Expert Advice for your Lawn & Garden TV Host of Today's Homeowner^® and home expert for The Weather Channel

If you’re looking for ways to gain extra storage space, a basement staircase leading up to a first floor is an ideal spot. Very often these staircases have drywall on the inside of the stairwell while the outside is left with the framing exposed. This provides the perfect place to put in some 2×4 shelves.

The problem with storing fasteners in a shoebox or coffee can is that it creates a mess and makes it hard to find anything. Instead, use a cupcake pan and separate your washers, nuts and screws so that they are easy to find. To prevent the organizer from falling over or taking up valuable space in your garage or workshop, consider storing it on the underside of a workbench.

Disposing of unwanted paint can be difficult because paint is considered a hazardous waste in its liquid form (it can leech into ground water if dumped in a landfill in this form.) Here’s a tip for drying out paint to simplify disposal.

It’s inevitable that if you store your pots and pans with the lids on them, they won’t stay that way for long and you’ll find yourself constantly searching for the right lid to the right saucepan. Organize your pot and pan lids by creating a simple storage area for them.

Sometimes a hole is more than a hole; it’s a storage solution. For example, a 1×4 piece of wood mounted horizontally on the wall is perfect for screwdriver storage if it has well spaced, correctly sized holes drilled in it. The same concept works for nut drivers and chisels, but you’ll want slightly larger holes.

More and more tools these days are cordless, but from time to time you still need to plug a tool in. That usually leads to an extension cord strung across the garage or workshop floor which in turn leads to someone inevitably tripping over it.

Finding adequate storage space is a problem anywhere in the home but especially in garages and basements where the stuff that has nowhere else to go. If your garage, shop or storage area has exposed studs, here are some great storage solutions.

No matter how well your automobiles are maintained, an occasional oil drip is inevitable. Unfortunately, the stain usually remains long after the leak has been repaired.

A wet-dry vacuum is a great tool to have in the garage or workshop but moving it around is often problematic. Invariably we pull the vacuum around by the hose and one of two things happens: the hose pulls out of the vacuum or the whole thing tips over.

Pegboard is great to have in any garage or shop to hang your tools on, but to make it work properly you need to put wooden cleats around the back of it. The cleats allow the pegboard to remain off the wall so that you have room to put the hooks in.