Meaghan Kessman is a mom of two active children with a house full of sports gear, whether it’s for lacrosse, volleyball, flag football, gymnastics, track, or even skateboards. It’s a lot to store, and Kessman, founder of Meaghan Kessman Home Organization in Los Angeles, knows she’s not alone. “Sports gear storage is a common challenge. It can quickly become overwhelming, especially for families with multiple kids in different activities.”
Even if you don’t have kids, storing sports equipment can be challenging. It’s bulky, and awkwardly shaped. And it often needs to be easily accessible, even while still out of sight.
Households are becoming stuffed with sports stuff. Studies show the average household spends $154 annually on equipment alone, amounting collectively to $30 billion to $40 billion per year spent on children’s sports activities. That’s more than the annual revenues of any professional league, according to the Aspen Institute.
The result? Closets and corners or garages crammed with helmets, rackets, and smelly, dirty shoes. Before you throw in the sweaty towel, try these decluttering tips and storage solutions for managing all that sports gear.
Sports Gear Checklist: How to Get Started
Like other decluttering projects, this one might seem overwhelming at first. Check off these steps to get on the right track.
- Take inventory: Do those cleats still fit? Are the tennis balls flat? Decide what to keep or toss, and consider frequency of use and whether items are in season or rarely used. “Depending on how important these items are in your household, [that] will define where and how much space is devoted to organizing and storing it,” says Barbara Brock, founder and CEO of Barbara Brock Inc., an organizing and staging company in New York City.
- Designate a spot: The garage, mudroom, basement, or closets are common storage areas. Garages work well because they can accommodate a large volume of sports gear, especially for outdoor sports, even if it's dirty, says Audra George, CEO and owner at Pretty Neat: An Organizational Solution in Oklahoma City, Okla. Also, convenience matters: “The last thing you want to do when rushing to practice is to start looking for your gear,” adds professional organizer Liora Seltzer with What U Keep, LLC, in Bergen County, N.J.
- Check the sturdiness: “Sturdy is the name of the game for sports gear [storage],” Seltzer says. “Opt for shelving or bins that are durable and meant for heavy-duty use.”
- Assess the costs: Sports storage solutions for specific sports are plentiful, but they can be costly and sometimes take up too much space, especially if you need storage for multiple sports. Consider lower-cost options, like clear plastic bins and shelving, if accommodating multiple sports.
10 Sports Gear Storage Ideas to Declutter Your Home
Declutter your home by trying one or more of these 10 sports equipment storage ideas.
#1 Create a Sports Gear Storage System in the Garage
The garage offers a prime, grab-and-go spot — and a great place to hide stinky, dirty equipment. Consider installing a garage sports storage system, such as one with wall hooks or cabinets. Add a shoe rack to hold cleats or sports shoes, and a mini bench for taking shoes on and off in the garage. Cubbies and bins can contain balls, and wall hooks can be used to hang helmets, rackets or bats.
#2 Maximize Wall Space for Sports Gear
Wall-mounted racks and hooks allow you to keep items off the floor. “It’s a great way to store larger items like rackets, paddles, lacrosse sticks, and even skis,” Kessman says. Try these sports gear storage ideas:
- Shelves: Customize adjustable shelves to fit various sizes of equipment and to hold smaller, labeled bins or baskets.
- Pegboards: Hook helmets, gloves, bats, and more to a wall-mounted pegboard. Also, attach baskets to the pegboard for smaller gear.
- Hooks: Use wall hooks to hang longer vertical items, like bats and rackets.
#3 Sort Sports Gear into Bins and Baskets
Bins and baskets are versatile and can help you keep similar items together., They also make it easy to transport equipment, Kessman says. You can use plastic bins or five-gallon buckets to store balls, helmets, and smaller equipment. For bulky items, like hockey equipment, look for larger, vertical bins or rolling storage carts. Also, open bins are great for grab and go, but lidded bins stack well and can keep out bugs and dirt, George says.
#4 Designate a Closet for Sports Equipment Storage
Consider designating one closet in the house to sports equipment. Maximize a storage closet or linen closet by adding hooks to the back of a door, recommends Sarah Blevins, a design specialist at Villa, which specializes in accessory dwelling unit construction in California. Also, use adhesive wall hooks in the interior closet wall to hang rackets or even small mesh bags of lightweight sports gear. You also could use the closet bar to hang mesh bags full of gear. Store tall, narrow pieces vertically. Bins on the shelves can hold jerseys and game day clothes to make them easily accessible.
#5 Hide Sports Gear
When space is tight, take advantage of under-the-bed storage bins with wheels, Blevins suggests. “I would recommend investing in a wooden frame box with wheels. Soft side boxes tend to deform when overstuffed and can make them more difficult to pull out from under a bed or couch. Sturdy sides will help prevent you from overfilling, and the wheels will make accessing the bin easier.” Also, multifunctional furniture — like ottomans and benches — offer more hidden storage opportunities. “If you’re tight on space, opt for pieces with drawers,” Blevin says. In a pinch, “a coffee table can double as storage for soccer balls and other sports gear."
#6 DIY a Sports Gear Storage Solution
You can find plenty of hacks on the internet for DIYing a sports storage solution, such as using wooden crates stacked on top of one another to hold hand weights, kettle balls, and elastic straps. Or, construct a “bungee cord organizer” by building a rectangular, wooden frame and attaching bungee cords to the side for storing balls inside vertically. If your garage has unfinished walls, take advantage of the vertical wooden beam studs: Nail horizontal wooden slats between two beams to create a place to tuck in bats, hockey sticks, and rackets.
#7 Repurpose Items for Sports Gear Storage
Household items easily can be repurposed to store sports gear, like using mesh see-through laundry bags, buckets, or trashcans as ball holders, or three-bin laundry sorters on wheels to fill with larger vertical items, like rackets. You could also repurpose a hanging closet six-shelf organizer to store helmets horizontally.
#8 Look for Systems for Specific Sports Gear Storage
Google “sports rack,” “garage sports storage,” or “sporting goods storage ideas” to find solutions at retailers. Standalone and wall organizing systems geared to specific sports are plentiful, so you don’t have to piece together a solution yourself. Here are examples of some of Brock’s favorites:
- Racket holders: A wall-mounted plate with four double-hooks to hang paddle boards, tennis rackets and pickleball equipment.
- Multilayer, freestanding ball organizer: A vertical tower with ball holders and baskets.
- Golf club organizer: Racks to store two pairs of golf clubs as well as shelves for shoes, balls, and other sports accessories.
#9 Hang Sports Gear from the Garage or Basement Ceiling
Free up floor space by using the ceiling in the garage or basement, such as with ceiling-mounted hooks or shelving to store less frequently used items, like canoes, surfboards, kayaks, or sleds. Ceiling hooks also can be great for storing bikes. Or you can hang a netted hammock from the ceiling for storing lighter-weight equipment like balls and gloves.
#10 Hide Sports Gear in a Stylish Mudroom
Who said storing sports gear can’t be functional and still look glamorous? A mudroom off the back entry of your home can become an organized sports mecca that hides the mess behind stylish cubbies and benches.
David Ciccarelli, founder and CEO of the vacation rental platform Lake.com, needed a solution for his active family’s sports gear. He enlisted the help of interior designer Deborah Salmoni, who also appears on HGTV’s “Scott’s Vacation House Rules” and who had renovated his cottage. Salmoni designed a mudroom for the family that consisted of four cubbies for each child, outfitted with six “double hooks” to offer up twice as many hanging spots for sports equipment, from skipping ropes to tennis rackets, coats, and more. Upper cubbies offered additional storage.
Whichever storage solution you use, “make sure you choose a system that works for your kids,” Seltzer says. “If they can't reach the gear, or it's too hard to grab, it will all end up on the floor. So, try it out with them and practice getting things in and out of the bins and shelves.” After all, practice makes perfect, and that applies for clearing the sports clutter, too.