Tips for Organizing a Shed with Gambrel Barn Roof

After some procrastinating. We finally got around to organizing the shed. After the crazy move in two years ago this was the last place to get any Extreme Home Makeover “love”. Add to that some beautiful, unseasonable (e.g. 70ish) weather here in North Carolina there really was no excuse. Time to get the shed ready for the high season of lawn care. Suffice to say that we had piles of tools strewn all over the floor making it necessary to circumnavigate the lawn mower, yard cart and assortment of handtools and lawn chemicals every time we entered the shed. We inherited the shed (likely a Dutch Barn “Basic Barn” with a gambrel roof.) when we bought the house. It’s a great size with a good amount of room on the floor. The downside of this design is very little sidewall space and along the way I include a few tips for organizing this type of shed. So we tackled the right side of the shed. Really not as dramatic change on this side except for a lot less stuff on the floor and something I did with the trimmer/edger which I will get to a little later.

So, with the right side organized we tackled the left side. I set up my trusty Workmate as a table. It’s served me well for many years and is a great worksurface if you’re tight on space. Then, we moved some shelves from the garage and disassembled them into two sections for twice the shelving space and maximizing the vertical space we did have.  On the short wall next the door I used two of this Screw Hooks
that I salvaged from the garage to hang the extension cords. What a difference it made. Here’s a look…

Overall it was a great project to complete but, there’s one part of it I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I have this Troy-Bilt Gas Powered String Trimmer
that always wound up laying on the floor of the shed (in my way and a trip hazard). Not the best place if you want access to anything else. So, I took two more of the Screw Hooks
and screwed them into the rafters. With my Wife’s help we got the spacing just far enough. The bag hanging off the far hook holds my supply of trimmer string.

Now, there’s no more stooping over to get the trimmer and I can easily grab and go.