OFFICIAL THREAD: Genius Storage Ideas

[larry4406]

The best thing we did to clean up some of the mess was to install pallet racking. We installed 4 ft deep, 12 ft tall 48 ft wide section at the back of the storage bay. My only cost was driving to Minneapolis to pick it up. Otherwise is was FREE. Last weekend we took down 2 snowblowers, 2 fish houses. 2 ATV snowplow blades and a few misc items In another week or so we will put up some of the lawn and garden equipment that won't be need for another 5 or 6 months.

Nice, but where do you store the forklift to use such shelves?

 

[MN BIANCHI]

Nice, but where do you store the forklift to use such shelves?

We have an older Toyota electric forklift that is kept in the attached shop. The forklift is handy for all sorts of projects. We mostly put stuff on pallets for easy access. Some of the oddly shaped items are strapped onto pallets using plastic banding.

 

[score]

Library ladder helps alot to access the loft storage idea others have already posted about. It slides on the rail as needed and locks when pulled out for use.

AndrewT

I like this design that you have. Do you have the plans that you used? It doesn't look like you have vertical supports on the leading edge of the loft. How much weight can you put up there? How did you affix to the wall? Thanks

 

[1Garageman]

I had some old roofing flashing. Guys on a Welding BBS had me convinced I was going to burn down the garage without some protection.

(Are there any lawyers, anywhere, who weld?)

They seem to weld your wallet open when you hire them!

 

[TooTall]

Don't know about genius. Most people use different words to describe this. Oh, and I don't recommend it for Cadillacs.

Kurt O.

 

[Beater]

this is a simple bracket I made to store my tape measures. Just a short peice of scrap flat stock I had laying around. A couple bends, two holes to attach it to the peg board and finished. Hung it up right next to the door. One of the best things I have done since I was always looking around for where I left 1 of 3 tape measures I couldn't seem to find when I needed one.

Great idea. I stole it and put it to work in my garage yesterday with a scrap of metal that I had sitting around:

 

[Beater]

There's a lot of discussion in this thread about fold down shelves. I was flipping through a catalog at my dad's yesterday and saw these:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10227&filter=fold down shelf

 

[Steevo]

Hobie1dog,
Please tell me a little about the track/trolley used for this hoist?

Thanks.

 

[Steevo]

Don't know about genius. Most people use different words to describe this. Oh, and I don't recommend it for Cadillacs.

Kurt O.

Kurt,
The top two I think I recognize as TR-3's, but what is the one on the bottom?

 

[Cryptic1911]

Hobie1dog,
Please tell me a little about the track/trolley used for this hoist?
Thanks.

it's not mine, but I think that was a harbor freight hoist (like $120?) and the channel looks to be unistrut

 

[MisteR Tee]

Not strictly a storage solution, but neat nevertheless. This is my buddies upholstery shop/garage attached to his house, where every so often he hosts a "Drink & Drive Night"!!

Basically, it's a night of racing Scalextrix, whilst imbibing a few cool ones. The point of this reply is that the track is fixed onto the board, which in turn is hinged to the wall so that it can be folded up out of the way when working or storing cars in there. It's held up by simple wooden turnbuckles screwed to the wall (just visible above the paper sign).

 

[kbs2244]

Stevo:
The trolly track is what is called "barn door track."
You can get it at any farm supply place.
Along with it you can get the little wheeled trollys that run in it and the hanging brackets.

Depending on what you attach it to, and how well, you can lift about 200 pounds.

 

[Steevo]

Stevo:
The trolly track is what is called "barn door track."
You can get it at any farm supply place.
Along with it you can get the little wheeled trollys that run in it and the hanging brackets.

Depending on what you attach it to, and how well, you can lift about 200 pounds.

Very cool use of door track.
So about 200# is the limit of the track, due to the bent channel strength?

 

[TooTall]

Kurt,
The top two I think I recognize as TR-3's, but what is the one on the bottom?

Top to bottom is a '57 TR3, a '54 TR2 and a '54 Swallow Doretti.

Cheers,
Kurt

 

[fireball 440]

Anybody have any snowmobile and ATV storage stacked on top of each other without the use of a forklift? I've got 4 sleds, 2 motorcycles, and a quad that need stacking and not sure how to approach it.

 

[Jack90210]

There's a lot of discussion in this thread about fold down shelves. I was flipping through a catalog at my dad's yesterday and saw these:
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10227&filter=fold down shelf

Very cool! Thank you.

As for the original topic, somewhere on this forum I've seen pics of a trailer that is hoisted up to the ceiling when it is not in use ... it was very nicely done. Pics of that job belong in this thread.

 

[thinkracing]

Certainly not brilliant, but I use mover's dolly all over my garage. I have a basement two bay garage which is larger than average, but not huge. So, I put spare motors, transmissions, sets of wheels, a generator, bandsaw and other things like that on dollys.

I wheel them around everywhere. Makes it easy to access, easy to move and easy to stow. I have two benches that are open in the front and several of these wheel underneath them. Others wheel into storage areas, etc.

The wife grabbed one the other day to put five 80 pound bags of salt on to move into the basement near our water softening system.

 

[bmwpower]

(1) What do you guys do for BIKES? All my kids are getting of the age and my attached garage has become a bike store. I have high ceilings are would like to get them up there, but I haven't seem a great way to do that....yet.

(2) XelderX, I'm going to steal and/or modify your tire rack design! I like.

I wonder if you could have just run a couple pipes 45 degrees back to the way to support instead of coming down from the ceiling. Coming down from the ceiling is not an option for me.....14 foot ceiling.

 

[rjsone]

Very cool! Thank you.

As for the original topic, somewhere on this forum I've seen pics of a trailer that is hoisted up to the ceiling when it is not in use ... it was very nicely done. Pics of that job belong in this thread.

Here is a sketch of a similar design from the attic view. It was a while ago, but I know I saw a YouTube video of the design and the hoist in action.

I have not tried it, but it seems like a good solution.

 

[akdiesel]

Anybody have any snowmobile and ATV storage stacked on top of each other without the use of a forklift? I've got 4 sleds, 2 motorcycles, and a quad that need stacking and not sure how to approach it.

I finally got the last two brackets to finish the lift for the auto locks I have on the upper shelf.
The machines are not on the lift right now due to the use of them in the winter but each shelf will hold approx 1000# the way I have it set up and when both shelves are lowered down the total hight is around 11". the top shelf can go up to around 9'.
The whole system is free standing. I shook the lift with both shelves up and no issues, but can also be attached to the wall for any extra security.
Here is the thread I started on it.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34840

 

[rieferman]

I went to a woodworking open house this past weekend and got a tour of the guy's barn while I was there (btw, that guy is my new hero for sure). In his main shop/barn he built the stairs to the second story as a series of boxes. So, first step was a small box, filled with rods. 2nd step was a larger rectangular box, filled with whatever narrow width of sheet goods he had in there. And so on until the top step was tall enough to have a full sheet of plywood standing on end inside the box. Slick idea.

 

[6530]

(1) What do you guys do for BIKES? All my kids are getting of the age and my attached garage has become a bike store. I have high ceilings are would like to get them up there, but I haven't seem a great way to do that....yet.

Harbor Freight bicycle lift - currently on sale for $7.99. These work great and are exactly the same as what you'll pay $20+ for elsewhere.

You'll need to replace the rope and I wouldn't trust the HF mounting screws, but other than that they're GTG.

 

[Costner]

Menards has the bike lifts on sale right now for $5.99 each. I bought two of them and installed them last Sunday. They work great and keep the bikes out of the way. I didn't use their screws since I wanted something a little longer, but I did use the rope.

The Menards variety is identical to the Harbor Freight version... I'm guessing they are produced by the same factory in China. Go figure.

 

[djjsr]

My wife got me a Craftsman wall cabinet. Pretty nice but it only has about 4 square feet of shelf space. For about $130, it was dissapointing. I still needed more space, so for about the same price, I built one using some good plywood and a couple of interior doors. It has about 27 square feet of shelf space.

 

[terabyte]

this is mine

i got the idea from the cart mechanics years ago
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thespeedphreak/sets/72157607592199097/

 

[idunnosh#t]

this is mine

i got the idea from the cart mechanics years ago
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thespeedphreak/sets/72157607592199097/

Nice! do you have a source for the spring clips?

 

[JSBriggs]

I went to a woodworking open house this past weekend and got a tour of the guy's barn while I was there (btw, that guy is my new hero for sure). In his main shop/barn he built the stairs to the second story as a series of boxes. So, first step was a small box, filled with rods. 2nd step was a larger rectangular box, filled with whatever narrow width of sheet goods he had in there. And so on until the top step was tall enough to have a full sheet of plywood standing on end inside the box. Slick idea.

Somthing like Japaneese staircases, but as cubbies without the drawers?

-Jeff

 

[terabyte]

Nice! do you have a source for the spring clips?

sorry I dont they were a gift

 

[ksbee]

Here's a picture of a nice work bench w/ storage featured in a magazine several years ago. Someday I'll have the time to build it. Isn't it funny when you have the time, you don't have the resources and when you have the resources you don't have the time...

 

[GreenRodder]

That pie shaped work bench thing looks great. Only problem is, when I build something for function I like to build it wasting the least amount of materials as possible, and I'm assuming most shop guys are the same. Making those pie cuts is a big waste of materials IMHO.

 

[johno]

Here's a picture of a nice work bench w/ storage featured in a magazine several years ago. Someday I'll have the time to build it. Isn't it funny when you have the time, you don't have the resources and when you have the resources you don't have the time...

As a guy who built his own home, while running his own biz, I know the feeling well.

Buy the stuff when you have the $, store it, and build when you have the time. It works well.

 

[Sidekick]

1/2 inch plywood, I have since redone the dividers and holders, works much better now

 

[Daniel Dudley]

Buy the stuff when you have the $, store it, and build when you have the time. It works well.

Yup. Eventually you will have so much stuff that you have to install it, even if you don't feel like you have the time.

 

[cwolfley]

heres what i did with my gladiator cabinets. nothing too fancy but should work..
.

 

[Dragster Racer]

Library ladder helps alot to access the loft storage idea others have already posted about. It slides on the rail as needed and locks when pulled out for use.

AndrewT

Darn picture! Bring it back please!

 

[jmh21586]

I've posted these before but what the hell...

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Even organized my gun safe with a home made pistol rack.

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[ChristopherLutz]

Some great ideas....on that pistol storage:

Aren't you worried that storage method will score the inside of the barrel(s) and disrupt the rifling?

 

[jmh21586]

Aren't you worried that storage method will score the inside of the barrel(s) and disrupt the rifling?

No. They're safe queens that get taken out a couple times a year for cleanings. The pins are tapered and smoothed at the ends anyway. I also have some heat shrink tubing that I havent gotten around to putting on yet.

 

[wfochris]

Some awesome ideas in here for sure! Gah! Keep 'em coming

 

[harley-haley]

http://www.technologylk.com/crl-red-color-guard-rubber-coating-lk-81811.htm?src=nextag

This would be awesome to coat the rods in the pistol rack!