Looking for home gym organization ideas? You’re in luck!
If there’s one thing I learned from building my garage gym, is that the more organized you are, the more space you have for more gym equipment.
In my case, I had to be extra organized because I keep my car inside my garage.
It gets real cold during the winter and I’d rather not drop off frozen kids at school in the morning.
For this reason, I decided to have the best of both worlds, a parking space and a garage gym.
Home Gym Organization 101
Table of Contents
- 1 Home Gym Organization 101
- 2 Think Outside the Gym
- 3 Use Your Ceiling
- 4 Foldable Gym Equipment
- 5 Magnetic Hooks
- 6 Squat Rack Holes
- 7 Repurpose Storage Items
- 8 Peg Boards
- 9 Adjustable Dumbbells
- 10 Portable Equipment
- 11 Multiple Barbell Organization
- 12 Garage Door Overhead Space
- 13 Between Garage Doors
- 14 Wall Track Organization System
- 15 Heavy Duty Storage Rack
- 16 Home Gym Organization Overview
The number one step to take when organizing your home gym is to get rid of shit!
Believe me, I’ve stored a lot of useless crap in my garage also.
Swipe right on the pics below so you can see the before and after.
How much stuff do you have in your garage or future home gym area that just sits there all year round?
Probably a lot!
You need to either sell it, donate it, or trash it.
If you or your spouse like to hoard stuff then either build a storage shed for your back yard or make room in the attic.
Use Your Walls
Don’t forget, you have three or four walls and only one floor (with a garage gym you lose a wall to the doors).
Learn to find wall studs and utilize as much wall space as you can for better organization.
I’ve added so much gym equipment on my walls, that I can easily fit two cars in my garage without a problem.
Once I pull my car out the workout area is immense!
Think Outside the Gym
Just because gym equipment companies sell home gym organization stuff doesn’t mean you need to get it from them.
They usually sell it for much more than you’d find at non-gym places.
Keep reading below cause I’m going to share with you some things that work just as well for organization at a fraction of the cost.
Tire Hangers
You’ve probably seen gym equipment companies selling wall mounted weight plate storage pegs for $100+.
Tire hangers are just as strong and even more space efficient at half the cost.
Each one can hold up to 120 lbs each and they come in packs up 4 individual pegs for around $50.
Click here to get the exact tire hangers I use from Amazon.
I store all my weight plates on the pegs and have never had a problem.
I also use them to store other heavy stuff such as my dip bar…
And the foldable Ethos sled seen to the left of the dip bar…
Heavy Duty Hooks
These heavy duty hooks are made of solid steel and have a weight capacity of 40 lbs.
I got them from Lowes for around $7 or you can find them on Amazon for a little bit more.
Way cheaper than wall storage products sold by Rogue Fitness and Titan Fitness.
I use these to store my barbell vertically against the wall.
The barbell sits on the floor so the main function of the hook is to keep it vertical and out of the way.
I also hang my foldable bench using two of these hooks.
Once I’m done working out, the bench hangs in the middle of my rack and is out of the way.
I also hang my parallettes with these hooks…
I use one of them to keep my rower standing upright against the wall…
These also come in handy when hanging jump ropes, the Inertia Wave, and belts.
Tool Holders
Tool holders like the one shown above can also help you keep small equipment off the floor.
These can hold up to 65 lbs, have a spring front opening, and a deep v-groove that helps to keep stuff from falling.
You can find these at Home Depot for around $10 or Amazon.
I use one to hold my sledge hammer.
And another one to hold my battle rope.
Tie and Belt Rack
Get yourself a cheap tie and belt rack to hang accessories such as resistance bands, hand grips, climbing holds and other small items that would make a mess on the floor.
See how easy and inexpensive that was? Home gym organization is not hard.
Vertical Barbell Storage & Wall Organizer
If you wanna combine storage of gym accessories and barbells, then this heavy-duty wall mounted organizer is the way to go.
With 25″ of storage space, 12 hooks with a 44 lbs weight capacity, and the ability to store barbells vertically, you can’t go wrong.
I recently picked up a PRx wall mounted landmine attachment which also doubles as a barbell holder.
Spotter Arm Storage
The PRx Performance spotter arm storage gets my Titan spotter arms off the floor so I don’t stub my toes.
I installed this on one wall stud but can be installed on two as well.
Use Your Ceiling
The ceiling is another place that’s often forgotten when it comes to storing and organizing gym equipment inside your garage or home gym.
As long as you anchor everything down securely to the ceiling joists, you’ll be good.
Since I’m talking about the ceiling, make sure you get some good garage gym lighting while you’re at it.
Lighting makes a huge difference and nowadays it’s very cheap and easy to install.
FlexiMounts
FlexiMounts are ceiling racks that can be useful to take things off your garage gym floor.
These can be especially useful in that dead space right above your garage doors.
Some of their ceiling racks even come with pulley systems so it makes it easy to hoist objects up and down.
Gymnastic Rings
I have a set of gymnastic rings installed on a ceiling ring hanger.
When I’m using them, I let the straps loose so they’re hanging low.
When not in use, I make the straps shorter and tie them up so they’re out of the way.
Climbing Rope
Get the climbing rope out of the way by folding it many times over a heavy duty ceiling hook.
Trapeze for the Kids
I’ve even hung a pair of trapeze sets for my kids to swing around and join me inside the iron playground.
I used heavy duty eye lag screws that can hold up to 230 lbs of weight to hang the trapeze.
The eye lag screws cost $0.87 at Home Depot.
Get Tools Out of the Way
Ceiling hooks can help you get bulky tools like ladders out of the way.
I hang one of my bigger ladders up on the ceiling so it’s not taking up useful floor space.
Foldable Gym Equipment
The more you fold, the less space you take up.
I’ve been able to find many pieces of equipment that fold up easily to be stored away to less than half their size.
There’s no point in having equipment that takes up so much space when it’s not in use.
Foldable Weight Rack
The first piece of foldable equipment I got was the PRx Performance wall mounted rack.
When folded up against the wall, this rack takes up 4 inches of space (insane!)
When folded out it only uses up 22 inches of space.
Foldable Bench
The second piece of foldable gym equipment I picked up was a foldable adjustable bench.
I can use it like any regular bench except the legs fold, making it easy to store on the wall or any corner once I’m done working out.
Foldable Weight Sled
One of my favorite foldable pieces of gym equipment is the Ethos weight sled.
The sled’s posts are anchored on one end allowing it to fold and unfold on a hinge by moving the legs and locking/unlocking it in place.
The only thing that sucks about the sled is that it will kick your ass so bad, you may have to wait until you recover before you’re able to put it back up on the wall.
That sucker is 70 lbs just by itself!
Foldable Bike Desk
When I get on the bike I try to kill two birds with one stone.
I usually ride it first thing in the morning while working on my laptop.
This makes riding the bike mindless because I’m occupied with the work in front of me.
Simple way to burn some extra calories and when I’m done, I fold it up and move it out of the way.
Magnetic Hooks
Attaching heavy duty magnets with hooks to your rack is another way to make your home gym organization easier without having to drill anything into the walls.
These magnets can attach anywhere on your weight rack and can hold up to 65 lbs!
I don’t suggest hanging dumbbells from them but these sure come in handy for things such as barbell collars, hand grips, wrist wraps, resistance bands, jump ropes, and other small accessories.
Squat Rack Holes
Your rack roles can also serve as a place to keep accessories off the floor.
As you see in the pic above, the top center of your rack is a great place to keep spotter arms when they’re not being used.
You can do the same with a dip bar.
Repurpose Storage Items
Repurpose storage items that you already have around the house and use them for your home gym.
I have a black bookshelf that wasn’t being used, so I cleaned it up and hung it up on the wall by placing a couple of metal pipe fittings from Home Depot on the top corner cubes.
Now I use it to store a lot of my recovery equipment and smaller accessories such as massage guns and foam rollers.
Peg Boards
Metal peg boards are another way to get accessories off the floor and organized.
Don’t go cheap and get the cork peg boards.
Those don’t hold a lot of weight and can easily crack if you start to mount a lot of items on them.
Wall control peg board is who you want to go with since they support a lot of weight and will last a very long time.
Adjustable Dumbbells
When it comes to space saving there’s nothing more practical than a set of adjustable dumbbells.
Instead of having a rack full of dumbbells taking up 6 feet of space, you have two dumbbells that can be pushed to a corner.
I have reviewed the PowerBlock and Bowflex adjustable dumbbells, Trulap dumbbells, Snode dumbbells, Powerblock Pro 100 EXP, and many more and they’re perfect for small garage gyms or any small home gym layout.
Adjustable dumbbells may look different but they’re just as good as any dumbbell.
If you want to get the dumbbells off the floor, look for racks that also serve as storage for other equipment.
This PowerBlock stand also serves as a plate tree.
This gets more weight plates off the floor and keeps the whole gym more organized.
Portable Equipment
If you like working out with a heavy punching bag, consider buying one that doesn’t require hanging on the ceiling.
Otherwise that space will be permanently taken up and won’t be usable for anything else.
When it comes to boxing workouts, I own a heavy bag and reflex punching bag that stand on bases filled with sand or water.
This gives me the option to move them around as I please.
When I want to workout, I move them to the middle of my garage so I have the ability go around them completely without any limitations.
When I’m done I just move them back against the wall and regain my space.
Multiple Barbell Organization
If you own several barbells, you can store them vertically using a multiple barbell holder like the one shown below.
This can hold up to 9 olympic sized bars in one place and can be shoved in a corner and out of the way.
If you have the wall space, you can also organize barbells horizontally with a barbell gun rack.
These come in different sizes and can also be stacked on top of each other depending on the amount of barbells you own.
Or you can get a wall mounted combo storage rack like the one shown below.
Set a medicine or slam ball on the top, put your barbells across it, and then hang up your bands, collars, jump rope, chains, etc. on the lower rungs.
Garage Door Overhead Space
If you own a garage gym, you know there’s a lot of dead space above your open garage doors.
That area is prime real estate for totes, boxes, or other stuff that’s taking up floor space.
Installing overhead garage storage racks will make sure you take advantage of all that available space.
If you’d rather spend a few hours on a DIY project then you can definitely build your own.
I’ve also attached a couple of wall mounted fans to the brackets that connect the garage door track to the ceiling.
The fans are powered by the overhead outlet that powers the garage door so there is no need for an extension cable running up the walls.
This gets the fans off the floors and the brackets already have holes in them, so I didn’t have to drill any holes on the walls.
I did have to buy smaller bolts since the fans are meant to be wall or ceiling mounted and use bolts that don’t fit the brackets.
Those were less than a dollar each though so it wasn’t much of an additional expense to get the fans off the floor and get some air circulating.
Between Garage Doors
If you have two garage doors like I do, then you have a small amount of wall space in between the doors that can be used to store some items vertically.
This also works if you have a little bit of wall space on the outsides of your garage doors.
I use this area to store balls using bungee cords to hold them up.
Soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs, and others can be kept here rather than the floor.
If you’d rather buy a sports rack, check this one out here.
Or you can use the wall space to the side of the garage door.
Wall Track Organization System
Wall track storage rails are great to get tools or gardening equipment out of the way.
This is something you never see in my videos because it’s on the opposite side wall but it definitely adds more space to the garage gym floor.
This is where I keep ladders, chain saws, trimmers, blowers, rakes, and other gardening stuff.
Those track systems can hold a lot of stuff and they’re surprisingly strong.
Heavy Duty Storage Rack
After you’ve run out of wall and ceiling space, the only other option is to start using heavy duty storage racks.
If you plan to organize heavy items, it goes without saying that you don’t want to buy the cheap, flimsy kind.
Go for a solid rack that will last you a lifetime.
The garage gym storage shelf above has a weight capacity of 3000 lbs (each shelf holds 600 lbs).
Home Gym Organization Overview
As you can see from my home gym organization ideas, you probably have more room than you think.
Number one priority should be to get rid of stuff you’re not using.
All the non-gym stuff you use needs to be organized so that you see the space starting to open up.
Once you have more room available, you’ll have a clear vision of the equipment you can bring in and how you’ll set everything up.
For discounts on gym equipment make sure you check out this page.
It doesn’t matter if you have a small workout area, a bedroom, or half garage.
It’s all about maximizing the space you have to its fullest potential.
A clean and organized home gym set up will make you want to workout even more and you’ll have a space you can be proud to show off on Instagram.
So, what are you waiting for?
Start getting rid of some junk!
Garage gym athlete, gym hacks, DIY gym projects, and garage gym equipment reviews
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Hello
Am looking for attached cable row machine
The small mobile type..
Which able to fix on the smith machine
I think you’re talking about the Ancore Trainer (<--click that link to get the review)
You’ve got some excellent ideas.
But the ceiling attachment for the rings is very shortsighted as you often want the straps at different widths apart. I think it preferable, if you have ceiling joists that are not exposed, like in 99% of all interiors, to use threaded studs like these:
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/36c5364e-1887-4318-bf72-eb38a9091480_1.852d62ee25173754c6840a42618b25cb.jpeg?odnWidth=1000&odnHeight=1000&odnBg=ffffff
Once several of these are in your ceiling studs you can bolt and unbolt anything you want to them, unlike a threaded bolt where the thread gets weaker every time it’s unscrewed. I think threaded bolts would offer just as much strength. Of course you’d have to check the bolt tightness often in the beginning. Thread locking compound would help immensely to keep those locking nuts tight. You want a long, smooth, steel bar(s) suspended from the ceiling. Studs are usually 16″ apart so you could make about 32″ the minimum spacing. You could use one or two bars.
But you can also have another bar perpendicular to this for other suspension equipment, like loops for stretching or foot supports for moving from pushups to handstand pushups as you elevate your feet higher and higher. It makes all the difference for your feet not to be anchored, like on a wall. This way everything moves and it’s far more comfortable. Otherwise it feels cramped and restrictive. You can try this using a squat rack and hang a rope across each side for your feet to rest on when doing pushups. But doing pushups on the rings is so much better than on the floor. Also it’s harder for most people as you have to use your stabilizer muscles so much more.
People really need to use their ceilings more. They can have so much equipment up there and it’s out of the way when not being used. Ceilings are rarely used whereas walls often have all kinds of clutter on them. You can also use pulleys to lower stuff from the ceiling. Just make sure everything will hold them!
The ceiling mount I’m using for my rings has several rungs so I can spread the ring straps apart if I wanted to but I like your suggestions. Thanks for your 2 cents
But think of the hassle of changing that position. You would have to use a ladder (because it’s mounted right on the ceiling), then undo the strap from the ring setup and rethread it through another ceiling mount and maybe that doesn’t quite feel right. So up the ladder and repeat all that. They simply weren’t thinking when they designed that. Or maybe they’ve never used rings. Straps have a little friction between them and most steel bars. This prevents the straps from moving during an exercise. You don’t need the straps to be locked into an eyelet. And I don’t think one would never want the strap to be at a severe lateral angle anyways.
Someone needs to make ceiling mounting both secure and easy. Nobody has succeeded yet. Not by a long shot. Almost everyone is working with 16″ spaced 2″x8″ ceiling studs. How do we know the wood is in good condition if it’s on top of drywall? There’s probably good ways to test but nobody even talks about it. Now if there are several mounting points to brace for them being pulled in all manner of directions this helps hugely in case one fails. But if you look at most ceiling mounts it’s being stressed in it’s weakest angle. The ceiling mount we’re talking about looks like it would span 2 ceiling joists. Maybe 3. But if one is using the straps at an angle it’s pulling at an angle where it’s going to unloosen the thread. You need a 2 point (front and back) mount at least. Ideally a 4 point for each stud. By using headless screws/bolts you can change your mind about things later. We all change our minds sooner or later. You could also use the same bolts/screws for hanging furniture like chairs or hammocks.