If you love being in the outdoors, you might feel like your passion has taken over parts of your home. Especially after you’ve been out on an adventure and using all of your equipment, the first thing you might find yourself wanting to do is relax back home rather than having to put all your stuff away. But when you don’t take the time to do this, your home can easily become disorganized and overrun by your gear.
To help you avoid this, here are three tips for properly storing your outdoor sports and recreation equipment.
Table of Contents
Put Everything Away Clean
The very first thing you’ll want to do as you start putting your gear away is to ensure that everything is clean. When you’ve been using gear outside, regardless of how much you may have tried to keep it clean, it’s likely going to be dirty. But to maintain the integrity of that gear, you need to clean it before storing it.
According to Doug Howlett, a contributor to AmericanHunter.org, this is especially important with firearms and other hunting gear. If you don’t clean all of these components before putting them away, they may not work correctly when you go to use them again. And with all other gear, it’s best to clean it off and dry it out before storing it so that you can avoid things like caked-on dirt, pests, or mildew wreaking havoc on your gear while it’s in storage.
Pick The Right Storage Containers
The way that you store your gear will also have a big impact on how effectively you’re able to keep your equipment organized.
Ideally, Kelli Hadley, a contributor to REI, recommends that you store like items in clear storage bins. With clear storage bins, you’ll be able to see everything that’s inside without having to pull everything out. And by keeping separate bins for all of your different gear, equipment, or hobbies, it will be easy to pull out the stuff you want without having to sort through the stuff you don’t need right now.
Take Advantage Of Your Ceiling
When looking for a place in your home or garage to keep all of your outdoor recreation gear, Jennifer Noonan, a contributor to BobVila.com, advises that you don’t overlook the space that might be available above your head.
If you’re using plastic storage bins, you can easily install racks on the ceiling of your home or garage to slide these bins into place without taking up valuable floor space. Just make sure you have a safe way to put the bins away and get them back down when you need them.
If you’re unsure how to best wrangle all of your outdoor recreation and sports equipment within your home, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you figure it out.
