How to store garden tools in a small shed

If you've ever spent twenty minutes looking for the one tool you need, only to find it under a pile of things you don't, then you already know what an untidy shed costs you. It isn't only annoying, it makes every job take twice as long, and the jobs you were only half keen on doing in the first place quietly stop happening. The good news is that you almost certainly have more room than you think, it's just that most of it is on the walls.

The walls are the storage

Floor space in a shed fills itself. Wall space does not, so that's the bit worth using.

A sheet of peg board on the wall handles the small stuff, and that's trowels, secateurs, snips, string and the fiddly things that otherwise live in a bucket. Hooks move around on it, so when you buy something new you rearrange rather than start again.

For the long-handled gear, rakes and shovels and hoes, a batten with hooks screwed to it keeps them upright and off the floor. If you've got a wooden pallet sitting about, stand it against the wall and slide the handles down between the slats. It costs nothing and it works.

Fix it into something solid

This is the bit people skip, and it's the reason racks end up on the floor with the tools on top of them.

A shed lining or a sheet of plasterboard will not hold a rack full of shovels. Find the frame behind it and screw into that, and if the shed is steel, fix through into the girts rather than into the middle of a sheet. For anything carrying real weight, bolt it rather than screw it. Come and see us with a photo of the wall if you're not sure what you're fixing into, because that's a two-minute conversation that saves a broken foot.

Every other bit of space

• The back of the door. Hooks, or a hanging organiser with pockets. Wasted space on every shed in the country.
• The ceiling. A simple rack up high takes the things you touch twice a year. Hose fittings, spare stakes, the seasonal stuff.
• Under the bench. A crate on castors slides out and back in, which is much better than a shelf you have to crouch to reach.
• A box out at the beds. A weatherproof box near the garden holds gloves, snips and seed packets where you actually use them, which saves a trip back to the shed every time.

Sort it into bins and label them

Stackable bins or crates are the easiest win in the whole shed. Group things by job rather than by type, so watering gear together, planting gear together, fixings together, and write on the front of each one. You can rummage through one labelled bin. You cannot rummage through a shelf.

Where the dangerous things go, and this part is not optional

Snail pellets, weed killer, fuel, two-stroke mix and anything with a poison schedule on the label goes up high or into something that locks, away from kids and away from the dog. Snail pellets in particular are the ones that get eaten, and a low shelf is not out of reach of a curious dog. Keep them in their original containers with the labels readable, because the label is the instruction and the first aid advice both.

Hang sharp tools with the blade or the tines facing the wall, and hang a mattock or an axe low enough that it isn't coming down on somebody's head if it slips off the hook. Wipe the mud off before things go away, because mud holds water and water is what turns a good spade into a rusty one.

Then keep the habit

The best storage in the world does nothing if the tool doesn't go back. Give everything a home, put it back while your gloves are still on, and have a proper sort-out once a year. That's genuinely all there is to it.

Mine is not a showroom, I'll be honest with you. It just has to be the sort of shed where I can put my hand on the secateurs, and that will do.

Shop related products

• Macsim 8-10 x 45mm Screws. For fixing a batten or a peg board sheet back to the frame.
• Macsim 8-10 x 57mm Screws. A longer one where you're going through a lining first.
• Macsim 1/4 x 3 Hex Bolt and Nut. Bolt anything that is going to carry real weight.
• Sutton Supatorq TX40 Impact Bits. Because a chewed-out screw head in a shed wall is its own kind of misery.

Did you know we carry peg board in store in both 1830mm and 2745mm sheets, along with storage hooks rated to 23kg, cup hooks, cabin hooks and Gorilla storage bins. None of that is on the website. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 or come in and we'll work out what your wall needs.

The garden range is on the website, and the garden centre is worth a look when you're in.

More from the garden

• Using a weeder, and the weeds it will not get out
• Checking soil moisture before you water
• Lawn care myths that waste your time

Still learning, still own three trowels and can only ever find one. Candeece.

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