How to Organize your Gear!

If you’re like me, you have slowly begun collecting an ungodly amount of gear. Even though the great outdoors is an awesome *free* adventure, you need a lot of gear. Something I feel like I’m good at is organizing. I find the act of decluttering or organizing a messy drawer fun. So here is my guide to how I organize my gear.

Let me start by saying, that I’ve lived in tiny apartments for the last 6 years or so of my life, so I’ve begun using my gear organization as my decor. So all my gear is easily accessible but also visible. Many people enter my apartment and say, “Your apartment looks like an REI store.” This is true but we use *most* of the gear at some point during the year.

The Main Gear Organization

So here we go. The major focal point of my gear organization is our “Gear Closet”. I purchased these from IKEA a few years ago, I honestly don’t remember the model but it was one of the closest sets. We used the hanging bar and added shower curtain rings to hang out backpacks. Added a pants rack on the right side, which we originally used to store our snowboards but later it turned into a hanging rack for rock climbing gear. Lined the bottom of the section with some artificial turf to protect the bottom. Now we have our hiking shoes and hockey skates there. Then we sorted our gear into categories:

• Surfing: Booties, Gloves, Fins
• Cooking: Stoves, pots, pans, food storage
• Mountain Bike Gear: Pads, Gloves, repair kits
• Snow Gear: Spiltboard Skins, Crampons,
• Other/Large Gear: Dry Bags, Backpacking Packs, Snowshoes, Sleeping Bags
• Small Gear: Spilt into a few sections
  • Emergency Bin: Avy Beacons, First Aid Kits, Space Blankets
  • Other Gear Bin: Pocket Knifes, Headlamps, Gear Repair Kits, Whistles
  • Maps Bin
  • Googles Bin
• Climbing Gear: Harness, Ropes, Belay Devices, etc.

Organizing the Larger Gear

Next, is our second bedroom, which has been a huge addition to our apartment. This space is currently used as our guest room, workout space & gear storage. Let’s start with the gear. We bought these bike hooks from Amazon to hang our mountain bikes on the wall. Then I hung some Garage Hooks (similar to these) to hang our wakeboards. Then next to the futon is our Board Rack. I built this for my husband (then boyfriend) for Christmas a few years back with a few 2x4s, a piece of plywood, and some wood dowels. To accessorize it, I added artificial turf from above to the bottom and then added pipe insulation to the dowels to protect the boards. Lastly, I added some coat hooks to the rack so he could hang his wet suits. We now have an extra closet in our house that houses all our wetsuits but it was great in our last apartment when space was tight.

The Workout Gear Organization

The other side of this room is our workout space. Although it may not classify as “gear” I decided to include it since I’ve created my home gym on a budget during COVID. I’ll add some of my favorite gear to this list as well in case you’re interested.

So like anyone who works out from home, you often have dumbbells, so I found THIS dumbbell rack on Amazon which is great for holding all my dumbbells. Next, you likely have some yoga mats and maybe a jump rope or bands so THIS yoga mat rack is perfect. I ultimately ended up using wall hooks to hang my jump ropes and bands but my booty bands hang on this rack.

I hung my Bose Ball on this hook which can also be used to hold a bike horizontally. Then I have a wire basket (similar to this) in the corner to hold my foam rollers, surf balance board, and other random odds and ends. Then next to it are the cube shelves where you can purchase a lot anywhere (target, Walmart, Home Depot, etc.) with some baskets for other things. We have a surfboard on the wall because it’s too tall for our ceilings so we used these hooks to hang it on the wall. Lastly, we have our hung TV on the wall to watch from the futon for guests or to have things going while working out! We used this wall mount which I highly recommend and this TV is in our other room, the one here is our old one.

Some other things we love in our home gym that aren’t really organizational pieces are these:

• NordicTrack Bike: We like all the different rides we can go on!
• FlyBird Bench: perfect for enhancing all our workouts and fold-ups for storage!
• FlyBird Pull-Up Bar: we have it in our closet!
• Amazon Dumbbells: we’ve got ours from everywhere but Amazon is really affordable IMO.
• Tone Fitness Aerobic Step Platform
• Exercise Ball

Thanks for reading through how I organize all my gear! These storage things are just how we store our gear. Our clothes & shoes are stored in closets or baskets in other places of the house. I hope this helps and please reach out with any questions you have!