Give your garden shed a winter tidy - 5 steps to clean and declutter

It's the perfect time to tidy and organise your shed, pots and tools ready for the year ahead.

Inside view with open door of organised shed filled with rake, shovels, trimmer, saw, and other hand tools required for maintenance of well tended garden.

By Val Bourne | Published - 3 Jan 2025

If your garden shed is anything like mine, it descends into chaos as a busy spring turns into a frantic summer followed by an equally mad autumn. Winter is the time to have a grand sort-out followed by a trip to the local tip.

That will give you the space to restock your twine, labels, compost, seed trays and pens while the garden centres are groaning with garden sundries. Once reorganised, you’ll be more than ready for the year ahead.

Make sure you’ve got plenty of time, and arm yourself with large black plastic sacks, damp cleaning cloths, a dustpan and brush and the vacuum cleaner (with extension lead if necessary).

1. Get your pots in order

Start with the seed trays and throw anything out that’s damaged.

Those spared will need a brush out and wipe, then they can be stacked neatly, but only keep a realistic number.

Pretty shed in the sunlight with shelves and organised tools — Getty

Next, examine your plastic pots and select the most useful sizes such as 9cm round ones (for potting up cuttings) and larger ones for potting up perennials. Keep a few deep pots, ideal for sowing sweet peas, then recycle the rest (your local garden centre may have a recycling scheme if your council does not).

Check your terracotta pots and discard any broken ones, saving a few shards if you use them for drainage. If the weather is mild, lay the good ones upside down on the lawn and allow the rain to clean them for you. Don’t let them get frosted in severe cold snaps, though.

Then vacuum the whole interior of your shed (to prevent bugs and slugs from climbing straight back inside your cleaned pots) and restack everything neatly. Pots can lie on their sides and trays can be stacked on newly swept shelves.

2. Sheds need shelves

Wooden ones fixed to the shed wall are the best type. If it’s impractical, order heavy-duty metal shelving such as the sturdy and easily assembled powder-coated metal shelves sold by Argos.

shed with an open door and good shelving inside — Getty

Next sort out used twine, old labels, pens and so on, and revamp your storage system.

Larger items – hoses and spray guns – can be stored in wooden crates, trugs or boxes. Avoid mesh baskets as these soon catch the cobwebs.

3. Clean your tools

Keep only those garden tools that you need and love. Remove any rust and apply beeswax polish to the handles and blades: this gives a better finish than linseed oil and does not attract dust.

Larger tools are best hung on a simple wooden strip of half-inch-thick tongue and groove. Use screws to support handles and store spades, hoes, forks and rakes with their metal blades and tines facing downwards. Otherwise, if they fall they can be dangerous.

Sort out trowels and small forks, and arrange them in baskets or wooden containers. Place clippers in another.

Get into the habit of cleaning tools after use. Have a sturdy bucket full of grit sand (J Arthur Bower’s is best) by the door. Keep it moist and plunge spades and the like into the sand when you’ve finished for the day. Place a plastic lunchbox or similar by the door, with a cloth impregnated with beeswax polish for handles and blades.

A tin of WD40 is also useful for loosening secateurs and the like. Treat them well and they’ll last much longer.

If you buy new spades, go for wooden wishbone handles and shafts with stainless-steel heads.

4. Protect the shed exterior

Add a stain to the outside of your shed when the weather allows. If you opt for a colour, keep it subtle and neutral, avoiding strong tones such as deep greens and sombre reds.

Cuprinol’s Garden Shades offer Pale Jasmine and Arabian Sand, for instance.

A light stain inside is a good idea in dark sheds with only one window. Otherwise, go for a clear preservative for the outside walls, such as Cuprinol Wood Preserver, a non-aromatic product pleasant to use.

Soften the look of the shed’s exterior with a no-prune clematis such as the cherry-pink C. montana ‘Freda’ or the new eye-catching C. ‘Van Gogh’. You might add a thornless blackberry such as ‘Loch Ness’. All need warm walls.

As you stain, keep a look out for any cracks or holes that need further attention and lubricate the hinges and locks. Pay particular attention around the windows, doors and joints - use a silicone sealant to make sure your shed remains watertight.

Inspect the roof and guttering for any issues too.

5. Tidy up the outside for good ventilation

A good shed needs good ventilation, so if your plants, grasses and hedges are hindering the flow around and underneath, you need to cut them back.

Give your shed exterior at least three inches to breathe and dry out properly after rainfall or you'll start to have problems with damp.

A tidy up outside your shed will do as much for its longevity as the one you do inside.

(Hero image credit: Getty)

Written by: Val Bourne

Val Bourne is a gardening expert and journalist who writes for The Daily Telegraph, Saga Magazine and many others. Val has been awarded the Garden Media Journalist of the Year and Columnist of the Year.
She is also the author of many books, including The Living Jigsaw, The Ten-Minute Gardener. Val also judges the perennial and dahlia trials at RHS Wisley.

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