Organized Home Gym Ideas

Don’t miss all of our organized home gym ideas in our basement gym tour! Get in shape and enjoy beautiful and functional gym storage at the same time!

Our most recent room makeover was a surprise… even to us! Adding a home gym was never really on our radar for this house.

I like to workout at home but would mostly follow videos from a streaming service and could complete them in my home office. Donnie liked to go to a gym to work out, so he had all of the equipment he needed there. And then Covid hit.

Suddenly, Donnie didn’t have a place to work out anymore. And around the same time, I started to feel like I had kind of done as much as I could with my current workouts and was ready for more.

Finding Space for a Home Gym Area

So we started floating around the idea of creating a home gym space in our basement. We had this nook area that we thought would be perfect, which was currently housing some furniture and tubs of seasonal decor…

But we had some friends of ours take the extra furniture off our hands, along with some other furniture we had elsewhere in the basement. So we were able to move the storage shelves out of the nook to another section to create the home gym area.

Our basement had insulation covered by plastic sheeting all over the walls. We didn’t want to be breathing that in while we were working out, so before we could even think about workout equipment, we had to take down all of the insulation and seal the concrete floors and walls. This left us with a blank slate to fill back up!

You can take the grand tour below to see how our organized home gym turned out. Watch the video or read the text/look at pictures or do both!

Organized Basement Gym Video Tour

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

If you’re looking for links to any of the items we used in our home gym, there is a full list near the end of this post!

Basement Home Gym Ideas

Our biggest concern when we started planning out our home gym was being able to find equipment! Everyone seemed to be putting together a home gym during Covid, so many of the fitness companies had trouble keeping equipment in stock.

We made our wish list, and then Donnie was really diligent about checking the equipment sites to try to catch the items we wanted when they were available. It took a bit, but eventually we were able to find and purchase everything we had put on our list.

Paint and Flooring

Our basement is unfinished, and we have no plans to drywall and finish it out anytime in the near future. That being said, we still wanted the home gym area to look nice, so we painted the walls in the gym nook Behr Marquee Cameo White to give it a light, bright feel.

We also painted the overhead beam, taking it from a rust color to a dark gray to fit in better with the “industrial” feel of the space.

For flooring, we went with 4′ x 6′ horse stall mats from Tractor Supply. These mats were sturdy while giving us a cushier surface than we would have if we had tried to work out on the plain concrete.

The horse stall mats were much more cost effective than a similar style mat marketed specifically for home gym use. And they will hold up better to the wear and tear that comes with throwing weights around than the flimsier foam-type mats you can find online.

Dumbell Storage Solutions

This first side of the gym holds the rack of dumbbells. We used to have just a bunch of random weights laying on the floor, so having a rack to corral all of the different sizes has really helped to keep them neat and organized.

We debated on whether or not to get a set of adjustable dumbbells to save some space and money, but we are so glad we got a full set. They will last forever, and let’s be honest– my type-A side loves that they all match and look neat and streamlined!

We chose a set of rubber coated hex dumbbells from REP Fitness. When we ordered the set, we weren’t sure if we would like the rubber coated handles compared to the traditional metal knurled handles, but we absolutely love them and they provide so much grip.

We have two mirrors on this wall to be able to check form. Donnie hung them with mirror clips that he bought at Home Depot and TapCon concrete anchors.

I tried not to add too many decorative details down here at his request, but the painted frame around the mirrors was a nice little touch while still keeping the more masculine feel of the space.

Home Gym Ideas: Organizing Smaller Equipment

Our smaller equipment is stored in this back corner…

I brought in a little basket from HomeGoods to hold a yoga mat and a foam pad that goes around the barbell if we need it.

We have all sorts of different bands, straps, and our TRX suspension trainer on this hanger from Rogue Fitness so we can grab them easily. Since the walls down here are concrete, we used concrete screws and a hammer drill to attach the hanger and other accessories to the wall.

We have medicine ball storage on this wall as well. We got these med balls from Rogue Fitness, and our boys especially love using them for workouts. At first we were unsure of the best way to store the medicine balls, but then we found these storage racks from PRX Fitness, and they ended up being a great solution.

If I am using my computer to track my reps and weights or to follow along with a video workout, I will throw the middle medicine ball on the floor for a bit, and its holder is the perfect size and height to hold my laptop!

Weightlifting Rack and Barbells

Moving to the other side of the gym, we have our main rack that we use for our different barbells. Those were tricky to figure out how to store because they’re pretty heavy and take up a good amount of space…

But this barbell floor rack from Rogue over by the window ended up being a great way to store the bars vertically when they weren’t in use.

In our home gym, the rack is the main piece of equipment that we use for workouts. Everything revolves using the rack, so it was important to have it easily accessible.

We went with the Monster RM-4 rack from Rogue Fitness in gunmetal gray. We’ve been super impressed with the build quality of the rack.

The basement ceilings are fairly low, and Rogue had an option for a shorter 90″ rack that was perfect for our space. A rack like this is a one-time purchase and will last a lifetime, so we went for a high quality piece from a reputable brand.

The rack has a few different attachments we can use for various exercises, including a pull-up bar, a pivoting landmine attachment, and shackle attachment point that we can use to attach bands and our TRX system to. We also have the movable j-cups to hold the barbells at whatever height we need them.

There are heavy duty safety straps that can be adjusted to any height depending on what movement we are doing like squats or bench press.

Always trying to sneak in cute details for esthetics and interest, I made a simple sign to fill this empty back wall. I already had the chalkboard that I had just taken down from a wall in my office. And I used my Cricut Explore cutting machine + adhesive vinyl to create a custom design for our space.

If you’re looking for other cute ways to utilize the walls of your home gym, this pegboard gym storage is one of my favorites. It’s functional and beautiful at the same time!

Organizing Weight Plates

To keep our plates organized by weight, we use this plate tree. It’s on wheels, so we can always move it around if we need to get to some of our bins and it’s in the way.

The plates we went with are Rogue MIL Spec Echo Bumper Plates. They are a mid-range bumper plate, and we’ve been very happy with them. We have 45, 25, and 10 pound plates. They also come in 35 pound plates, but we decided not to purchase any of those.

We also bought 5 pound and 2.5 pound plates from Vulcan Strength and small fractional plates from Micro Gainz. We really like being able to add a few pounds or even a fraction of a pound to the bar to keep slowly and steadily increasing our weights.

My treadmill is on this side of the gym as well. It’s great for warmups or for running in the winter or on rainy days, which we get a lot of here in Pennsylvania!

Home Gym Ideas: Storing Plyo Boxes

This little nook under the stairs ended up being the perfect size to hold all of the different sizes of plyo boxes. Our son Connor, who is 12 and plays hockey, is the one who uses these the most right now for his training. It’s easy to pull them out onto the mats and stack them in different combinations to whatever height he needs them.

(Those curtains separate the home gym area from Donnie’s basement workshop.)

We found these padded plyo boxes at Titan Fitness, and they were a great solution for Con. At first he was using a wooden box and was more hesitant. But the padded boxes save his shins and take all of that fear away.

Trap Bar Station

We have a trap bar that we leave out all the time. It is kind of an awkward shape and would be a pain to put back and forth on the storage rack. We ended up having an extra mat that became the perfect spot to leave out this bar. This still left us a bunch of open space on the mats to do things like walking lunges or using the plyo boxes.

We decided to get the trap bar because we are not expert lifters, and it has been a little easier for us to start deadlifting compared to a straight bar.

Right behind it, Connor still has an area for practicing his hockey shot with some fake ice and a net.

We have a punching bag (similar) over in this part of the gym that Caleb, who is 9, likes to use.

Adjustable Weight Bench

And finally, we have the bench, which kind of floats around in the middle wherever we need to use it. It is on wheels, so it is easy to move into the weight rack area if we want to do bench presses or we can have it out in the open area if we’re using it for exercises with the dumbbells.

Surprisingly, this was one of the trickier pieces to find! Adjustable benches were sold out everywhere when we were putting together our home gym. But we found this one from Rogue Fitness, which is very heavy and durable. It may be a little overkill for our needs, but we’re happy with it and use it every day.

So that’s the home gym! It was kind of an unexpected project, but we use it daily. And everyone in our family has different equipment they use and exercises they do on a consistent basis, so it has been a great addition to our home and a nice way to make the most of our unfinished basement space!

Initially, I thought we would end up finishing the basement by the time our boys went to high school so they could have a TV hangout area to use with their friends. But seeing how much use the boys are getting out of this space already– even before they’re really lifting any major weight– I have a feeling that this will be a different kind of hangout area than I envisioned, and I absolutely love it!

Sources for Home Gym Ideas

If you’re looking for links to any of the items we used in our basement home gym, I linked as much as I could in the list below.

• Horse Stall Mats
• Dumbbell Rack
• Rubber Grip Hex Dumbbell Set
• Wall Mirrors
• Mirror Clips
• TapCon Concrete Anchors
• Basket – HomeGoods
• Yoga Mat
• Barbell Pad
• Kettlebells
• Wall Organizer for Bands
• TRX System
• Medicine Ball Storage Racks
• Medicine Balls
• Barbell Floor Rack
• Ohio Bar (Straight Barbell)
• Multi-Grip Camber Bar
• Monster RM-4 Rack
• Landmine Attachment
• Shackle Attachment Point
• Vertical Plate Tree
• Treadmill
• Adjustable Bench
• Bumper Plates
• Vulcan Plates
• Micro Gainz Fractional Weight Plates
• Plyo Boxes
• Trap Bar
• Hockey Floor Tiles
• Hockey Net
• Punching Bag (Similar)

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Do you have a home gym in your house? What other equipment do you think we should consider adding in the future? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks so much for following along! Have a wonderful day!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.