So you think you can upgrade, huh?

You might be gleefully rubbing your palms together thinking off all the upgrades you’re going to do to your bat cave… erhm, garage. But hang on, unless you’ve got endless supplies of money and time, you’ll have to sort through your daydream and pick out the best garage upgrades.

While it might be exciting to add a bunch of Batman stencils and a spotlight bat signal, you’ll want to consider your home value first. Doing specific upgrades to your garage can add some serious value to your home, which is especially important if you don’t plan to live out the rest of your days in your current house.

Read on if you’re ready to stop neglecting your garage and start giving it some love.

6 Simple Garage Upgrades

Garages add significant value to your home. In fact, many buyers won’t look twice at your home if you don’t have a garage. Check out these upgrades to bring your garage back to tip-top shape:

Give It Some Style

Okay, if you really love Batman, this is where you can add your stencils. Adding a style to your garage will give it the feeling of a new life.

If you’re planning to sell your home, it’s important to do generic designs. This doesn’t mean paint all the walls grey, but it does mean you can’t go crazy with the bats. Play with accent walls and interior trims.

Be sure to keep the color wheel in mind while painting. You want to make sure your colors compliment each other to bring everything together.

Think outside the box. Don’t just paint the walls, give the floor and ceiling a full makeover. Map out a special spot for parking your car, or give the garage color zones and organize according to each zone. Blue is for tools and green is for Christmas decorations.

Use Smart Storage Techniques

Believe it or not, this one is going to add big value to your garage.

Not having enough storage area is a big problem for a lot of people. Honestly, the garage is more than likely plenty of storage, but without a good organizational plan, tons of space gets wasted.

Add shelves to the ceiling for storing seasonal items like fishing poles, winter clothing, or misc items you often don’t use. You can also install hooks and verticle style shelving on the walls for storing things like weed whackers, brooms, and rakes.

Upgrade Mechanics

Of course, the better the electronics in the garage, the higher it’s value. Make sure that your garage door functions properly and smoothly. If you’ve still got a manual garage door, you’ll want to consider upgrading to a mechanical one.

There are several different styles and varieties of overhead garage doors. If you’re having troubling picking out the right one, this blog post offers helpful insight and tips.

Many automatic garage doors can now be synced to your smartphone. Next time your neighbor needs to borrow something you can open the door from anywhere.

Add Extra Security

Adding extra security is a great way to make a new home buyer, and yourself, feel comfortable in the garage.

Security can be as simple as a nightly alarm setting, or you can add a few outside cameras.

A word of caution, though, try not to add too much security. Having 10 cameras pointed in every direction can actually make the home buyer feel more in danger than safe. It’ll leave them thinking, “why would they need 10 cameras?”

If you’re going to add cameras, consider adding one inside the garage in case of a break in, and two outside. One on each corner.

Upgrade the Lighting

How many garages have you visited that had perfect lighting? Probably not many.

A big problem that a lot of garages have is not having proper lighting. No one should ever have to use a flashlight to look for something in the garage.

You can add basic overhead lighting to really brighten the place up, or you can play with different led styled lighting. LED rope lights add a really cool lighting effect to garages. You can arrange the rope lights in any shape, or simply line the ceiling and floors to outline the garage.

Use led light strips behind a bookshelf or workbench to bring attention to it.

Tidy up the Outside

And finally, clean up the outside!

First impressions can make or break any buying experience. If you’ve got cracks all up and down the driveway and the bushes are overgrown, a potential buyer might get the idea that you don’t keep up with your home.

Giving the outside space near your garage a makeover can be as complicated or as simple as you’d like. Try your hand at rainscaping and add some rocks near your rain gutters to keep mud puddles from forming. Plant a couple of rose bushes on either side of the garage and you’re all done.

Your Space, Your Way

We know, some of these garage upgrades might not be the most fun, but they are definitely necessary for your home’s value.

Keep in mind that home value isn’t the only thing to consider when doing upgrades. It’s important to take any environment factors into consideration.

If you live in Vermont, you should probably look into snow-proofing your windows and upgrading your insulation.

If you live in Florida, you’ll want to hurricane-proof. Check out these 5 tips for hurricane proofing your home.