Garage Storage Shelves

The garage is supposed to be a place to park your car. But countless people can't even put their car in the garage because of everything they have stored in there.

Garage storage shelves make it possible to do both. You can park your car, and still store all those items you don't have room for in your home.

We all know the garage is a great place to store things. It's where you put your tools, your sports gear, and seasonal items you only remove once a year. But it becomes problematic when all those items push the car out into the driveway. If this sounds like your garage, then garage storing shelves should be high on your priority list.

So what do you get? Generally there are two choices for garage shelving. The least expensive option is going to be site-built shelving. Head down to your local lumber yard or big home center and you'll find everything you need to make your shelving to your exact specifications. These shelves are also obviously more flexible since you can adapt any plans to the area you have available.

And the shelves are really not that difficult to construct if you just want the basics. Just get yourself some sturdy brackets, attach them to the studs in your garage walls using long screws, then cut a basic 3/4 inch plywood board to fit. Of you can use 1x or 2x lumber. Simply mount the wood to the brackets and you're through. Build as many as you need. Make them as long as you need, and as far apart as you need to fit whatever it is you plan to store on them.

Another shelf you can easily build is one that is floor supported. Get some 2x4's and run them from the floor to the rafters or ceiling joists overhead. Place one every 4 feet or so. Now take more 2x4's and place them horizontally between the already installed uprights. Finish by using particle board to make the shelves. Again you have a lot of flexibility depending on your available space and the size of the items you will be storing. Typically your find them 20-25 inches deep. And the uprights about 2 feet apart, which means adding an additional upright between the ones you started with.

If you will only be storing small items like screws and nails, be sure to consider the space between the studs. It's easy to attach 1x2 strips to the inside edges. Put them about 6 inches apart. Then cuts some 1x4 pieces of wood. Put them on top of the 1x2's and you have great adjustable shelves for small items. Use these shelves for things like jars, cans, and the aforementioned screws and nails.

The second option, if you are not a do it yourselfer, is to put prefabricated shelving in the garage. This, as we mentioned, will be more expensive. Steel is best, but plastic will work if you only have light things to store. The biggest disadvantage to steel (outside of the cost) is that these shelves can't be cut or fitted to your exact specifications. The width, height and depth is standard. You'll have to find something that fits within the space you have available. And even if you do, you'll probably have some left over space you wish you could fill.

The other thing to consider with steel prefab garage storing shelves his how adjustable they will be. You obviously won't have the flexibility of building it yourself, but you should make sure that the shelves can be placed in at least a couple of different spots within the frame. And look for heavy duty pins on anything that's adjustable. The last thing you want is for the pins to somehow dislodge or break which will send all your items tumbling to the ground, or worse yet, on top of your car.

One final thing to consider when purchasing prefab shelves is whether they need to be attached to the walls. If you're storing light items, this may not be needed. But if you plan to store heavy stuff on them, it's best that they attach to keep them from tipping over.

Either way you go (site built or prefab), if you do it right, you'll be able to store all your stuff, know exactly where it is for easy finding, and you'll probably have room for the car again as well.