Organizing Outdoor Storage: Reduce the Chaos in Your Backyard

You walk outside your back door and take a look: You see the neglected shed holding your hoard of tools. You notice multiple piles of strewn brush and leaves that are becoming unsightly. The flowers and garden beds have miscellaneous weeds, pruning needs, and tools littering what could be a beautiful sight. Organizing outdoor storage can help your backyard feel like the oasis it’s meant to be instead of the cluttered obstacle course that you’re afraid to walk into.

7 Tips for Organizing Outdoor Storage

Now is the time to take on the challenge with shed organization, outdoor storage solutions, and a good old-fashioned to-do list. These tips will make your outdoor areas feel massive, and your patio and deck a proper sanctuary.

Save time by decluttering before you organize.
(Source: Stephen Pontes via Unsplash)

1. Declutter the Shed and Keep the Essentials

You may feel tempted to buy another shed, but let’s start with cleaning up what you have first. It may be necessary to expand later, but start by working with what you have. As Marie Kondo always recommends, remove everything from the space before decluttering.

In a shed, you could have rusty tools, expired weed killer, and everything in between. Toss what needs to be tossed, and clean the rest. Frozen wood glue, outdated wood-staining supplies, and a duplicate pair of hedge trimmers? Get them out of here!

Once everything is cleaned, load up the shed with big items first, like lawnmowers. Sort everything around these essential items, putting similar items together on shelves for easy locating.

2. Wind Up the Hose for Easy Access and Compact Storage

One of the primary ideas behind outdoor organization is creating a home for everything. It’s easier to do this indoors because there are fixed rooms and closets. Outside, you have to design those spaces yourself! The hose is a great place to start, because it is easy to contain.

Tangled hoses are an eyesore and a safety hazard if in a high-traffic area. A hose spool or reel is an ideal solution — plus, you can easily pick one up from hardware stores like Lowe’s. Place it near your garden or flowers for easy access!

Vertical storage is a great way to keep things like tools organized and accessible.
(Source: Barn Images via Unsplash)

3. Optimize With Outdoor Shed Organization Ideas

There are many ways to open up a cramped space. Start with these outdoor shed organization ideas.

Hang Up Long Gardening Tools

Hooks are perfect for keeping tall gardening tools like rakes and shovels out of a dusty corner where bugs collect. The area also becomes much easier to clean when nothing gets in the way! Find organizers at your local Home Depot.

Invest in a Storage Bench

Storage benches use a space that would otherwise have no utility, while keeping visual clutter out of sight. Use a storage bench with a cover to keep rarely used items away from what you actually need. Check out places like IKEA for inexpensive and fashionable options.

Install Vertical Shelving

Take advantage of your vertical space with a few easy yet effective organization methods:

• Pegboard walls
• Ceiling-mounted racks
• Floating shelves

4. Use Decorative Baskets for Small Items

Are there random banisters and corners of your yard with loose bottles of bug spray and sunscreen? Consider a weatherproof basket on the porch or deck to contain all these random bits, so they’re out of the way, but still accessible.

5. Create Pathways Around the Property

Outdoor organization is more than containers and cleaning. If the yard feels visually cluttered, it will ruin the whole experience. Therefore, a deceptively powerful way to make the space feel tidy is by laying down pathways to create sections in the backyard. This way, everything is contained in a specific zone.

For example, the hose and garden beds can be surrounded by an eye-catching brick path, separate from the lawn chairs and fire pit. Then, when it comes to organizing outdoor storage later, approaching it feels more manageable with smaller, contained purpose-built spaces.

Organizing outdoor storage means creating designated spaces for items to live throughout the property — much like the inside of your home!
(Source: Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra via Unsplash)

6. View Your Patio or Deck as an Extension of Your Home

Organizing outdoor storage always prioritizes practicality, but it can also be aesthetically pleasing. Lay down a nice weatherproof rug to tie the space together. Then, create the grilling zone with containers for cooking equipment. Have a table with built-in storage near the lawn chairs, with coasters and citronella candles handy. Put a trash can nearby like you would any space. If you see this as an extension of interior design, then you’ll find it easier to think of outdoor storage solutions.

7. Relocate Certain Items Indoors

There are some things that actually shouldn’t be stored outside, even in the shed. Paper towels, cardboard boxes, indoor potting soil, and battery-operated tools would be better off in your garage or another protected storage space. Outdoor organization is just as much about knowing how to store items in the elements as it is about knowing what not to store in outdoor storage.

Prefabricated sheds are a great way to create outdoor storage space and keep everything organized.
(Source: Ries Bosch on Unsplash)

Organizing Outdoor Storage — FAQs

Q: What are some good ideas for outdoor storage?
A: Use containers, hanging fixtures, and zoning to your advantage, as each of these outdoor storage solutions helps keep useful items in the most appropriate places. Additionally, maintain it by keeping a regular schedule. Tidy, declutter, and clean on a regular basis to prevent overwhelm.

Q: What are some good ideas for organizing my outdoor shed?
A: You always have to start by decluttering, so you understand exactly how much space you have to work with for the items you need. The best way to make use of a shed’s full potential is by using outdoor shed organization ideas, like maximizing vertical storage, investing in furniture with built-in storage, and grouping similar items together.

Q: What are my outdoor storage options for backyard clutter?
A: Organizing outdoor storage comes in many forms, with the most obvious being containers, storage boxes, and sheds. However, other ideas include deck boxes, decorative containers, or garden beds to contain plants. Shelves and hanging racks are also ideal. If you need a bigger, seasonal solution, PODS portable storage containers allow you to offload what you don’t use on a regular basis.

Maximize Outdoor Organization With PODS Portable Containers

When organizing outdoor storage becomes a challenge, consider seasonal storage to free up space and keep your yard organized and clutter-free. Make the most of your outdoor storage by keeping seasonal items in a PODS portable storage container, like snow blowers and your summer grilling and sports equipment (just make sure the fuel is emptied out first).

Have your container delivered to your property for convenient loading and unloading on your own schedule. Keep the storage container on your property or at a secure PODS Storage Center until it’s time to swap seasonal items. And if you move in the future, your container can move with you to your new home or to one of the 240+ PODS Storage Centers.

Visit PODS online for a free storage quote.

Peter Chambers is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the PODS Blog. When he's not writing about evidence-based design and home improvement, you can find him hiking mountain trails, tending his vegetable garden, or working on projects in his woodshop.

(Source for image featured at top: Đỗ Huy Hoàng via Pexels)

_{*PODS is constantly upgrading its container fleet and container sizes may vary slightly from one model to another.}

_{**This article was written on behalf of PODS Enterprises, LLC (“PODS”). PODS does not warrant the completeness or accuracy of any information contained in this article and disclaims any liability for reliance upon the content herein.}