A neat and orderly tack room is something that horse owners and anyone who is into the equestrian arts should strive to achieve. There is a pretty good chance you know what a messy tack room looks like; perhaps your very own tack room is one of many that could use a hand in terms of cleaning and organization.
It is not hard to understand why so many tack spaces become disorganized; when riders return from a long day on the trails, they will more than likely focus on tending to their animals first, and then they will turn their attention to the barn before cleaning their saddles and the rest of their tack. The actual tack room gets pushed to the end of the equestrian chores to complete, thus making it more likely to be postponed or even ignored because other activities such as heading for the shower are certainly more enticing.
Do you know what is even worse than a messy tack space? Leaving dirty tack and other equestrian items strewn about and in need of cleaning. This is usually how tack rooms start becoming disorganized; you may return at a later date to clean up saddles and other pieces of tack, but the room itself gets neglected once again. In some cases, riders will decide to clean out the tack room but forgo organization.
Another issue with tack rooms or spaces is that they often serve more than one purpose, and this is when they are bound to get even messier. We see this happening more and more in modern equestrian residential communities where barns only offer enough space for a couple of horses at the most, thus forcing riders to use a corner of their garage as a space where they will store not only tack but also anything else they can’t fit elsewhere.
There are numerous problems caused by messy tack rooms. Not being able to find what you need is the most commonly mentioned problem, but there is also a psychological disadvantage that can be even more problematic. When returning from a long and exhausting trail ride, the sight of a cluttered tack room will prompt you to drop off your saddle plus assorted items right in the middle of the mess, and this often results in riders walking off without cleaning their tack. The opposite happens when the tack room looks clean and neat; you look at the saddle rack and see that there is a spot waiting to be taken with a clean saddle, and this works as a source of motivation.
Why Do Tack Rooms Get Messy So Easily?
It is quite rare for horse owners to take over an organized tack room. Unless you are building the structure yourself, chances are that the previous horse owners will either leave a mess behind or take every last piece of tack with them. The latter is the most plausible scenario, which means that you will be able to start over from scratch, and this is highly ideal as long as you do more than just start throwing tack within, which is what usually ends up happening anyway.
Should you be lucky enough to take over a tack room that comes with racks, shelves, and drawers, the odds of you becoming organized will rise exponentially. Most of the time, you will not have these organizational tools from the outset, but you should make it a point to obtain them before you actually move saddles and tack items into the space.
Tack rooms get messy because they start out messy. It is not easy to start the process when everything is in disarray; it is easier to ignore it and hope that you will one day get around to cleaning and organizing. Once again, leaving this is the kind of chore that somehow ends up as a “kicking the can” project. Once you get organized, however, keeping things neat should not be difficult at all, and the room will be much easier to clean.
Tackling Tack Clutter
Here’s a good rule of thumb for determining whether your tack room is too cluttered: If you count more than 40 different items for keeping just one horse, you probably are dealing with clutter. Let’s break down the main categories of horse tack items:
- Feeding
- Maintenance
- Grooming
- Riding
- Driving
- Health and Emergencies
Of the categories above, grooming is the one that encompasses the most items, and we are talking about a dozen. Once you start storing over 50 items used to care for just one horse, you are getting into clutter territory; this calls for you to take charge of the situation and take the first step of any organization project, which is to get rid of excessive clutter by means of evaluation and purge.
Evaluating everything in your tack room can be made easier if you split everything up into four piles that should be labeled as follows:
- Items to Keep.
- Items to Sell or Give Away.
- Items to Throw Away.
- Items to Revisit.
Please note that the items in your pile to throw away can also be repurposed or recycled if at all possible. Aside from reducing the item count to less than 50 for each horse, you will not want to make the revisit pile too big. Revisiting should not be a cop-out for not making up your mind about stuff you may or may not want to keep; make a firm commitment to return to this pile no more than three times.
Cleaning the Tack Room
As long as the items are still categorized in the four piles mentioned above, cleaning the space should be pretty easy. We know that barns and tack rooms are different from bathrooms in terms of cleanliness, but this is a good time to do your best and pay attention to disinfecting, which is something many horse owners forget to take care of. This is also a great time to clean your tack, particularly saddles before they are returned to their racks or storage spots.
Unlike getting rid of clutter, cleaning up should only take you a couple of hours at the most. This could also be a good time to paint the space if you have been planning on doing so.
Organization and Storage Tools for the Tack Room
Clean and store saddles on proper saddle racks. There are many types of racks and these make it easier for you to clean your saddle and maintain its integrity and shape when not in use.
Plastic drawers with transparent sides and tops are perfect for tack rooms, especially for smaller items such as grooming brushes. If you are reusing old cabinets that are not clear, make labels for the drawers; this will go a long way in terms of keeping you organized in the future.
Try to keep just about everything off the floor. Vertical storage is the best choice for smaller tack spaces, and this can be achieved with shelving systems or old cabinets that were going to be thrown away.
If saddle racks are beyond your budget, for the time being, you can make do with step stools or small ladders. Try to go as paperless as possible with regard to your horse records; instead of moving a filing cabinet into the tack room, you can use an old tablet or computer to keep veterinary records and other documents. A smartphone or even a cloud storage account will work better in this regard.
Finally, tack should not be stored in an area where your clean and groom your horse. Many people clean tack in the wash stall area for convenience but it is not an ideal environment for storing tack.