DIY wall storage system

[mrodgers]

Hey folks, joined here years ago, then forgot about it. With a new (to me) car in the driveway and my new found want for detailing it, I started thinking about the garage.

I'm just part of a poor family trying to make ends meet, so don't really have 2 nickels to rub together to buy anything for organizing or setting up the garage. Most everything I do would be DIY.

My question is, has anyone done any DIY storage wall type stuff like the slats and brackets I see sold, sort of like the Gladiator Garageworks system? I found a project at FamilyHandyman.com that is sort of like this and was thinking of doing it.

Link is here and example picture is below. Looks like just what I need to do.

I am in desperate need of organization. My wife wants to put her new-to-us 2010 Rav4 in the garage. HA! I can't even walk into the garage. The garage is 21' wide by 22' deep and, yeah, I couldn't park a powerwheels vehicle in it let alone a Toyota. I've been condensing about 12 years of oil changes into large jugs to give to a coworker who uses it in a used oil furnace in his garage and still have used oil laying around everywhere in the corner. I have a 54 inch deck mower taking up the middle of the garage, a snowblower and tiller taking up space. My table saw is surrounded by junk. I have rough cut wood boards stacked up in a huge pile out in the middle between the tractor and table saw. I built a huge shelf along the back wall out of 2x4s, it is massive for very little shelf space. I have no where to put my small compressor. On top of all that, we bought a new AC unit, so I have both the new one stored just on the floor along with the old one. The old broken dehumidifier and old 27 inch TV that I just replaced sitting out there until I can get rid of it. I just have a mass of stuff all over the garage.

I'm in need of a major purge and organization effort. Unfortunately, I'm all gung-ho about it right now, but it's 12° out there. Nothing going to happen until the weather warms up. As it is now, I am running out there for 10 minutes at a time to gather some of the junk up to get rid of in the garbage little by little.

So, I like the idea of all the slat storage wall systems, I just don't have the money to put hundreds and hundreds into it and all the cabinets, shelves, and specialty hooks. When I found the linked project above, I thought it was a great idea. Then I thought that with how many folks are on here, perhaps there would be some more ideas that could be tossed my way.

My biggest benefit is, if I so chose to bother him, my father-in-law has a sawmill with more wood than I could ever need. Thus I need some ideas of DIY I can do with wood. Eventually, I want to build some cabinets for the garage as practice so I can then build my own kitchen cabinets. First thing first though, I need to organize all my stuff so I have at least a little bit of room, which the storage wall system would begin to get garden tools out from leaning against the walls (and laying all over the floor) and all the other little stuff that gets tossed into piles in the garage.

What do you all think of the setup in the link and are there any other DIY ideas you could toss me?

 

[jose's garage]

I made these. I put one sideways so I can open the car door.

 

[smedly]

Do a search for French cleat. A few folks here including me have done a version of them. Works great.

 

[Liberty]

cut strips of plywood with 45 degree edges and about 3 inches wide. smaller cleates with matching 45 deg. edges screwed to the back of boxes etc. will make the same set up then look over the spendy brand for other ideas with your components.

 

[mrodgers]

cut strips of plywood with 45 degree edges and about 3 inches wide. smaller cleates with matching 45 deg. edges screwed to the back of boxes etc. will make the same set up then look over the spendy brand for other ideas with your components.

Yes, that is exactly what that is in my link in the post, strips of plywood cut at 45° and a thinner strip to make the brackets. And I guess the link doesn't show up as a blue link like normal on this forum as I can't see a difference from text, at least not on my phone.

French cleat, now I know what it is called to do better searches for more ideas on stuff to DIY and hand.

Thanks.

 

[Cryptic1911]

I like it! you could definately make a lot of the strips and brackets with a single sheet

 

[A1an]

French cleat DIY organization system paired with some cheap/free old kitchen cabinets sourced from Craigslist would get you a long way for a little cash.

 

[MetalMangler]

Check out Lil' Scorpion's thread here: Tooling organization

He's got a lot of stuff in there, but related to your question he's done a lot of carriers, trays, etc that have french cleats. From the looks of things, he stores them away in his cabinets but can pull them out and hang them around his work-areas so they're handy, but can re-store them when he's done so the area is clear.

MM

 

[mrodgers]

I like it! you could definately make a lot of the strips and brackets with a single sheet

Lot of stuff just from a single sheet indeed. Only, I had a gigantic ugly and horribly designed cabinet in the basement that I tore out when we moved in (found an old bottle of whiskey tucked in there, must have been hidden by previous owner from the wife, LOL) that I tore out and dismantled. It is only half inch plywood I think, but it's been tucked in the back corner of the basement by the water system for 12 years now. I have a ton of smaller panels of thinner plywood to build shelves and brackets with.

Again, I have to give thanks to smedly for naming "french cleat" for me. Now I see on a google search hundreds of pages and ideas for this. Without knowing what exactly it was called, I was getting mostly the PVC branded stuff.

I could and have been looking on craigslist for cheap cabinets, but I live in quite a snobby area. Either people are poor and don't update their houses, or they are rich or wanna-be rich folks who think their outdated ugly 70's cabinets are worth a mint, hence wanting to build them myself for the garage just out of plywood and some scrap wood I have. I want to build kitchen cabinets with some good wood for the face frames as well and figure the garage cabinets would give me some practice to figure out what to do and what not to do.

 

[burtonry]

Here's my french cleat system, it has been up for years and I love it.

 

[Trey T]

I don't like wall hanging display storage system or open shelves. It's a lot of work keeping it look good. I prefer cabinets with doors and shelves - out of sight, out of mind.

You spend more on cabinets but in the long run, I believe your garage is more valuable.

 

[Dragster Racer]

I think I saw just what you are talking about in Handyman magazine. You may do a search on their site to see if anything turns up.

 

[mrodgers]

I don't like wall hanging display storage system or open shelves. It's a lot of work keeping it look good. I prefer cabinets with doors and shelves - out of sight, out of mind.

You spend more on cabinets but in the long run, I believe your garage is more valuable.

I like cabinets and want cabinets along 2 of the walls in the corner along with building a new workbench. It's tough to fit wheelbarrels, rakes, shovels, pitchfork, etc in cabinets though

I think I saw just what you are talking about in Handyman magazine. You may do a search on their site to see if anything turns up.

Yes, the Family Handyman sight is where I saw it. I linked it above, but the link doesn't show up in blue underlined text here like it does on other forums.

Here's my french cleat system, it has been up for years and I love it.

Great thread. I like the overhead tote storage, but not sure if I have the space above the garage door like that. I might be able to just do the rail system to hang totes, would be able to do thinner totes for sure.

The french cleat system for me would mostly be for hanging garden tools much like you show in one of your pictures, burtonry. Quite a lot of kids stuff as well and it would be nice to be able to hang the bikes up on the wall rather than hang from the ceiling joists.

I like this idea of the french cleats because I can change it up now and then. I plan to cover all 3 walls (and most of the garage door wall, but it is a 1.5 wide door) and also use the cleat system to hang cabinets when I eventually buy/build. I have cabinets, but they are not of a very good design (self built by previous owner.) Most of them are like 30 inches wide but only one 15 inch door. The other 15 inches is covered. I do have a lot of large scrap panels to play with for building some cabinet sections though. I'm thinking of building a bunch of 24x24 inch cabinets, then hang them on the cleats so I can configure them in a row above a workbench and some configure in a cubed fashion to be more like a large free-standing cabinet, just mounted on top of each other on the cleats.

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

It's good you're attacking the clean up a little at a time. You will eventually make a visible dent...the garage isn't infinite It's nice that you're recycling the oil but it's taking up YOUR space so if the friend wants the oil then he takes it ALL, NOW, or you send it to the recycling center. Let him deal with the storage issue.

What can you put outside, maybe against the house? Put a tarp/cover over it. If the wife complains tell her if she wants to park in the garage then she has to be willing to compromise (make small sacrifices). May want to think about a shed or lean-to or car port style covering next to the house to provide some protection for outdoor storage.

You've got the right idea by hanging stuff on the walls. Also, are your rafters exposed? You can get hooks that hang from the rafters and store stuff from them. At my last house I put all my car parts, camping equipment and spare lumber in the exposed ceiling of our garage.