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The Beast in the Basement
The sports-minded Love family of Marshfield, Mass., tries to keep their basement organized by season, with one corner designated for winter (snowboards, snowshoes) and another for fall (shin guards, cleats, orange cones). But five sets of golf clubs, two bicycles and two kayaks have spread from the basement to the garage and out into the backyard.

As anyone who's ever opened a closet door only to be crowned with a tennis racket knows, there's a price to pay for cramming too much sports gear into too little space. To help, manufacturers offer a wide array of bins, racks and other products to organize the clutter, some of them sport-specific. "When you buy dishes, you know what cabinet you'll put them in," says Standolyn Robertson, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers. "It should be the same for sports gear."

There are systems designed for the specialized gear used in most conceivable sports, from in-line skates to fishing rods. Sport-specific hook-and-rack combinations, sold by Sportstorage.com, attach to walls to keep bikes, clubs, sticks, rackets and balls off the garage or basement floor. Other products are generalists: The $185 Gearstash 5.0 is a wall-mounted sheet of heavyweight fabric with a lot of mesh bags, webbing loops and J hooks. It can hold up to 600 pounds of everything from skis and climbing equipment to scuba gear, paddles and fishing poles.

Sales are strong in bike storage equipment, organizer companies say. The Cezanne Sports and Bike Gear Storage Rack ($199.99) looks like a frail version of what bellmen use to move suitcases, but it holds up to four bikes. At Organize-It, a Detroit store and Web site, the Hoist Monster Bike Storage Rack (on sale for $29.99) has cracked the top 100 items, in terms of units sold; other offerings include a Wall Mount Sports Gear Rack ($41.99) and the Big Mesh Sports Basket ($45.95).

But some retailers say they aren't connecting with the sports storage customer. According to the national retail chain Dick's Sporting Goods, demand for organizers is so low that practically none of its 340 stores stocks any, despite an average of 50,000 to 80,000 square feet and tens of thousands of items per store. The company's Web site lists a $19.97 Sport Rack Organizer and a $99 Sports Ball Locker.

A spokesman for Organize-It says systems to store gear smaller than a bicycle -- such as the Double Ski Rack ($15.99) and the Tennis Storage Rack ($19.99) -- don't sell anywhere near as well as the Monster Hoist. "People don't use racks because it is easier to just stuff the gear in a duffel bag or the corner of the garage," he says.

As long as the pile of equipment remains out of sight, most people don't feel an urgent need to sort it all out, says Dawn Helgesen-Miller, a professional organizer based in Denver and owner of Less-Mess-Less-Stress. "It isn't at the top of the list of things that drive them crazy, so they put off dealing with it."
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