Pinewood Derby

Pinewood Derby

Polishing Pinewood Derby Axles

Professional Garage Organizers

It seems like it happens four or five times a year when my husband recruits a handful of us to be garage organizers. The garage is a unique place in the house. If you don’t know where to put something, put it in the garage. It is the universal dumping ground of our home. This is compounded by the fact that we seem to think that the garage is also the multi-purpose room as well. This double use leads to a regular need to organize the garage.

For example, the weather is warming up, so it is actually warm enough to use the garage. Hence, the garage organizers were put to use! The object was to make room to set up the punching bag and pull-up bar. The punching bag we have had for a while, but the bar was a Christmas gift for our teenage son. They tried to set it up after Christmas, but it was just too cold out to be used. So, for access and enough room, things had to be rearranged. The recycling stuff had to be condensed (in the winter, the kids preferred method of recycling it to just throw stuff in the general area instead of organizing by specified bag, then I get to sort it on the morning the recycling truck does pick up). There was also a few boxes of stuff to go to the local thrift store. Winter items have to be put up on shelves, and other miscellaneous items moved around. After sweeping, the garage looks decent, and a corner of it is now a designated gym!

Though, I have to admit, the garage wasn’t really that bad because my husband rounded up a few garage organizers a few weeks ago when it was really cold and my daughter’s car was having problems. We had to actually straighten things up enough to put her car in the garage!

I know that later in the summer, my husband will want to do some wood projects. This means activation of the garage organizers! His workbench is in the corner of the garage with a variety of items stacked on top. This ranges from things like empty computer boxes (do we really need to keep those? Do we dare toss them?) to sleds to unused small pieces of furniture. New places will have to be found for all of these, plus make sure that there is easy access to all the power tools that are kept (well organized) on a shelf, you just can’t get to the shelf.

I should clarify, our garage is not a total mess, we do have shelving where we store our boxes of stuff like Christmas decorations, camping supplies and keep-sakes. It is just the other stuff that is put out there because we don’t know where else to put it. For instance, I currently have two book shelves in the garage. Shelving can be expensive, and though I do not need these right now, I may soon. So I do not want to sell them, I just have no use for them in the house. So, there they sit in the garage, moved around by the garage organizers when called upon.

Some other times when the troops are called to action include the fall, when we are thinking positive about actually parking our car in the garage for the winter (it hasn’t happened yet for more than a few days), summer time when we are active gardeners, and any time one of the kids has a special project (like a pinewood derby car that needs spray painting in January). So, the system is crazy, but it seems to work for us, I am even thinking of getting everyone a special t-shirt that says “Professional Garage Organizers!”

About the Author

MJ is a free lance writer for Click Shops, Inc., where you can find a large selection of garage organizers at www.garagecabinetsonline.co/.

Anyone have any good Pinewood Derby tips?

I'm familiar with the basics, but looking for unique or unusual ideas.

Some tricks to try:

Make one of the wheels higher than the others (so you're only running on three wheels). Reduce drag by 25%!

Don't sand the molding strip completely off the wheels--if you have a light touch, just make sure it is smooth. I've heard of people clamping the wheel in a drill and sanding it perfectly round, but a simple light smoothing of the seam does just fine. This will reduce the contact surfaces as well.

I've seen some designs that scoop a notch out of the front of the car (so that it sits as far forward as possible on the starter). Might help, but you'll get some funny looks with that one.

Make sure your wheels are not tight against the car (but also not loose and wobbly). If you can add a small slick piece between the wheel and the car body (not a washer, but like a stick-on slippery plastic glued to the wood), that will also reduce rubbing.

Max out your weight and graphite your axles and wheels.

Best of luck!!