of me and tools would be laying all over the yard or in a neat pile somewhere as opposed to put away. We also recently got a potting bench that I keep on my front porch. I don't use it for potting but rather store all of my small tools in it. Pruners, loppers, zip ties, twine, small stakes, wasp spray, etc.....great easy access and the small tools never get "lost" in a smaller space so they're easy to find. While this pic was really of a garden bench we were restoring, in the background you can see the potting bench. Guess I've never taken a pic specifically of it. Before I got the potting bench I used to keep a 2x2 Rubbermaid bin in my hall closet. I'd throw in all my small tools, garden shoes, etc. The thing that helped me most with garden tool organization was having storage spaces that "fit" the tools I was storing as well as proximity in the garden, to the house, etc.

I know everybody is advocating transferring your tapes to DVD, BUT... As a computer geek/guru, I must tell you that the lifespan of "recorded" DVDs is unknown, but probably much shorter than everyone assumes. One highly regarded computer security specialist recently stated that they may be good for 2-3 years, possibly 5 years, but should never be used for "critical" data beyond that. Yes, I realize your tapes are probably not "critical data", but bear with me. I think someone would consider their wedding video to be critical data. Commercial movie DVDs are stamped out. It's a physical process, like embossing. "Recordable" DVDs use a dye, which changes its reflectivity when "burnt" by a laser. The longevity of this dye is questionable. The lifespan of a VHS tape is another story. If kept in a temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled environemnt (not a garage!), maybe 10-20 years before deterioration. The answer? There is no good answer. The original Declaration of Independence is fully legible after 230 years. A copy of it on a DVD or VHS tape 230 years from now: probably unviewable. Another question: will anyone have a VHS tape deck or a DVD player 10 or 20 years from now? Will analog TV signals be playable, since switching to digital TV is mandatory in just a few years? How many of you have a 5 1/4 floppy disk drive? See the problem? This is an enormous problem which librarians are facing now. Microfilm machines? Microfiche? How about a disk from a WANG word processor from 20 years ago? An 8" floppy disk? I know I've gotten a little carried away, but all electronic media need to be copied to a new format every 5-10 years, because the formats fall out of usage. Got any out-of-print 8-track tapes? If it hasn't been reissued, then once that tape dies, IT'S GONE...FOREVER. I'm sure glad that the Declaration of Independence wasn't written on a word processor!

My cousin asked me to create workspace in their garage. We used Black and Decker cabinets from Lowes. We marked off twelve feet along the side wall, put a tall cabinet at each end, and covered the wall between them with pegboard on a frame of 1X2's nailed to the wall (cut out around the window). We installed a deep shelf over them along the full width of the space and put Sterilite bins up there for stuff. Then we made an island work table centered along the space by putting a 36" wide hollow core door on top of two pairs of the low cabinets, set back to back, with space between the two pairs. The cabinets became the pedestals. We put repair tools in the cabinets that faced the window wall, and car stuff in the ones that faced out. The whole thing took one weekend to put together, once the area was cleaned out and the materials assembled, plus the continuing task of fiddling around with the pegboard accessories. Now it is as easy to work in as a kitchen. I like the Black and Decker ones because they are sturdy enough, not too expensive, not some awful color, and have feet so there's no worry about a little water on the floor. We used up ten feet of the width of the garage for the whole thing, counting three feet of clearance on both sides of the island for working in, which left room for one car in the other half (a two-car garage is typically 22 to 26 feet wide...this one is 23'). Boy, what a long-winded answer!!

kitykat, I didn't mention that because the question was about a smaller house. BUT, now that you have brought it up. We had our 'stuff' put into one of those climate controlled storage units in Virginia when we were selling our house, got all the clutter OUT, was easier to move after the house sold. We put things we didn't need way in the back, then after closing on the house, we were in an apartment and took only necessities. When we transferred to Florida, then we transferred the 'stuff' from one climate controlled storage unit to another one here in Florida. Then we were in an another apartment here (whole process took about a year). Then when we found our house, we took out of climate controlled storage into the house. When I was able to open our boxes, all was just as I packed them, I purposely didn't pack candles and items that would melt (in heat of truck on the drive down). The only problem we had was a few Christmas items recently purchased had the glue give out to some of the items on styrofoam balls. Everything was good, my silver plate was not that tarnished either, just one tray was dark gray. So, not much damage at all. But when you are living in a house and not moving the cost of the unit can run high, because we had a houseful of stuff, we paid over $200 per month. But, we looked for deals and got like 2 months free, and then deals came up for discounts, etc. That adds to the cost of mortgage, and other living expenses. Even after all that planning, I got here, not knowing what kind of house I would end up getting, and there just isn't the horizontal display space in this house that there was in my Virginia house. So, I have been purging ever since! And I have a different approach to displaying now. There are also smaller and fewer closets and no attic to speak of (too hot up there). Our garage is for DH, his space... In hindsight, I would not have stored as much, nor carried as much here.