It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Football season has officially begun, with basketball and the World Series right around the corner. Fantasy sports, 4th quarter comebacks, and playoffs define this beautiful season. With the kids back in school, it’s time to get the dudes back together into the man cave for nights of ‘what happens in the cave stays in the cave’ fun. With a little bit of money and effort you can organize your garage into the ultimate man cave. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Get organized. Most people don’t realize that they actually do have the space to build a man cave in the garage. With so much stuff piled in there, it’s hard to just walk around. However, with just a little bit of organizing you will find space in there that you never knew you had!

• Build storage cabinets and shelves. By getting everything off the floor and onto the walls, usable space is multiplied. You can build DIY shelves with some effort, or get a professional system like this one installed. These look amazingly manly and are super functional.
• Don’t forget the ceiling. You can always store stuff up above and out of the way as well. These might be a little most difficult to build yourself, and you want to make sure that it’s strong enough to hold all of your stuff, so I might suggest a professionally installed overhead rack like this.
• Don’t neglect the floor. Now that everything is off the ground, you can focus on the ground itself. While concrete is manly, it’s not the best surface for entertaining the guys. It’s hard, cold, and it cracks and chips easily. There’s a host of options to cover it up. Some may want to throw down some carpet where the couches will be, but I think an epoxy flooring is the best way to go. It protects the concrete, it’s super easy to clean, and it looks awesome.

Build the theme. Now I know we like to hand the artsy things off to the women, but this is your space men. You want it to look good. Figure out what you want the theme to be: sports in general, a specific team or sport, cars, motorcycles, etc. Look around the house. Go through your old jerseys and clothing. Find things that you can use to spruce up the space and add to the manly stench. If you need to, sneak onto your wife’s Pinterest account and look up ideas (but don’t get caught!). To help you, here are a couple of sites that have some good ideas to help you get started: thesawguy and diyready.

Get comfortable. Now this is the fun part. You need to find the right couches, and entertainment system to seal the deal.

• As for couches, you could easily go out and spend a few hundred dollars on some nice new ones. Or you could find some local used sofas at a garage sale or thrift store. This is what I would recommend since you can almost always find a good deal on some decent couches at your neighbor's garage sale. Just remember, they really just need to be comfortable. Your guy friends aren’t going to judge you if the color and patterns clash with the rest of the space.
• The image may be the trickiest part. If you have an extra tv laying around, then use it. Maybe your wife doesn’t really care about the tv in the living room, and so you can just grab that one. However, most people aren’t so lucky. You also may want to check the cost-benefit ratio of a tv vs a projector and screen. For almost the same price as a new tv, you could get twice the screen size with a decent projector. You’ll have to sacrifice a bit in quality and brightness, but it may be a better option for you. Just remember, before you run over to BestBuy, check all your local and used sales sites, such as Craigslist, first.
• The sound. This option is completely optional, but it could make a huge difference in the end. Follow the same rules as the tv. Check all local and used stuff before spending a couple hundred on a new speaker system.

In the end, you could spend $100 or you could spend $10,000 on a new garage man cave. It’s up to you to do whatever you can. Remember though, with enough research and effort, you can put together a perfectly fine man cave for just a couple hundred bucks. Use these tips as a guide to making all the other men on the street jealous. Soon, your DIY man cave will be the talk of the town and the local game night hub.