Skip to main content

Bike Shed

When you live in a small space storage solutions are key. We did not use our one car garage for parking, it was our main storage room. It was also, my husband's work shop, where the kids kept their outdoor stuff, the home for our lawn mower, and our main entrance. I knew we needed to get it under control. I started small with the kids bikes. There was no clear home for them, so naturally, they left them wherever. Even worse, some days they were buried in the back on the garage, and they wouldn't bother riding them at all. My solution was to get a small shed for the side of our home. We were lucky enough to be in and end unit townhome, which meant we had the tiniest bit more yard compared to the others. When I say tiny bit I mean tiny. Our home was 1872 sqft, and our land, 2615 sqft. Luckily we had some "green space" owned by the HOA next to our property, so we got to enjoy more room, even if we didn't own it. When it came to the shed however, it would have to be contained with in the land we owned. 

Not knowing exactly where the property line was I used our air conditioning unit as a marker. I assumed that must be located on our land, so as long as I didn't go much past that we would be ok.


The unit measured about 3.5 feet from the side of our house. I decided to look for something between 3 and 4 feet. Searching "small storage shed" lead me to plenty of options. After some back and forth about what we were looking for in a shed, we decided we really only wanted something for the kids bikes. Everything else could be contained in our garage with some downsizing and organization. 


After looking at may options, we decided on a 4' x 6' Craftsman shed. This would normally be used to hide your large outdoor trash bins. We laid out the measurements in chalk on our garage floor. This allowed us to actually see if all 3 bikes would fit. 

We did not want a large structure on the side of our small house. We wanted something that was just enough, and blending in as much as possible. One trip to Lowe's and $600 later, we had exactly what we were looking for. It's was exactly what we were looking for. It made all the difference when we finally got to redoing out garage. Our kids loved having east access to their bikes. I am happy to report they were riding daily when the weather allowed it.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shared Bedroom and Personal Space

Our three older children are only a little over a year apart, so they wanted to share a bedroom (even when space allowed them not to). Then we got to the age where it was clear our son needed his own room. The need coincidentally coincided with a time when we did not have a room. That's when we bought our townhouse. The girls still shared a room. A few years in, when we asked what each child would like to make the house more enjoyable for them, our oldest daughter said her own room. We were unable to accommodate this request. However, when I asked why, she said she wanted a place to have some time for herself. That was a request I could make work. We started with cleaning the girl's room. Clothes were first. We did this Marie Kondo style by pulling everything out and putting the items on our kitchen table so the girls could understand the volume of what they had. Until now, the girls shared clothes as they were the same size and interested in the same style. My oldest daughter
Post a Comment
Read more

Little Redo: Art Space

When we asked our youngest daughter what she would choose to make the house more enjoyable, she said she would redo her Art Space. We have a landing space at the top of the steps. The desk had been deemed the homework space, but our daughter and her Art slowly took over. Considering that no one does their homework in this spot, Ira’s art space was born. Our kids hang out in the landing space, so we try to have them reset it once a week. Everything returns to its proper home, along with dusting and vacuuming. If they stay on top of it, it never gets too bad. I took a trip to Target and the Dollar Tree. I was open to whatever they had available but knew I needed some small and paper-size bins. She made this super cute sign that I used as inspiration for a larger sign I made for the wall. I first pulled everything from the area, got rid of what we didn’t need, and then put it back in its new home.   Plastic cups in long bins keep the crayons separated by color family. Copic markers st
Post a Comment
Read more

Little Redo: Son's Room

After living in our townhome for almost 3 years, we discussed if we wanted something with more room, or to invest in our current home. We opted to invest. When it was time to work on the kids' rooms, we asked them to pick any one thing for their space. Our oldest son, 10 at the time, requested a desk. He said he would like a space to sit other than his bed, to draw, and to do homework. We looked together on Amazon. He wanted something minimal, but with an upper shelf. It was up to me to think through the coordination, such as size, and a way to hide cords.  We decided on the VIPEK Computer Desk 42 Inch Study Writing Desk PC Laptop Table for Home Office, School Student Desk with Hutch & Storage Shelves, Corner Table for Small Space Bedroom, Easy Assemble, Oak . This desk no longer is available, but if we had to pick now, we would do the Aquzee Computer Desk with Hutch & Bookshelf, Home Office Desk with Space Saving Design, Metal Legs Industrial Table with Upper Storage Shel
Post a Comment
Read more