There’s no surer way to draw the wrath of your significant other or roommate than by amassing a respectable collection of workout equipment and leaving it lying hither, thither and yon.
I get both sides of the resulting arguments. Yes, I want to retain unfettered access to the glorious bounty of training items lining my home. At the same time, I want to respect the desire of my wife to walk through our guest room/office without stumbling over an Iron Chest Master or a SelectTech Kettlebell. Moreover, despite how much I may believe that setting weight plates along the floors adjacent to the walls or leaning barbells into the corners of rooms is an acceptable storage strategy, those around you who don’t share your passion for resistance training are likely to think otherwise.
So how do you remedy this?
Well, installing storage devices specifically geared toward consolidating your equipment in one central location and optimizing your available training space is definitely one way to do it. And fortunately for all of us, equipment storage options have evolved to the extent that it’s an altogether simple matter to locate, evaluate and install whatever storage option you deem to be the most applicable for securely stashing the devices presently sprawling about your training space, and clogging the pathways of your living area.
How to Identify the Best Gym Storage Apparatuses
Let’s count to three here…
- Practicality: Does this storage unit fulfill all of your needs, and adequately store the multiple varieties of training equipment you utilize throughout the week.
- Durability: The ability of your storage equipment to endure a beating isn’t quite so important if you’re storing elastic bands, but it’s essential if you’re repeatedly slamming heavy weight plates and dumbbells into it.
- Adaptability: Your workout practices should be expected to change over the course of your life, and that may necessitate that you alter the range of equipment you train with. It would probably be helpful if your storage unit could adapt alongside your training needs.
With that out of the way, let’s get you organized with the best storage options for addressing either your lack of space or getting all of your complainants to pipe down — or more likely, both.
Best Single Level Wall Mini Rack: Hemacudy Gym Storage Rack
Why It’s An Ideal Fit: If you only have a few fitness items, like a couple of weight bars that need propping up, a few elastic bands, a jump rope or even a small kettlebell, the Hemacudy Gym Storage Rack will help you to get them situated, centralized, elevated and out of the way, while still making them clearly visible by not being mashed into a box.
Why It Might Not Be the Space Saver You Think: If you’ve got an extensive collection of training equipment, it simply isn’t going to be adequate to hold everything in your arsenal. Plus, there are some things that such a rack isn’t capable of storing properly, like yoga mats, weight plates or really anything large that isn’t also easily hung from a coat rack.
A Tidy Summation: If you have a small home gym and only need a few items like cable attachments and elastic bands organized, the Hemacudy Gym Storage Rack is all you’ll ever need.
Deluxe Multi-Piece Wall Rack: Stonewall Deluxe Home Gym Slatwall Storage and Organization Kit
Why It’s An Ideal Fit: Should you find yourself with a diverse collection of dedicated gym equipment to store, but you want it arranged in an eye-pleasing fashion, the Stonewall Deluxe Home Gym Slatwall Storage and Organization Kit will enable you to customize the hooks and shelving options against the wall and array it in a fashion that neatly groups the types of gear.
Why It Might Not Be the Space Saver You Think: While this rack setup is sufficient to hold a light, fixed-weight dumbbell or two, it isn’t the solution that’s going to resolve the problem you’re having with the weight plates and barbells that have stacked up in the corner of your garage gym.
A Tidy Summation: The Stonewall Deluxe Home Gym Slatwall Storage and Organization Kit is the sort of thing that will make your home gym look like a respectable fitness studio. You can neatly store your yoga mats, foam rollers, towels, bands, balls and water bottles. As long as you’re not into anything that’s too heavy-duty, it will probably do the trick.
Best Multi-Purpose Standalone Rack: Mythinglogic Storage Racks
Why It’s An Ideal Fit: Sometimes you need your training equipment to travel with you from room to room, or maybe you just don’t want to fully commit a single room within your residence to being the eternal exercise room by drilling holes into the walls. The portable Mythinglogic Storage Racks will permit you to store most of your training equipment while allowing it to retain some collective mobility. The racks also possess hooks and a basket to go with their shelves, which broadens the variety of equipment that they can store with ease.
Why It Might Not Be the Space Saver You Think: These racks will elevate at least some of your equipment and keep it from cluttering the floor, but the lowest shelf is merely a few inches off the ground. This means that whatever equipment is sitting on the lowest level might as well be on the floor. Also, I don’t know that I’d trust any of these shelves to hold more than 50 pounds of weight without suffering some identifiable and probably permanent damage.
A Tidy Summation: For those who don’t feel like drilling holes in their walls, this form of storage is perfect, especially if they have only a modest assortment of light training equipment to store, or just want a storage rack they can wheel into any room in their abode.
Best Bell and Plate Rack: Marcy Combo Weights Storage Rack
Why It’s An Ideal Fit: This is for folks who just need the heaviest and most compact items in their home’s weight room stored — fixed-weight barbells, kettlebells and weight plates.
Why It Might Not Be the Space Saver You Think: The Marcy Combo Weights Storage Rack is intended to hold exactly three things, and weight bars aren’t among them. This is in spite of the fact that it’s clearly designed with the storage of weight plates in mind. If you actually have weight bars in need of storage, you’ll need to find another way of keeping them secured other than this rack, meaning you’re probably going to have to make a separate purchase.
A Tidy Summation: This is a neat, tidy rack with a very clear purpose, and if your goal is to get all of the small, heavy objects in your gym off the floor, out of your way and collected into an easily accessible display rack, the Marcy Combo Weights Storage Rack will be everything you ever wanted.
Best Plate Rack and Storage: Sunny Health & Fitness All-In-One Rack Stand
Why It’s An Ideal Fit: This will definitely upgrade your life quality if you have weight plates, weight bars, kettlebells and dumbbells that need to be stored and organized. In fact, it has different varieties of plate-holding mechanisms solely for such a purpose. It even has specialized hoop shelves designed to hold your heavy medicine balls.
Why It Might Not Be the Space Saver You Think: The Sunny Health & Fitness All-In-One Rack Stand is specifically designed to store five things, and it isn’t really conducive to the storage of daintier items unless you wish to drape your elastic bands and jump ropes from the medicine ball hoops. I won’t judge you if you do; it’s not like I personally own any medicine balls in need of storage, and there’s no sense in allowing those hoops to go to waste.
A Tidy Summation: In particular, weight bars, weight plates and dumbbells are among the most perniciously annoying items in need of storage, and these also just happen to be among the most common training devices. A rack like this is probably all it takes to clean up the usual suspects upon which most people trip or stumble when navigating through the veritable minefield presented by a disorganized weight room.