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There’s something special about the feeling DIYers get when employing a few easy garage upgrades to make the workspace more functional. It’s also nice when the gadgets used to perform the upgrade are easy to find, include usable reviews, and are shipped straight to your garage door. These are just a few of the things that make shopping on Amazon so popular.

If you’re a car owner, tinkerer, use your garage as a workshop for building projects or even just for storage, you’ll want to keep it clean, accessible, tidy, and comfortable.

There are in the neighborhood of 600 million products split into over 40 major categories listed on Amazon, and while it can be tempting to consider appliances that would turn your garage into the ultimate man cave, we’re sticking to gadgets that don’t fundamentally transform it into a different kind of space.

All the items here are competitively priced, and can potentially make a big difference to your working conditions.

Amazon’s tool storage solutions are filled with wall-mounted options that require drilling holes, adding anchors, and screwing tracks and brackets into pristine drywall. However, other unique storage options feature free-standing designs that allow more flexible, and less permanent, placement.

One handy free-standing solution from Amazon is the 6 Tier Garden Tool Organizer, priced at $59.99. It features 56 2-inch square slots to hold straight-handled tools like brooms, shovels, and other garden tools. The organizer features two 56-slot grids, one positioned 3.3 inches above the base shelf and the other at 22.3 inches. This keeps the tools standing straight without shifting and falling over.

The unit also has three open storage shelves and 6 hooks on each end. For ultimate flexibility, store your chosen power tool system’s battery chargers on one shelf and hang drills and impact drivers from the hooks, or pair the Garden Tool Organizer with one of the best power tool organizers to create something that works for you.

Regardless of which side you support in the corded versus cordless power tool debate, at some point everyone needs to deploy an extension cord in their garage. However, many extension cords spend most of their time coiled up somewhere, occupying valuable storage space waiting for a chance to fulfill their duties.

Then, when you need an extension cord the most, it often ends up in a tangled mass on the garage floor with you vowing to store it better next time. One solution to free up some storage space and ensure your extension cord is ready to deploy without tangling, is a retractable extension cord reel. One handy example is the $43.99 Dewenwils Retractable Extension Cord Reel from Amazon.

The Dewenwils cord reel comes in a variety of color combinations, including yellow, red, blue, black, and silver, and cord ends with three or six standard 3-prong outlets. Use the included hardware to mount the reel to the ceiling or wall and plug it into a standard household outlet using the supplied 4-foot lead-in cord. The Retractable Cord Reel comes pre-loaded with a 30-foot 16-gauge 3-wire SJTW power cord protected by an integrated 10-amp circuit breaker.

One of the most convenient additions to a home garage is the automatic garage door opener. The evolution to Wi-Fi-connected garage door openers takes that convenience to the next level, and eKyro’s Universal Smart Garage Door Controller is one of the handiest garage upgrade gadgets on Amazon. It’s priced at $43.99, and there’s no subscription required to access any of its features.

While the eKyro Wi-Fi remote garage door controller isn’t compatible with Ryobi door openers, it works directly with a number of automatic garage door openers, although some door openers require the use of an adapter available from eKyro. It’s pretty simple to figure out which class your garage door opener falls into.

If you have a Chamberlain, LiftMaster, Craftsman, or Raynor door opener, look at the color of the “Learn Button” on the back of the unit mounted near your garage ceiling. If it’s red, orange, or green, the eKyro is directly compatible, while yellow buttons will require an adapter and purple buttons may or may not. 

For Genie and Overhead Door garage door openers, look at the wall-mounted control button. If the buttons are white, the eKyro works without an adapter, but if they’re black, an adapter is required. If you’re still not sure, eKyro provides a QR code and further instructions to determine if the unit will work with your garage door opener.

Another Amazon find that ranks as one of the most essential gadgets to have in your garage is a portable climate control unit. Having a portable unit, like the $429.99 14,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Heater from Tanoxo’s Amazon store, can make outside weather extremes forgettable inside your garage. It would also be handy to have around for those times when your home’s main sources of climate control are on the fritz.

While the 14,000 BTU in the title is in reference to ASHRAE standards under ideal lab conditions, this unit more realistically provides 10,000 BTUs of cooling under SACC standards. This means it can cool a room up to 700 square feet, like a garage that’s roughly 24 feet by 30 feet. The unit isn’t quite as effective at heating, with its rating suggesting it can heat up to 500 square-feet.

The portable air conditioner and heater plugs into a standard home electrical outlet and produces 48 decibels while in operation. That’s quieter than a household refrigerator. It needs to be near a window to utilize the included exhaust hose kit, but otherwise its four swivel casters and 68-pound weight make it easy to move around where you need it the most.

We chose these Amazon product categories because they represent affordable DIY upgrades to any home garage. The specific products from each category are examples of highly rated, easily installed options among Amazon’s vast catalog of products.