Design a one-car garage — park the car first, then keep the stuff
Every garage-storage argument ends with the same question: will the car still fit? This plan answers it by parking the car first. The Sedan goes in with a real lane for the driver's door; a 5-tier shelf, a tall cabinet, a big bin, and a staged tote run down the free side. Twelve by twenty-two, both jobs done.
A one-car garage has two tenants — the car and everything else — and most plans only draw the second one. The trick that settles the argument: put the actual car in the floor plan. Once the Sedan's real footprint is on the grid, the storage either fits around it or it doesn't, and you find out on screen instead of in the driveway.
Five catalog pieces make the plan. Search the exact names in the Furnish panel, place them in your own garage, and open the driver's door in your head before you bolt anything to a wall.
What you'll need
- •Sedan (74″ × 186″) — the non-negotiable tenant
- •5-Tier Shelf 48" (48″ × 24″, 72″ tall)
- •Garage Tall Cabinet (36″ × 24″, 72″ tall)
- •Large Storage Bin (36″ × 24″)
- •Storage Tote (24″ × 18″)
- •A 12×22 ft one-car garage
Step by step
- 1
Park the car first — yes, in the plan
Search Sedan (74″ × 186″) and park it offset toward one wall — the passenger side rides close, so every spare inch pools into a single lane on the driver's side. That lane, about a foot and a half, is what a door swing actually needs. Drive an SUV or a Pickup Truck instead? Place that one — the argument only settles with your footprint.
The 12×22 plan — car hugging one wall, the driver's-door lane, storage down the free side. - 2
5-tier shelf in the deep corner
Search 5-Tier Shelf 48" and set it against the free wall at the back of the garage — the corner you never walk past. Six feet of vertical storage on a 48-by-24 footprint: the seasonal, the rarely used, the keep-but-don't-need lives here.
- 3
Tall cabinet mid-wall
Search Garage Tall Cabinet and place it next along the same wall. Doors, not open shelves — chemicals, paint, and the stuff that shouldn't be a display go behind them. Its 18 inches of face clearance is the same air the driver's door swings through: one lane, two jobs.
- 4
Bin and tote at the door end
Finish the run with the Large Storage Bin, then stage the Storage Tote nearest the garage door. The run sorts itself by trip: deep storage at the back, the weekly grab-and-go where you already stand.
- 5
Open the driver's door in 3D
Switch to 3D and stand in the lane: door swing clear of the storage faces, cabinet doors openable, top shelf reachable, and room to walk the length of the car. If the lane pinches, slide the whole storage run along its wall — the plan moves for free; the shelving doesn't.
The garage in 3D — the door swings into the lane, never into the steel.
Tips
Storage climbs, the car doesn't
The floor strip beside the car is only two feet deep — but it's six feet tall. The 5-tier shelf and the tall cabinet hold more than the whole floor could, on footprints the car never misses.
Sort the run by trip length
Back of the garage: the once-a-year boxes. Middle: the once-a-month cabinet. Door end: the bin and tote you touch weekly. You should never squeeze past the car for something you use often.
Add the mirrors in your head
Catalog car widths are body width — mirrors add most of a foot. The 3D check is where you catch it: if the mirror grazes the shelf faces on the way in, slide the parking spot, not the storage.
Common mistakes
Storage on the driver's-door side
Offset the car the wrong way and the driver exits into six inches of air — or into shelf steel. The tight squeeze belongs on the passenger side; the driver's door gets the lane, and the storage faces it from across that lane, never inside its swing.
Buying shelves before parking the car
Storage bought for an empty garage gets installed in one — then the car comes home. Placing the Sedan first is the whole trick: the plan tells you which wall is actually free before anything is bolted down.
The pile at the nose
Boxes stacked on the floor across the far end push the parking spot back a foot at a time, until the tail hangs past the door line. The far end is shelf territory — vertical, behind the nose gap — never floor-pile territory.
Frequently asked questions
Does a car really fit a 12×22 garage with storage?
Yes — that's what the plan proves. The Sedan is 74″ wide; a 12-foot garage leaves roughly five feet, which is exactly one driver's-door lane plus a 24-inch-deep storage run. Lengthwise, 22 feet holds the 15½-foot car with about three feet to spare at either end.
What storage fits a one-car garage?
One run down the free side: a 5-Tier Shelf 48", a Garage Tall Cabinet, a Large Storage Bin, and a Storage Tote. Search each name in the Furnish panel.
Can I fit a workbench in here too?
Not with the car parked — a bench needs standing room the lane doesn't have. If the car sleeps outside some seasons, the workshop corner recipe drops a Workbench 6ft into the same footprint; otherwise the tall cabinet is the compromise that keeps the tools without evicting the tenant.
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