The Home Edit Garage Storage Method: How to Apply It to Your Space

The Home Edit approach to garage storage is built around two ideas: edit ruthlessly before you organize, and make the system visually appealing enough that you actually want to maintain it. If you've watched the Netflix show or followed Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin on Instagram, you know their garages are color-coded, labeled, and arranged with a precision that can feel aspirational to the point of being impractical. But the underlying method is sound and genuinely useful, even if you're not doing it with their professional crew and budget.

This covers the Home Edit principles that actually transfer to real garage organization projects, how to adapt them for different garage sizes and budgets, and what products they actually use that you can buy yourself.

The Two-Phase Approach: Edit First, Organize Second

The Home Edit's most important principle is the one most people skip. Before any bins are purchased, any shelves installed, or any labeling done, you have to edit the garage contents down to what you're actually keeping.

This means pulling everything out of the garage and sorting it into four piles: keep, donate, trash, and relocate. "Relocate" is for things that belong in the garage but are in the wrong spot, and for things that don't belong in the garage at all (items that should be in an attic, closet, or living space).

The reason this step matters so much is that organizing without editing just creates a neater mess. You end up with beautifully labeled bins containing things you never use, efficient shelving holding items that should have been donated, and a garage that takes more effort to maintain than it should.

A typical garage has 25 to 40 percent of its contents that don't belong there or should be thrown away. Editing those items out before buying storage dramatically reduces what you actually need to organize.

Categorizing by Zone

The Home Edit organizes by activity zone, not by item type. This distinction matters. Organizing by item type (all sports in one area, all tools in another, all car stuff together) sounds logical but doesn't match how people actually use a garage. You leave for a camping trip by grabbing everything camping-related, not by hitting the food storage section, then the gear section, then the sleeping bag section.

Their standard garage zones are:

Active Zones: Sports, outdoor play, bikes, exercise equipment. Things you use frequently and grab quickly. These should be at the most accessible part of the garage, typically near the main door.

Seasonal Zones: Holiday decorations, off-season sports gear, camping equipment used a few times per year. These go in overhead storage or the least accessible areas of the wall and floor space.

Car and Garage Maintenance Zones: Automotive fluids, cleaning supplies, tools for car maintenance. Ideally near where you park and work on the vehicle.

Workshop Zone: If you have a workbench or do projects, everything related to that lives near the bench.

The Visual Organization System

The Home Edit method is famous for its visual organization, and this is where the aesthetic side comes in. Their garage spaces use clear labeled bins, uniform containers, and color-organized arrangements. The practical reason for this (not just the visual one) is that you can see what you have without opening anything.

Clear plastic bins are central to their system. They use brands like The Home Edit's own line at The Container Store, Sterilite, and Iris USA. The key features they look for: clear sides, stackable, sized to fit the intended storage system, and with lids for items stored in dusty or humid conditions.

Their approach to labeling uses a label maker (typically Brother P-Touch) with white tape and black text. Labels go on the bin front and, for stacked bins, on the top. The categories are broad ("Holiday," "Camping," not "Christmas tree and lights" and "Tent").

For anyone building a complete garage storage system, the best garage storage guide covers the specific storage products that work well with the Home Edit organizational approach.

What Products They Actually Use

Bins and Containers

The Home Edit's own product line at The Container Store includes a "The Home Edit Garage Collection" with bins, canisters, and organizing components in a coordinated system. These are premium-priced ($15 to $40 per bin) but designed specifically for garage environments.

For budget-conscious applications, Iris USA's WeatherTight bins are a popular alternative. They have a gasket seal that actually keeps out moisture and dust, come in consistent sizing that stacks perfectly, and are available in clear at most hardware stores and Amazon for $10 to $20 per bin.

Shelving Systems

The Home Edit typically uses InterMetro wire shelving or similar commercial-grade wire shelving for garage projects. Wire shelving allows visibility (you can see items on lower shelves from above), handles moisture better than solid shelves, and is available in precise dimensions that fit custom configurations.

Freestanding wire shelving units from Amazon or restaurant supply stores come in heights from 54 to 72 inches and widths from 24 to 48 inches. A typical unit runs $60 to $150 depending on size and gauge.

Wall Systems

For wall organization, their garage projects often use a combination of standard wall shelving for bins, pegboard or a slatwall system for tools and sports equipment, and dedicated hooks for bikes and large items.

The Rubbermaid FastTrack wall system appears in several of their garage transformations. Its horizontal rails accept adjustable hooks in multiple styles, which gives the uniform appearance their projects are known for.

For additional wall storage options, the best garage top storage guide covers overhead and vertical systems that complement a full wall organization.

Adapting the Method to a Real Budget

The Home Edit works with professional crews and often has product sponsors, so their garage transformations can cost $5,000 to $15,000 fully installed. That's not relevant to most people. Here's how to get 80 percent of the result at a realistic cost:

Under $300: Purge first (free), buy one heavy-duty shelving unit ($60 to $120), a set of 10 to 15 consistent-sized clear bins ($100 to $150), a label maker ($30), and a few bike hooks ($20 to $40). This produces a genuinely functional garage without an aesthetic overhaul.

$300 to $700: The above plus a ceiling platform for seasonal items ($100 to $200), a wall rail system for sports gear ($80 to $150), and possibly a small cabinet for tools or chemicals ($100 to $200).

$700 to $2,000: A comprehensive system with multiple shelving units, dedicated storage for each zone, overhead platform, and wall organization throughout. This is the range where you get close to the Home Edit look without a professional installation.

The key is buying consistent containers. Mixing bin shapes and sizes from five different brands produces the chaotic look that the Home Edit method explicitly avoids. Pick one bin profile in two sizes (small and large) and stick to it throughout the garage.

The Maintenance Step They Always Include

The part of the Home Edit method that the show doesn't always emphasize: the system only works if you maintain it. A Home Edit garage that gets used for six months without maintenance looks like any other garage.

Their maintenance approach: - Return items to the labeled zone immediately, not "later" - Monthly 10-minute reset (walk through, put anything out of place back in its spot) - Seasonal re-evaluation (twice a year, review what's in the garage and remove items that no longer belong)

The visual system makes maintenance easier because you can tell at a glance when something is out of place. An empty bin spot on a shelf is immediately obvious in a way that "something is missing from the second shelf of the tool area" isn't.

FAQ

Do I need to buy The Home Edit's actual products? No. Their products are nicely designed but priced at a premium. The functional equivalent of any Container Store product exists at HomeGoods, Walmart, or Amazon for 30 to 60 percent less. What matters is consistency: pick one bin type and use it throughout rather than buying their branded version.

Is the Home Edit approach realistic for a messy garage? Yes, but only if you do the editing step first. The most common failure mode is skipping the edit and jumping to buying bins. Organizing a garage that contains too much stuff is temporary at best. The editing step is uncomfortable but it's what makes the organized result stick.

How long does a Home Edit-style garage transformation take? A one-car garage takes a full weekend for most people doing it themselves: one day for editing and purging, one day for installation and organization. Two-car garages take a full 3-day weekend or multiple weekend sessions.

What do they do with items that don't fit the categories? Everything in the garage should fit a category. If you have something that doesn't fit any zone, that's a signal it shouldn't be in the garage. It's either something you don't actually need, or it belongs in a different room. The method doesn't create a "miscellaneous" zone because that defeats the purpose.

Starting This Weekend

The most practical first step is the edit. Pull everything out of one section of the garage, make the keep/donate/trash/relocate decision for each item, and put back only what stays. Don't buy anything until you know what you're actually storing. That knowledge drives every subsequent decision, from what size bins you need to whether you need overhead storage at all.

Consistency in containers and commitment to the zone system is what creates the result. The Instagram-worthy label maker and color coordination is secondary.