General storage question

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi all, I'm moving my basement shop into a two car garage and wonderd what kind of storage you garage shop owners use. I was thinking of mostly closed in storage like wall cabinets to keep the contents clean. I'll be storing hand tools, power tools like sanders etc. , wood and other stuff. What have you found that works in the garage environment? Thanks.

[John Miliunas]

Alan, closed cabs are a good thing. When we first moved to our home a couple years ago, the bulk of the wall storage cabs were already in the shop, so I couldn't apply this. If I were starting from scratch, I would build the wall cabs to be hung on a french cleat type system. That way, if somewhere down the road you acquire a piece of equipment for which a particular cab is in the way, you could simply move it without too much fuss. :) :cool:

[Charlie Plesums]

I wish I had set up wood storage in my garage before I planned other things. If I were doing it over, I would leave the bottom 4-5 feet open for sheet goods and tools, and put shelves (or just bars) for horizontal lumber storage on the upper part of the walls.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks John and Charlie. I definitely want to do some kind of cabinet with tight doors to keep things clean. Thanks for your ideas. Alan

[Gary Swart]

When I remodeled my kitchen a few years ago, I saved the cabinets and installed them in the shop. It's amazing how many tools and "stuff" you can put away when you have shelves and drawers to put them in.

[Dennis Peacock]

Cabinets, shelves and drawers work very well for organizing the shop as well as helping to keep the overall appearance of the shop neat and clean looking. It's amazing how much better I feel when working in my shop when it's half way clean and neat. :rolleyes:

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Dennis and Gary,

I hear what you're saying. I feel much better working in a fairly neat shop and that's why thiis is so important to me. Thanks for your suggestions and I'll definitely post some pics when I'm done.

[Bob Noles]

Alan,

Please allow me to throw in a couple of ideas for you to ponder. I love a clean organized workshop also. Mine is small and I have to make the most of every square inch while still considering limited space. For my main hand tool storage, I went to the borg and purchased one of those free standing 4 shelf plastic shelving units (the large one). I covered 3 sides and the top with 1/4" ply by screwing on the ply with drywall screws. I put a double ply door on the front to hide the contents and keep apperance in order. Slaped a coat of stain on the whole thing and bingo... an inexpensive nice looking storage unit that houses a huge amount of hand tools with a minimum foot print. I later removed the double doors on the front as I was in and out of it too much and found the doors to be a pain. For my wall cabintes, I went to the back of the store and found some clearence cabinets for some ridiculous low price and brought them home and mounted them on the walls. Added much needed storage and organization to the shop and looks really great. Kept the investment of $ and time to a minimum as well.

Maybe this can give you a few ideas to help.

[Vaughn McMillan]

I agree with your notion to store things behind doors. Seldom does a day go by that I don't silently thank the previous owner of our house. He installed a lot of melamine cabinets in the garage, and reinforced most of them to store heavy stuff. (He's into competitive rifle shooting, so many of the shelves held boxes of ammo.) There is also an old dresser built in, and another homemade stack of short drawers. As a result, all my powered hand tools, as well as a plethora of other shop and garden stuff, are stored out of sight and (mostly) out of the dust. These pics show two of the walls (before we moved in). One other wall was essentially blank (now home to tons o' junk, including four cabinets I brought along when I moved, also chock full of drawers). I have a nearly criminal number of drawers in my shop...somewhere around 110 drawers all told. The fourth wall is the overhead shop door. ;)

The west wall, which has a countertop built in above the drawers:
34057

The north wall, with more doors, drawers, some more counter space, and a few open shelves:

34060

I'd like to re-do the south wall (the blank one) to include better lumber storage and more overall organization. Here's a pic where you can see some of the drawer cabinets in the background on the south wall:

34061

(As an aside, two of these three green cabinets were originally used at the labs in Los Alamos NM back when it was a secret city developing the atomic bomb during WWII. Built to last, I'd guess.)

- Vaughn

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks Vaughn, That's what I want to do although I don't know if I need all that storage. But definitely all behind doors. It looks neater and stays cleaner in a shop. Now to find out the best place to buy cabinets like that. I see Home Depot has Mills Pride. Or maybe I can make them myself. Again thanks for posting all those pics and great ideas. Alan in Md.