Well, I’ve put this off for a few years now, but when I realized a few weeks ago that I could no longer walk from the front my garage to the back it was time for a storage makeover.
I can’t really describe the mess that our garage is, so let me have these pictures tell the tale:
…needless to say, this garage hasn’t seen a vehicle in it for quite some time. To be fair, the van seats in the pictures are only there because I needed to load building materials into the van, so there is actually 10 square foot area in the garage that might be able to stand in without stumbling over something, so I guess I could park half of a car there.
My first goal for the multiple-part garage project to get this clutter in line is to put shelving along both sides of the garage to maximize storage and because it’s the most straightforward way to start getting the garage in order. After most of the clutter is up out of the way, I then plan on working on some tool and gardening hardware organization. Lastly, I want to work up a system for getting all of our bikes (7 of them!!!) out of the way but easy for the kids to get at them when they want to ride.
So off we go with part 1 of the project! Let’s first get acquainted with our arsenal of weapons to battle clutter!
First, and most important, is a big ol’ pile of lumber! 36-2”x4” studs and 4-4’x8’x sheets of OSB (plywood) split in half lengthwise. This should be just enough material to create two 8 foot wide shelving units with 4 shelves each, which will take up most of one wall of the garage.
Now on to the stuff needed to cut and put everything together!
Above we have a combination square (useful!), 4’ quick clamps (worthless!), measuring tape (necessary!), 3” all purpose wood screws (garbage!), 1.5” drywall screws (did the job, barely!), safety goggles (protect them eyes, pal!), and contractors pencils (after you’ve broken the lead on a regular pencil multiple times when writing on unfinished wood, you’ll understand why these are needed!).
Of course, what home improvement project would be complete without a new toy to play with!
It’s not a Makita, but for $99.00 I couldn’t have asked for a better miter saw for the money! Not having to cut all of those 2x4’s by hand using a handsaw or a circular saw, this thing proved to be a lifesaver! After this project alone, this thing has already paid for itself!
Other things I needed for the project:
- - Power Drill (lots of screws to put in, so I opted for my wall-powered model)
- Hammer (for tapping straightening wood pieces)
- Extension cords
- Power Strip (lots of things to plug in, saw, drill, lighting, radio for rocking out!, etc…)
- Work Gloves - Alright, so first things first! We had to move everything out of the garage in order to make room for the new shelving!
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Wow, a bare wall! I haven’t seen the walls of the garage ever since we moved in! Oh, and what’s that by the freezer, but the breaker box that I could never get to before! Whenever a circuit would trip in the past (and they did/do a lot in this house! Cheap wiring!) I had to drag the freezer away from the wall just to get to them to switch them back on.
Now we’re ready to begin, well…almost. We need some helpers first!
Sara came and helped me out by making me laugh when she tried in vain to lift the 2x4’s and by asking me “what are you doing???” every few seconds. Honestly though, having company while you work definitely makes it more enjoyable. Moving on!
My basic goals for the shelving in my garage was threefold:
- Cheap! (That’s why I’m building them myself in the first place!)
- Strong! (I have about 2000 pounds of food storage and holiday decorations to put on these shelves!)
- Easy to Build! (I’m no genius when it comes to woodworking!)
So, my basic idea for the shelving design consisted of “ladder” side supports that would be held upright by being connected to each shelf. Each “step” of the “ladder” supports would serve as a base for the edge of the shelves to rest on while I put them up and would provide additional support.
I started by creating the frame for the first shelf:
Each shelf take 3 2x4’s to build. 2 studs are uncut and run the length of the shelf, and the other stud is cut into 4-21” pieces to serve as the cross supports. This first shelf was definitely the hardest part of the process, first of all because I didn’t know what I was doing (did I say that?) and second I was burdened with the most worthless screws ever made. Take my word for it, don’t ever use these!:
…use these instead!:
Now that I had the frame for the first shelf finished, all that was left to complete the shelf was to attach the 7/16” OSB to the top of it using 1 1/2” drywall screws (again, not really the best screws for the job, but they weren’t too terrible. In the future, I’ll use SPAX for these as well!).
The first shelf is ready to go!
Now it was time to create the side “ladder” supports. The materials to make these are almost identical to those for the shelves, minus the OSB sheet. You have two studs for for the uprights, and 1 stud cut into 3 or 4 24” pieces for the shelf supports (depending on how many shelves you’re going to have.
Here’s one of the “ladder” supports completed:
…and here they are attached to the bottom shelf.
My original goal for this shelf was to have a full 8’ height, but then I remembered that the garage door limits the height of this shelf to 6’ otherwise I won’t get anything on the top shelf! Oh well, we’ll go for the full 8’ on the second shelf!
You’ll notice the small gap between the bottom shelf and the floor, which I chose to do simply because I wanted to have the shelf off the ground in case the floor ever gets wet (like from an exploding water heater…we’ve had crazier things happen…you never know!).
Now that the first shelf and the side supports are constructed, all that’s left to do is make and attached the other shelves! With the SPAX screws and the know-how from doing the first shelf, these were a breeze! Even easier was attaching them, thanks to the 2x4 shelf supports! I just slid the shelf on the supports like a drawer, attached with SPAX screws and done! SIMPLE!
Here’s the final product!
…and here it is loaded with holiday decorations and just enough room on top for part of the food storage. SCORE!
…and yes, you’ll notice the 50 gallon water barrels stacked in front of the circuit breaker (no, I’m not Superman, they’re empty at the moment and easy to stack!). These will not be staying here, I just had to move them out of the way in preparation for the second shelf farther back in the garage. These barrels will go along the back wall with some specially designed shelf space above them, but that’s for another time.
Now I was ready to tackle the second shelf, which can be a full 8’ of storage glory because it doesn’t have to contend with the garage door. Since building it was almost identical to the first shelf, I’ll spare you the drama (and the story of sore back from hefting the top shelf into place) and just show you the results!
This shelf had the rest of the food storage in mind, a bottom shelf for the lawnmower and other big tools, and a high top shelf for boxes and other things we rarely use (for now, I’m just using it to get some big boxes out of the way).
If you look closely, you’ll notice bit about 1/2” of bowing on the second shelf from the top. That’s about 700 pounds of food storage, so I’m not too surprised to see a bit of bowing. I’m not really worried about it, but I still plan on adding a couple of 2x4 center supports to that shelf to distribute the load to the shelf below it as well.
So, with part one of the project done, let’s see the results so far!
We went from this:
…and this…
… to THIS:
Not too bad for the first part of the project! And yes, I’m not showing the other side of the garage on purpose, because it’s where everything else has been “stacked” that didn’t fit on the shelves. We’ll relocate the freezer, build a work bench, and tackle the other side of the garage over the next few weekends.
Now it’s time to see the chiropractor!