Sports Equipment Archives - Storage Solutions

Posted on November 22, 2020June 10, 2023 by admin

Kayak Storage Racks

Are you looking for Kayak Storage Racks? Taking a quick look on the internet and Kayak’s come in several sizes and weights. An Adult Kayak can have dimensions of 266cm (length) x 66cm (width) x 25cm (height) and weigh about 17-20kg. There are also smaller “youth” size Kayaks with dimensions of 183cm (length) x 61cm (width) x 26cm (height), weighing at around 8kg. StoreWALL’s Angle Brackets have been specifically design to solve the problem of finding the right size Kayak Storage Rack.

StoreWALL garage storage solutions are an ideal solution for helping you protect your Kayak by keeping it off the garage floor and up high on your wall. Better still, our solutions also provide for easy access when you are ready to load your kayak onto your vehicle for your next excursion.

Custom Kayak Racks

The key challenge in terms of storing a Kayak is managing its bulky size both in terms of length but also depth and height. When you look at the typical size of a Kayak, 66cm width and 25cm in height require a special hook designed specifically for a Kayak.

Over the past 6mths I have helped several customers with a Kayak Storage Racks and we have used a couple of different options.

StoreWALL Angle Brackets

StoreWALL offer two Angle Bracket options which are ideal for solving your Kayak Storage Solution. The available sizes include:

254mm Angle Bracket – This bracket (padded with foam) extends to 430mm (off the wall). Note that the flat part of the brackets extends to 254mm off the wall. Each bracket has a width of 50mm and the height (lowest to highest point) of 300mm.
381mm Angle Bracket – This bracket (padded with foam) extends to 647mm (off the wall). Note that the flat part of the brackets extends to 381mm off the wall. Each bracket has a width of 50mm and the height (lowest to highest point) of 450mm.

If you were going to use an Angle Bracket to store your Kayak, the Kayak could either be laid flat on its bottom or on its side. The 381mm Angle Bracket is the only option which could support lying the kayak on its bottom. With a flat width of 381mm, it will need to sit on an angle. The 647mm total width of the bracket will support this.

The best solution however is to have the Kayak sit on its side. Based on the Kayak measurements above, at about 25-26cm both Angle Brackets would work with the 381mm Angle Bracket being the best option due to its depth.

Using Kayak Storage Racks

One thing to note when using either of the Angle Brackets is that as the name indicates, they are on an angle. Therefore, in order to remove the Kayak, it will need to be lifted slightly over the brackets. When deciding where to place your Kayak on the wall, you will need to take into consideration how high the kayak will need to be lifted and the height of the person lifting it. Note the height of the bracket options: 300mm and 450mm respectively.

Placing the Kayak high on the wall might seem practical until you are actually trying to access it. Most people keep them in the middle of the wall.

Using Standard Brackets

In one instance a client opted for 2 x standard 381mm Brackets over the Angle Brackets because they didn’t have enough room in their garage to support the 647mm Angle Bracket depth. In addition to the standard 381mm brackets they also used a Small Bungee Hook to tie the Kayak to the wall.

I have included some examples of Kayak Storage Solutions using StoreWALL’s accessories throughout the article.

StoreWALL is not the only supplier of Kayak Storage Racks. I have found some alternatives at BCF and on Amazon. The BCF is a solution built for your wall. It retails for under $100. Some of the Kayak specialty stores also sell similar kayak storage rack solutions. Amazon sell a free standing rack by Rad Sportz. This stand will hold 2 Kayak’s and retails for A$500+. Another on Ebay is a “4 Pcs Kayak Holder Canoe Storage Rack Carrier” which is wall mounted and retails for about A$75.

StoreWALL’S Kayak storage solution will require that you invest in StoreWALL’s wall panels first. The Angle Brackets start at $67 each. You will need 2 of them.

Posted on April 12, 2019June 22, 2023 by admin

Ball Storage Rack

My son and I really enjoy playing soccer. Over the past 4 years since he started playing we have accumulated about 6 soccer balls. Some of these we purchased ourselves and some have been received as birthday presents. Finding an effective way to store these balls in some ball storage rack of sorts has really been challenging.

My son plays for a local soccer team and trains twice a week. We also train together once per week. So our collection of soccer balls are always scattered between the garage floor, boot of the car (multiple) and the back yard.

Ball Storage Rack

Inside the garage we have used a ball storage rack of sorts which is essentially a storage bin. Now storage bins are great, but not really the ideal solution for balls.

The local soccer club that my son plays for uses Tote Bags to store the soccer balls that the teams can share. In fact each coach has their own tote bag for training balls.

Sports Tote Bags

StoreWALL offers its own range of canvas tote bags, but best of all they also offer hooks long enough to enable you to easily hang the tote bags from your garage wall. This is a much more effective ball storage rack than using a bin.

Tote Bag Sizes

The Tote bags offered through StoreWALL come in 4 sizes, small, medium, large and extra large. They are made from a tick heavy duty mesh canvas material with draw strings which can be spread across 2 hooks. The hooks which are attached to the wall with CamLok, are called 300mm Universal Hooks (you will require two of them which can be shared across bags).

The sizes of the Tote Bags are

Small – 279mm (d) x 304mm (h) x 457mm (w)
Medium – 279mm (d) x 457mm (h) x 457mm (w)
Large – 279mm (d) x 457mm (h) x 609mm (w)
Extra Large – 279mm (d) x 609mm (h) x 863mm (w)

These dimensions refer to the actual width, depth and height of each bag.

Easy Access

What is actually great about these bags is that once they are removed from the wall (essentially slip off the hooks), the draw strings can be used to close them and they can be taken with you to your sports activity.

Take a look at our wall storage options here. You can combine a Basic or Standard Duty Wall Panel with a StoreWALL Tote Bag and still have room on your panel for a few more hooks to cater for other garage or gardening storage needs.

Compatibility with Slatwall Systems

If you are already an owner of a StorEase panel (wider silver panel) sold by Bunnings or slatwall panels from GarageTek or GarageSmart, you can also combine StoreWALL Hooks and Totes to your panel(s).

Posted on September 7, 2018June 10, 2023 by admin

Tips for organising your children’s sports gear

Everyone agrees that having your kids spend less time in front of a screen stuck inside the house and more time outside playing sport is a good thing. The challenge in an age where we want everything nice and tidy is keeping it all organised. Having the right kind of storage system for organising your children’s sports gear is more than half the battle. Below we have provided some simple rules and tips which you can use for better management of your family’s sporting equipment.

Cricket & Baseball Bats, Hockey Sticks and Tennis Racquets

Most people stick the bats in the corner leaning up against the wall. Over time more and more gets piled on top of them and when you want to pull the bat out, its impossible to grab without knocking everything over. You can avoid this hassle and mess by keeping bats, sticks and racquets pegged onto a slatwall or pegboard. Today’s slatwall solutions come with a great range of hooks allowing for bats, sticks and racquets to be securely attached but easily accessed. Most hooks are usually long enough to hold more than one item.

Balls

Whether they are larger balls like basketballs or soccer balls, or smaller tennis or cricket balls, they can easily be kept in buckets or tote bags. StoreWALL offers a great range of Tote Bags which cater for balls of all sizes. If you don’t want a bag, consider a deep basket or a bin for organising your Children’s sports gear. What you want to avoid is finding all the balls on the ground because the kids where looking for the tennis ball which was at the bottom of the basket. Consider a container for smaller balls and one for larger ones.

Protective Gear and Clothing

A great way to organise uniforms is to either colour cod them or to arrange them by sport or family member. This makes it easy for everyone to identify whose clothing it is or which sport it belongs to. For items like gloves or cricket pads, I suggest you keep them all together with the related clothing. This ensures they don’t get misplaced or moved away.

As an example, your cricket clothing, pads and gloves could be kept in one specific basket or tote bag. Once the kids are done with using them, putting them away is as simple as placing them all back into the ONE basket.

Sports Shoes

The ideal way to protect your soccer and football boots is to clean them after use (both training and matches). Regular cleaning with a wet rag protects the synthetic surface from scratching and staining. It also ensures whatever dirt (soccer and football being winter sports) accumulates under the shoe is not transferred to all of the other shoes or the floor.

Most sports stores sell tote bags designed for shoes. They keep the shoes aired so that they can dry out but also in a protected bag so that pairs aren’t split up. Some suggest to use peg boards to hang your shoes but I don’t find this really practical. Dirty shoes are not the nicest accessory to have on show. Use a larger tote bag or deep basket to keep your sports shoes together. If you follow the concept of having a basket for each key sport played by your kids, then you can add sports shoes to that basket as well. Preferably once cleaned.

Organising your Children’s Sports Gear

We all want our kids to spend more time outdoors than they do today. Organising your children’s sporting gear needs to be a shared responsibility. Easier to say than do, but with some discipline it can be achieved. It’s important that children learn from an early age that we don’t do everything for them. Organising their sports gear independently is one of the many things they can learn early on.

Tips on grouping sports gear

When deciding where the sports gear will live, consider:

Size and numbers – how much space is it taking up and how many do you have
Seasonality – is the gear used throughout the year, or can it be moved to a different place when not used
Shape – some things take up a lot of space due to their shape (e.g. balls).
Ventilation – it’s better to keep shoes in a well-ventilated container and room.
Accessibility – make sure the children can access their gear without your help.
Dirtiness – how dirty is the equipment.

Get the Kids into the Routine

An important key to achieving some success with organising children’s sports gear is having a routine before and after sport activities. Kids should know what they need to take with them for training and matches. Clothing, drink bottle, boots, towel, hat etc. Help them get into the habit of gathering these items before each session. The routine applies equally after the session is done ie returning everything to where they found it.

Here’s an example

Soccer boots get returned to the garage.
Put them in the soccer basket.
Drinking bottle is returned to the kitchen sink.
Put sports bag away in the laundry (where it lives).
Get undressed and throw everything in the laundry bin or return it to the garage with the rest of the sporting gear.

Whilst I would love to say that my kids follow all of these rules, they don’t but I have found that keeping items organised and in specific locations helps everyone find them before the game or training. It also ensures we aren’t running around looking for them for half the morning.