How/where do you store your gear?

Hey everyone,

So I recently moved from a 2 bed condo to a 4 bed house with a garage.  In the 2 bed, we barely had enough room for my gear + baby stuff, so I stashed my climbing gear wherever I could fit it...now I have options.  I tried a few places in the house, and right now I took over a closet upstairs, as we’re basically not using the second floor yet (guest bedroom + room to expand family), however it’s a bit far to lug crap for heading out/returning from trips.

This video from Outside gave me some pretty cool ideas:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2310681/how-organize-your-gear-shed
So now I’m considering using the garage (his taped parking lines idea is genius!).  I really like the idea of having all of your gear ready to go in a logical place (right where I’ll be loading it into the car), and installing things like pegboards and shelves would be super easy with the exposed wood.  My only concerns are competing for space with other garage stuff (lawnmowers, cars) and incliminate weather, as it is a detached garage and I’m not sure how cold it gets in the winter.So...where/how do you guys store and organize your gear?  Pics are welcome if you want to show off. ;)

8'x8' peg board in the basement.  im not a fan of storing my climbing gear in totes because the thing I need is always at the bottom. the board let's me grab what i want and go.

Not my idea but I thought this seemed practical and I'm considering it for my apartment. You could build two to include space for a rack, ice tools, guidebooks, etc. since you have some more space .

Tapawingo Markey wrote: Not my idea but I thought this seemed practical and I'm considering it for my apartment. You could build two to include space for a rack, ice tools, guidebooks, etc. since you have some more space .

Most important thing is you need something to clip all your carabiners to. This is a great example. See how each quickdraw gets to be clipped one by one onto the wooden dowel, and then unclipped again for the next climbing trip. That's what you're aiming for. Clipping things to other things is the most important part of being a climber, so you want to maximize the amount of time you spend doing that at home. It also builds a deep emotional connection to your gear which can improve your lead head.

nathanael wrote:

See how each quickdraw gets to be clipped one by one onto the wooden dowel, and then unclipped again for the next climbing trip. That's what you're aiming for.

Pro tip - removable dowel rod. Gear slides on / off in two seconds.

Beats having gear in a jumbled mess when you lack space to store gear out of sight.

I live in a tiny apartment barely big enough for me and my cat. It stays packed in my bag and in my closet or trunk, ready to go at any moment.

Ted, with a stairway, consider turning the space under it on the first floor into a gear closet. Climbing stuff is so oddly shaped, it could be a great way to use that space.

Climbing stuff should mostly be fine out in the cold, but, the garage is where all the stuff it (or your kid) should never contact will also be stored: gas, antifreeze, bug spray, explosives..... Only one spill could cost you your ropes, for example, if they are under something when it tips.

It's also not the most pleasant place to pack, unpack, fondle and sort stuff before/after an outing. Wet stuff will never dry when it's five degrees....on and on. Save the garage for big awkward stuff you only need now and then, really hate but aren't allowed to toss until no one's looking, or stuff that youre hoping someone else will deal with, lol! 

Congrats on the house, too!

Best, Helen

Mice. Forgot to mention that, as a minus for a detached garage. You'll probably have a few in your old house now and then, too, but inside is way easier to deal with.

Best, Helen

I have a ton of gear for multiple sports (climbing, ski touring, mountain biking, backpacking etc).  Most of it lives in the garage.  Clothing is inside but any hardware is outside. I have some big shelves from Home Depot and most stuff gets stored in bins on the shelves.  Bins are easily stackable on one another.  One bin has backpacking gear, one has ski gear, one has ropes, etc.  Packs are all stacked on top of one another on a shelf.  I have a bin ready to go with typical car camping stuff (cookware etc).  

I bought some stuff from Monkey Bars that makes it easy to get stuff off the floor.  They have lots of storage options but it's a bit pricey.  

Hang what you can from the ceiling (bikes especially).  Hanging shelving from the ceiling is nice for stuff you don't use often.

On a kind of random note, why do I see all these pictures of people hanging their cams individually from peg boards?  This seems impractical to me.  Do you pick your cams one by one off the wall each day you go out?  I keep my 'standard rack' (nuts, doubles of cams from fingers to fists) on a gear sling so I can just grab it whenever and throw it in a bag.  More specialized pieces like offsets, micro gear, OW gear etc can be on e separate sling and you can pluck these off individually for specific days.  Slings/draws also on a single sling so you can just grab them and go.  If I'm doing a long route with a long approach I'll pare down the rack to exactly what I need and no more, but if I'm cragging I bring the same thing every time.  I can't imagine picking cams off the wall individually for each day.

Just throw all your climbing hardware in a big plastic bin and put it on a shelf or in the bottom of the closet.  Easy to grab and go.  And if you go on a road trip you can just pack the whole bin in the car without thinking too much about what you're bringing.  

C L wrote:

This x100. Any gear Junky worth his salt will rapidly outgrow peg boards or other super organized methods. They’ll also grow tired of the time and effort it takes to remove and put away said gear. Shelving and Rubbermaid bins store more crap and allow you to access it faster. 

Next to a pile of old car batteries. 

nathanael wrote:

Most important thing is you need something to clip all your carabiners to. This is a great example. See how each quickdraw gets to be clipped one by one onto the wooden dowel, and then unclipped again for the next climbing trip. That's what you're aiming for. Clipping things to other things is the most important part of being a climber, so you want to maximize the amount of time you spend doing that at home. It also builds a deep emotional connection to your gear which can improve your lead head.

This guy climbs. Obviously a 5.15 gear organizer, at least.

Tapawingo Markey wrote: Not my idea but I thought this seemed practical and I'm considering it for my apartment. You could build two to include space for a rack, ice tools, guidebooks, etc. since you have some more space .

Instead of spending time individually clipping quickdraws and rigging ropes all fancy and sorting atcs and figure 8's and whatnot, wouldn't you rather spend that time getting one more route in?

Just toss it in a bin. The gear won't mind. Except your ice tools, gotta hang those works of art up on the wall  :)

To each their own though...  definitely more pleasant to look at than a bin.

John Alcorn wrote:

Instead of spending time individually clipping quickdraws and rigging ropes all fancy and sorting atcs and figure 8's and whatnot, wouldn't you rather spend that time getting one more route in?

Just toss it in a bin. The gear won't mind. Except your ice tools, gotta hang those works of art up on the wall  :)

To each their own though...  definitely more pleasant to look at than a bin.

You mean you think this is impractical?! I was more referring to the way the shelf was organized and the fact that it maximizes storage space and ease of access to your gear. 

Personally, I’d leave my draws on a sling and hang my rack up per usual so I can simply grab and go. I’m tired of digging through storage bins before heading out for a day.

I'm a fan of the tote or a duffle bag method.  K.I.S.S. You aren't going to impress anyone with the very organized type-A display of your gear.  It really just states that you don't get out to climb much. With that said, to each their own of course. But reorganizing that mess of gear after a long day out is going to get very old very fast.  

I've lived in three different places in the past two weeks, and having to move my climbing gear was easy simply because it was all in a big bin. I can even fit a few odds and ends camping stuff in there, like knives and headlamps.

If I had a display type thing, it would have been a massive PITA.

The salt is strong with some regarding this post. How is it that having an organized gear space means that somehow you don’t climb often enough. The OP mentioned gear, not just a rack, rope, and draws (which can obviously be kept in a pack). But lets throw in ice gear, backcountry ski gear, mountain biking, trail running, couple different packs, some old pieces of pro that you really don’t need unless you’re heading to the creek, camping gear, backpacking gear, etc. Keeping it organized lets you get what you need quickly with no digging through multiple bins or packs to find that one thing you managed to misplace.
 

In my climbing pack or a plastic bin in my closet.

In a backpack in my trunk

As I age I accumulate more and more recreational stuff. The plastic see through bin is the ticket, along with floor to ceiling shelving. My camping cook stuff is in one bin, trad gear in another, webbing and gear I don't often use in another, shoes hang on a clothesline looking thing nailed to the top rack of the shelving.  I have 12 slots that will each fit a clear tote. the top one will fit two stacked, but I have all of my backpacks, sleeping bags and pads stacked up there.