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Organise your garden shed this spring! - 23rd April 2024
Spring is here and if you have a garden you will at the very least now be engaged in a spot of garden maintenance. If like me you are a keen gardener you will be planning your summer planting and no doubt be very busy!
Do you have a garden shed? If not, maybe you keep your gardening tools in your garage? No matter, when the gardening season kicks off I think it's important to have an organised space to store all your gardening bits and bobs.
OK, so the image for this blog post is perhaps a bit unrealistic! Nevertheless, it does demonstrate some good principals for organising your shed or garage space.
Step by step guide to organising your shed this spring
1. Choose a dry day so you can empty the contents of your shed onto the lawn or patio.
2. As you clear out your shed, notice if you have any items that are definitely no longer useful. Think of broken plant pots, rusty tools, split gardening gloves, out of date seeds and so on. Put these all to one side for decluttering when you are finished organising.
3. When the shed is empty you might like to get a broom and sweep it out - there's bound to be spilled compost on the floor and even odd bits of dead plants!
4. Now take a look at the contents of the shed - spread it all out so you can see what you have got and begin to sort into piles/areas of similar and associated items. All the plant pots together, small tools together and so on.
5. It will be easy to see if you have too many of any one category (such as plant pots) or if you have several duplicates which are unnecessary such as several trowels. Consider decluttering some items. I always accumulate plant pots over a season!
6. Hopefully you now have far less items to put back in the shed! Before you do that though, think about how your items will be stored as you need them to be accessible.
7. If your shed has shelves that's great, think carefully about what goes on each one, keep categories together and put most frequently used items by the door at a sensible height for you.
8. Consider hanging bigger tools from hooks on the wall of the shed - a large nail might suffice and you can tie loops of tough string to the handles of tools to enable you to hang them up, most have a hole in the handle for this purpose. Things like rakes and garden forks and spades work well stored this way instead of being on the floor and creating a tripping hazard!
9. If you have garden chemicals please make sure these are stored out of the reach of children and that lids are secure.
10. Very small items are best kept in a storage box, just be sure to carefully label it. In our garage we have a small box for vine eyes and an old biscuit tin stores packets of seed. The small items I use frequently when in the garden are stored in a plastic trug with dividers, the kind of thing some people use for cleaning products. This is where my gardening gloves live, along with hand tools and garden twine. It's very handy and means I don't have to keep going back to the garage for things I suddenly need.
11. Remember, the best way to organise your shed is to think about how you use the contents first - this is not just a cosmetic exercise for the sake of neatness.
What to do with unwanted items from your shed?
If items are broken and no longer fit for purpose the best place for them is the local refuse tip. Tools of either metal or plastic construction will be able to be recycled and of course there's always a special place for electrical items such as hedge trimmers.
Many nurseries and garden centres will take unwanted plant pots for recycling and they can also be put with plastic kerbside collections although it's best to check what is permissible in your area.
One really easy way to clear out unwanted garden items is to put them outside your property with a notice offering them for free to other gardeners. I get a big sense of satisfaction when I'm able to do this.
Let me know how you get on!
Keywords: organise, tidy
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