If you often observe American homes, you will notice an interesting phenomenon. Many American families' garages are no longer just used for parking. In a survey conducted by CRAFTSMAN in 2024, 2,005 adult homeowners with garages in the United States were interviewed. The results showed that 78% planned to organize their garages in 2024, 50% planned to continue investing in garage storage in the coming year; at the same time, 47% would undertake home decoration projects in the garage, 47% would do gardening or outdoor projects, 38% would do car-related projects, and over 2/5 would use the garage as a fitness or exercise space.

The fact that 78% of the interviewed homeowners planned to organize their garages indicates that "garage storage" is not an edge requirement but rather a quite common family space issue. When you open the garage door, it's not just cars that are stuffed inside. Lawn mowers, ladders, power drills, camping equipment, bicycles, Christmas decorations, storage boxes, gardening tools, spare drinks, car supplies... More organized families would line the walls with shelves, hooks, pegboard panels and cabinets. It looks less and less like a parking space and more like a family-sized mini warehouse. At first, I thought this might just be because Americans have too many things. But looking further into this phenomenon, it turns out that there is actually a quite mature product market behind it. American garages are not just for parking in the first place. In 2025, a total of about 1.005 million new single-family homes were built in the United States, of which about 64.1% had double-car garages. That is to say, in newly built single-family homes in the United States, double-car garages are still a very common residential configuration. But what is truly interesting is not whether there is a garage, but what is put inside it. In Chinese families, a large amount of clutter often ends up in the balcony, storage room, or basement. Many single-family homes in the United States, the garage precisely fulfills this function. Especially three types of things are particularly prone to enter the garage. The first type is low-frequency but hard-to-throw-away items. Christmas and Halloween decorations, camping equipment, suitcases, large packages of daily necessities. The second type are things that cannot or are unwilling to be put inside the house. Lawn mowers, paint, car supplies, gardening tools, soil, ladders. The third type are a very typical group of "family tool assets". Power drills, saws, tool boxes, bicycles, balls, skiing equipment, even woodworking tools. The more a family lives there, the more things tend to accumulate in the garage. The problem then arises: the garage area has not increased, but the things keep increasing.

So, what the American garage storage truly solves is not "storage", but rather: how to continue to extract space from the walls and ceilings with the limited dozens of square meters of space. That's why Garage Storage (garage organization) in the American market is not just a simple piece of storage rack. When you look at the "Garage Organization" category at Lowe's, it is directly divided into: Garage Storage Systems, Garage Storage Cabinets, Shelves & Shelving, Slatwall & Rail Storage Systems, Pegboard & Accessories, Overhead Garage Storage, Bike Racks & Storage, Work Benches & Tool Storage.

Under the category of "garage storage", a very complete subcategory has already emerged. This actually indicates one thing: In the United States, "Garage Storage" is no longer just a shelf; it has become an entire system for space utilization. The most interesting change is that things are beginning to move "upwards". A two-car garage may seem quite large, but once it needs to accommodate parking, the actual usable floor area for storage is actually very limited. Therefore, there is a very clear product logic for garage storage in the United States: to minimize the space occupation as much as possible. The walls have become the first layer of space. Ladders, bicycles, gardening tools, power tools, etc., can be hung using tracks, hooks, and pegboards. Further up, it is the ceiling. Thus, there is a very obvious product logic for garage storage in the United States: to occupy as little space as possible. The wall has become the first layer of space. Brands such as Husky, NewAge Products, Gladiator, and FLEXIMOUNTS are selling complete sets: high cabinets, hanging cabinets, workbenches, tool cabinets, wall systems can be combined. Image: The Garage Storage Systems category page of Home Depot. The head product is no longer a cabinet, but a combined system of an entire wall. Professional garage brands like Gladiator even make Wall Organization (wall storage) into a separate system: first install tracks or wall panels on the wall, and then add different hanging accessories continuously.

The basic tracks remain unchanged, and the hooks and accessories can be continuously added, which is the typical platform-based product logic. This is somewhat similar to IKEA's PAX wardrobe. The first purchase is the basic structure. Later, if there is no space for the bicycle, add a bicycle rack. If there are more gardening tools, add a long-handled tool hook. If there are more power drills, add a tool rack. The more things a family has, the more valuable the system becomes. This is why in this category, I think what is truly worthy of attention is not "a blockbuster product", but: whether a basic structure can continuously grow new SKUs. This is actually a $3.5 billion market. The Freedonia Group's research on American Garage Organization Products shows that the market size of the United States is approximately $3.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach approximately $38 billion by 2028. It is not a suddenly booming high-growth market. However, there is a notable structural change within it: Modular Systems - modular systems, are a product category with faster growth. Freedonia predicts that by 2028, modular products will contribute approximately 31% of the total new sales in the garage storage market. The reason is quite understandable. Simple shelves are becoming increasingly standardized, and it is easy to get bogged down in issues such as steel thickness, load-bearing capacity, and price. However, modular products are not sold as a piece of iron. What they sell is: I can add more things in the future. But if you look at it on a comprehensive e-commerce platform, the other side is also very obvious: this market is not short of goods. For example, if you search for "Garage Storage Shelves" on Wayfair, you can see a large variety of products with different sizes, layers, load-bearing capacity, and materials.

The most common standard shelves are already a highly commoditized market. This picture actually illustrates the problem very well. If you only make one: a 5-layer iron shelf with a load-bearing capacity of 2000 pounds and adjustable height. With screwless installation. There are already too many competitors. So the market that is truly worth studying is not "Can the shelves still be sold?" but rather: What else in Americans' garages has not been well stored? For example: how to place a ladder? How to store a bicycle? How to place golf clubs? How to store gardening long-handled tools? How to store wood? How to place a leaf blower? How to store camping equipment? How to stack a 27-gallon large storage box? The more specific these questions are, the easier it is to define the product. Now even there are Bin Racks specifically designed for 27-gallon storage boxes.

Designed directly for the HDX 14/27 Gallon storage box. What is sold here is no longer "slats", but a storage system that matches the specific box type. This is a very typical change: Previously, I produced a shelf and saw what consumers put it in. Now it should be the other way around: I first find what the consumer wants to put, and then design a shelf for it. The difference seems only a sentence. But the underlying product logic is completely different. So what could Chinese sellers most likely do wrong in this market? I think it is: Continuing to treat it as "hardware products". Making a shelf. With one more layer. A load-bearing capacity from 600 pounds to 800 pounds. A price that is 5 dollars lower. Of course, these are useful, but it is very easy to fall back into homogeneous competition. What is truly worth studying is a more specific question: What exactly do consumers want to store? Because once it is specific to a certain object, the product definition begins to change. Storing bicycles requires considering tire width, wall load-bearing capacity, and the action of taking and putting. Storing golf equipment requires organizing the golf bag, clubs, shoes, and accessories together. Picture: The Golf Bag Organizer on Wayfair. It is not a universal shelf, but redefines the internal space around the golf bag, clubs, shoes, and accessories. Storing gardening tools requires compatibility with different lengths of long-handled tools. Storing large storage boxes requires directly designing the size around the 27 Gallon and 40 Gallon common American box types. At this point, what is sold is no longer a piece of steel. But: This thing finally has a place to be stored. I think this type of market is very suitable for the Chinese supply chain because it does not rely on particularly strong original design. A large number of products are essentially: steel pipes, sheet metal, plastic parts, hooks, connectors. These are precisely the things that the Chinese supply chain is very mature at. The difficult part has actually become: Can you find a specific enough usage scenario? And: How to combine? What size? Load-bearing capacity? Where to install? And which storage boxes are compatible? Will it be possible to expand this to sell individual items on Amazon or to do a complete system on a channel like Home Depot? These questions are no longer just "developing a product". But rather defining: How should this product enter a household garage in the United States. Finally, when I wrote about Americans' backyard cabins earlier, someone asked: Why can the United States produce so many domestic categories that seem very unfamiliar to us? I think this is one of the reasons. It's not that Americans need some particularly strange things. It's that their residential structures, living habits, and family assets are different, and thus gradually different product demands have emerged. The tool room grew in the backyard. The living room gave way to home theater sofas. And the garage gradually turned into a small family warehouse. What really deserves study is not: "What products are popular in the US now?" but: "Why do they need this thing?" Once this question is understood, the subsequent products are often much easier to find.