We installed two bike hoists over the weekend. Check out these bad boys– total cost: only $10!
But let’s rewind to the beginning: Our neighborhood garage sale took place over the weekend, so we were excited to finally get rid of a few piles that we had been hanging onto. (Isn’t it amazing how quickly you can accumulate things that you never use?) Mya was pumped for our first garage sale action! (Don’t worry, we didn’t really try to sell her for $0.50)
Despite some untimely rain and a busy day of construction next door, we had a successful couple of days and kick-started the process of getting our garage and basement back in order after clearing out the clutter.
Our first project keeps with the air theme from earlier this week. We first saw a bicycle hoist– a pulley system used to hang your bike from the ceiling– at my brother’s house a couple of years ago. At the time, we had installed some wall mounted hangers to store our bikes at home. The hangers worked great, but as Mya collects more vehicles and toys, we thought the space could be used more efficiently. And since we came across a steal-of-a-deal bike hoist kit at Menards for only $5 (marked down from $10 in the store), we decided to make some changes!
The installation was fairly easy, except for an unreliable stud finder that led to a couple of extra holes in our ceiling. To make mounting the brackets on our high ceiling a little easier, I used a strip of masking tape to create a template for drilling holes – a little trick I plan on using again.
Overall, we are pleased with our new storage solution. The screws that came in the kit had a tendency to strip and we will probably replace with some higher quality rope at some point, but otherwise the hoist works as expected and is pretty easy to move up and down. The pulley itself has a built in brake to stop the bike from falling when it is elevated, which is released by holding tension in the rope. As a backup, there is a wall mounted anchor to wrap the rope around when stored. And because I’m a little overly cautious, I used a couple of bungee cords to make sure the hooks stayed securely on the bikes– probably overkill but it makes me feel better.
Since we freed up some space and had some garage sale cash, we figured it was time for Mya to get a bike of her own. She thinks she’s pretty hot stuff on her new ride.
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