If you don't have a full sized garage, what do you have?

[Africa2go]

We're in a 1930s semi which originally had a standalone garage at the side/back of the house. We demolished it when we had a rear extension. We have quite a large garden so have a couple of sheds but there never seems to be enough storage space (family of 5 - think bikes, a zillion pairs of walking boots/sports shoes etc, even more half empty paint tins, DIY stuff, camping gear.... )

We're now extending to the side as we need a study (WFH probably permanently). We'll have about 9m x 2m to play with - part of that will be the office, but don't know how to use the rest. We can put door ways into the existing house, but not planning on knocking walls down etc to make existing rooms bigger etc.

First thought is to have a sort of half garage / store. Would you rather have a "storage" space - it'd only be 2m wide - maybe by about 3/3.5m?

Or, would you make it internal space - we already have a tiny (but perfectly formed ) utility room so don't really "need" more internal space, other than the study, but could potentially use it as a kind of boot room.

If you have a similar set up (i.e. no garage), how do you store all your crap outdoor stuff?

I converted my internal garage into extra living space and bathroom so call the general crap goes into two sheds.
One at the bottom of the garden for tools and a couple of large crates for Christmas decoration storage.
The other shed has my gardening tools, lawn mower, shredder, electric trimmers and all things garden.
I have a small greenhouse where the spare pots, compost and growing things live and over winter the garden furniture goes into the summer house.
I also have a utility where things like the carpet cleaner live.

Thank you. Its a tough decision!

A walk in store room would be great. We have similar house but the narrow drive has been enclosed in a sort of carport. It's shelved out floor to ceiling and organised by DH. I'm sure half the space would fit DIY outdoor and camping stuff. The secret is deep shelves for big items, and hang up everything possible on hooks/screws. And continually weed out the stuff so it fits in the space available.

Thank you that's really helpful

Are you extending to the boundary? I plan to cover my side passage and use it to store bikes and garden stuff. Only 1.5m wide but 10m long.

No, our local council generally won't allow extensions to the boundary now so there'll be a gap of about 75cm. Good point about potentially covering the gap but not sure how secure that would be?

Would it be accessible from the front of the house? I would quite like a mud room. Potentially with a small wet room shower as well (which would be useful for washing the dog). So that footballing children can take off their muddy shoes and, if necessary, shower their muddy bodies without tracking all of it through the house.

It would be at the front, yes. No dog but plenty of muddy children

With bikes, it helps to have a door you can open at the front. We do have an up and over door but it has extra padlocks inside and I still bring my bike through the house. Will you be left with a side access?

Yes, still have side access to the rear garden, yes to a large door at the front.

If you're going to the trouble of building a large extension, I would personally not go to the trouble if making a small portion of it a store - finish it all to interior room standards so you can use it as a room, & have an exterior door put in if you want to use it for that.

Our integral garage was partially converted by the previous owners. Front half is still accessed by the garage door and has about 6 foot of storage. Rear half is accessed through the internal door and was used as a sort of "den" room for the previous owner's teenagers. It's quite dark in there though as there's only a small side window.

Now? They're both full of junk! It wasn't converted particularly well so even the internal part is freezing without significant intervention through an electric heater. It makes a perfect drinks store in winter though! I think if we didn't have the space we wouldn't have as much junk as we'd be forced to keep less clutter. I'd love to convert is properly but my DP wants the storage (for more junk).

It was supposed to be one of our Christmas jobs to have a clear out in there... that didn't happen...!

We had an attached garage (stuck on the back of the house but not communicating - access was via an up-and-over door opening into a lane at the back of the house). We don't have any room to extend into the garden, so we knocked through from the house into the garage and converted half of it into a study. The back half remains as a store - it's about 3m x 2.5m with a solid wall dividing it from the new study - and it's really useful for bikes, decorating stuff, gardening stuff, lawnmower, etc. We do have room in the attic for Christmas and camping things and general crap but I wouldn't want to be without a proper space for storing the bikes!

A shed in the garden, storage space around the eaves in the attic, and a storage unit in the facility a mile away (which we got for 3 months while we converted the attic over 10 years ago - and is unlikely to be got rid of any time soon....).

(Storage unit holds Christmas, Halloween and Easter decs, camping gear, scuba diving gear, old toys that DD has gown out of but are still too old for other DNieces/DNephews, my "off-season clothes" (so winter in summertime, and summer clothes in winter time), our winter/ski gear, a couple of Rescussi Annie's belonging to my Scout Unit.....).

We also have a Bike-Shel in the front garden, which holds 4 bikes securely. And a plastic coal bunker (now filled with logs as we don't use coal anymore) along the side passage beside the bins (which are in front of the trailer, secured upright against the house wall).

Our garage was converted into a bedroom with toilet shower as the previous occupant had teenagers. I have 2 little ones and a dog. We had no side access so we put a side door where the garage door was, so now door and a window. The old bedroom is now our boot/coat (wine cellar) room with giant sliding door wardrobe. We kept the downstairs loo and shower.
Outside we have 3 sheds! Although we plan to loose one as previous owners put the main big shed on the decking and not on the slabs at the end of the garden🤔
Make the space work for you.

Arghh, so many good ideas and still debating.... thank you for all the replies.