Floor space sometimes comes at a premium in garages. While my house is pretty uncluttered and organized, I consider my garage a metaphorical representation of the lower and more disordered reaches of my psyche. It’s functionally organized with shelves and wall mounts, but it is not aesthetically very pleasing and can get quite cluttered. I like to think of the garage as a kind of service tunnel for storing equipment that helps maintain the comfort and ease of the house for my family.
We have multiple children, so our spare floor space in our garage is crammed with bicycles, scooters, and strollers for different occasions. The strollers particularly created a pileup in a corner, causing them to accumulate dust and even occasionally spiders, which is not a delightful proposition for anyone unpacking the stroller after a couple of weeks.
I often do not counsel DIY for home projects, given the ease of cheap outsourcing with TaskRabbit. However, some tasks are small enough that you should do them yourself to improve your home’s efficiency. In all, given that I already had the tools, the total cost of this project was just $15 for the hooks and 15 minutes of my time. I expect to recover this time simply by having more floor space to put things away rather than having to search, and my garage feels less cluttered.
Best wall hooks for clearing floor space in the garage
There are plenty of cheap options for hooks to pick up at stores, though they are often marked up relative to online purchases on Amazon. For example, I see them at hardware stores for around $10 each. The most common are inexplicably the bright orange type. There’s a better, broader selection on Amazon and you can get them for something more like $4-$6 each.
In my installation, I bought the PHUNAYA brand hooks in a 4 pack for a mere $15, pictured above. There are several alternative options in different colors.
Alternative choices for wall hooks
There are some other options I perused that might have worked, but a lot of my wall space is already occupied by a Gladiator GarageWorks kit which is significantly more expensive but also more complex to install and customize.
Here’s a link to an Amazon search for garage wall hooks.
- Black: 2-pack hooks in black
- Blue: Variety 12-pack in blue by NZACE
- Orange: 4-pack ORASANT
- Orange: Variety 15-pack
How to install garage wall mounting hooks
Tools you’ll need
- Power drill or driver (Recommended)
- Wall anchors & screws (these typically come with the hook kits)
- 3/16” or 1/4” Drill bit, depending on size of anchors (Recommended drill bit set)
- Philips head bit for screws (Recommended screw bit sets)
- A leveling tool. (Recommended level with a laser)
- Stud finder (Recommended simple stud finder)
- Measuring tape (optional) to ensure even spacing (Recommended)
Mounting hooks on the wall
- Mock up the space with the hooks and decide how you will configure them. Generally, evenly spacing them out will be the most versatile way of using the hooks. However, if you have a specific large item that will use multiple hooks in mind, you should visualize how the item will hang.
- Use your level to mark the screw holes with a pencil.
- Identify the material you’re drilling into. Is it concrete or drywall? Is there a stud in your planned locations?
- If you line up the hooks in sequence, you can also use multiple hooks to mount a large item. For example, our double wide stroller handle needed to distribute weight, so we mounted it across 2 hooks.
Conclusion: a clear, clean space on the garage floor!
I was super happy with this simple improvement to my garage. I suffered with this stroller situation on my garage floor for 4 entire years! Our strollers are now up high, out of the way, and not getting dirty. Sometimes a simple 15 minute project can open up even a small space in your house that will pay dividends for years later. Now, we have a great floor space for parking a bike, temporarily storing big packages, or walking just a little bit more freely.