The garage is hardly a showpiece of the home. Instead, it can be a sore spot of mounting clutter, storing the lawn mower, sports equipment, storage bins, old paint cans, and more. For several owners, the clutter could possibly be getting to be too much. Garage organization merchandise is going through the roof. Sales of these products are expected to rise 4.5 percent this year and each and every year through 2019. Ultimately, garage organization items are supposed to reach a $2.4 billion business, a 25 percent rise from 2014, as outlined by Freedonia Group, a market research firm.
Home Owners Take on Garage Problems
Home owners are “starting to realize that our very expensive cars are sitting in the driveway while we’re housing our inexpensive stuff – and even junk – in the garage,” Lisa Mark, a professional organizer in Los Altos, Calif., told The Wall Street Journal.
A quarter of home owners admit they can’t fit even one car inside their garage, based on a survey conducted in 2015 by Whirlpool Corp.’s Gladiator Garage-Works line. Also in that survey, a third of respondents said they keep their garage door shut simply because they don’t want others to discover their messy garage. What’s more, 20 % of owners say they’ve already argued with their spouse over the state of the garage.
“There’s a lot of friction in the family about the garage,” says Josh Gitlin, Gladiator’s general manager. Realizing that garage messes can be quite a big project to take on, Gitlin says the company now also provides starter kits to help owners get a small start at digging through the clutter. The kit includes a few hooks and hanging units for items like lawn tools, sports gear, and ladders.
California Closets says its garage product sales have doubled since 2010 as increasing numbers of owners focus on taking charge over their garage messes’.
“When clients are moving into a new home, they’re even choosing to do their garage ahead of certain furniture purchases and landscaping, because they’re so starved for storage and organization,” Benjamin Weiss, a senior design consultant for California Closets, told The Wall Street Journal.
Some owners are even turning their garage into a spot they want to showcase. A family in San Diego told The Wall Street Journal how they spent $15,000 on renovating their garage, adding cabinets and attempting to make the space feel much more like an extension of their home. A new epoxy floor is speckled black, gray and white. The walls are painted exactly the same gray shade as the interior of the home. Three charcoal-colored cubicles close to the door offer a mudroom, allowing the family’s children to put their jackets and shoes.
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