Gardening and caring for landscaping requires tools and equipment that can’t be kept inside a residential home. At the least, rakes, shovels and mowers must be kept in a garage or under cover outdoors. The ideal solution to organize and store garden items is an outdoor storage shed. A shed separate from the garage provides space to store all the home’s outdoor maintenance tools and equipment. Lawn mowers and snow blowers, wheelbarrows, weeding, edging and leaf blowing machines, rakes, shovels, spades and pitchforks, extension cords, gasoline cans, trellises, lawn debris bags, hoses, hand trowels and other gardening tools and aids can be stored in a shed to avoid cluttering a garage.

Sheds are sold as a complete kit with instructions for completion, they are built from purchased construction plans or they are built from scratch and customized. Home and garden centers carry different styles of wooden, metal and vinyl sheds. Although sheds are simple buildings compared to houses and garages, many times not even requiring building permits to install, they are still a semi-permanent structure and should blend well with the landscape and the house. Three important considerations when purchasing or building a garden shed are size, materials and style.

The size of the shed will determine how useful it is and how much it costs. Eight by ten feet and ten by twelve feet are popular sizes for garden sheds although smaller sheds and garden storage cabinets work well for handy storage of often-used items near doors or outdoor water faucets. The material the shed is made of affects appearance and maintenance, with vinyl being the lowest maintenance because it won’t rust, rot or require painting. Style is important so that the shed blends in and compliments its surroundings rather than standing out or creating an eyesore. A barnyard red farm style shed would probably clash with a contemporary style home in the city.

A garden shed is the ideal way to organize and store gardening and landscaping tools and equipment neatly, safely and attractively without taking up garage or other house space. Comparison shopping for sheds requires budget, size and style of shed desired to make the best choice at home and garden retailers.