Tack Room Organization Tips
Are you struggling to keep your tack room organized in a busy barn?
As you run around the barn feeding horses, turning out, switching blankets, cleaning stalls, and the rest of your to-do list, keeping your tack room organized is pretty hard. However, keeping your tack room organized will save you time when you don’t want to spend 10 minutes looking for that lost bridle.
Organizing Your Tack Room
Whether you have a small or large tack room, these organization tips will help keep your tack clean and in the right place when needed.
1. Labeling
Putting labels on cabinets, bridle hooks, and saddle racks is especially helpful if you have boarders or other people working in your barn. This communicates where things are and which horse/owner they belong to or are used for.
2. Have a Seasonal Storage Area
Instead of storing all your winter blankets or fly sheets in the main tack room, place the cleaned blankets in a tote and place them in a seasonal storage area. This keeps your tack room clean of items you don’t need during that season. This also works well for extra saddle pads and show equipment not used regularly.
3. Organize Girths by Size
You can use a coat rack or blanket rail to organize your girths by size. This makes locating the right girth as you are tacking up much similar. For smaller barns, place the girth in front of the saddle it is most commonly used with. Don’t ever store girths on top of your saddle. Sweat can break down the leather over time.
4. Use an Umbrella Holder
Umbrella holders make great DIY storage for lunge whips, dressage whips, and crops. You can place one in your tack room, one in your area, and one in your trailer for easy access.
5. Designate a Shelf or Cabinet for Medical Records
Unless you use a mobile device to track your horse’s medical records, you need a safe place to store them in the barn. Designate a specific shelf for medical records. We recommend having a three-ring binder for each horse, so when one travels, it is easy to bring their documents. While many horse owners keep all their horse records in one binder or folder, this isn’t ideal for horses still at the barn during an emergency.
6. Use Laundry Baskets
Plastic laundry baskets have many creative uses in the barn. We like the upright laundry baskets for dirty polos that need to be washed. Rather than starting a pile on the floor for the mice, use a closed container for dirty items.
7. Hoof Picks
We all know hoof picks like to disappear when you need them most. Simple nails or hooks in your tack room make hoof picks easier to find. You can also hang hoof picks in wash stations or at the cross-ties for easy access.
8. Declutter
Spring cleaning never hurts anyone! Go through your items and donate any unused items to lesson barns and horse charities. It is incredible how many things accumulate over time for different horses, training techniques, trainers, etc.
Good luck with your tack room organization project! We hope these tips help get you clean and organized!