Overhead garage storage, slide in or hanging rack???

[Jeff T]

Just moved into a new home from IL to SC. I will admit having a basement in IL hides allot of sins. No basement in the new home.

I've seen storage systems that go above the garage doors.

A) Slide in systems where the blk/ylw bins are suspended by their edge.

B) The wire rack systems that suspend from the ceiling.

I think I would prefer the slide in type.

Looking for comments and suggestions on product from those that were in a similar position. TY.

 

[dlwilson]

I built a shelf at one end of the garage to hold the black and yellow bins. it worked great. and then for more storage I made super-simple t-slots out of plywood and mounted those under the shelf to hold more bins. so I vote for the slide in system.

 

[tarmy]

Make them…way stronger too.

 

[MerlinsBeard]

I went for the overhead rack, but I did a storage tote analysis to see what height from the ceiling I would need to efficiently stack totes (I chose Roughneck). I have a 4'x4' suspended shelf and a 4'x6' suspended shelf, plus two 4' and one 8' New Age wall shelves.

For example, the 4'x4' shelf height I found that I could fit 6x 18 gal totes on the bottom layer and 6x 10 gal on top and still have room to remove them (the tote lids are indented so you need a little clearance to get stacked totes out), and still have the clearance for the garage door.

For marking, I use 3/4" binder clips and a white zip tie shipping label with marker that I thread through one of the clip handles, then attach to the tote lid. Acetone to erase and re-use if description needs to change.

It does gets a little expensive putting "everything" in totes, but I have no regrets. However, the nice thing is that you can mix and match stuff and repack as your inventory grows or shrinks.

 

[wssix99]

Just moved into a new home from IL to SC. I will admit having a basement in IL hides allot of sins.

Free youself from sin!


I would get a dumpster and have a garage sale. Those will save you on both ends and reduce your move. (Full disclosure, I'm trying to put in a 10 year rule at home. If it hasn't moved in 10 years, it gets pitched. ... Not all parties are aligned.)


A lot of the overhead storage systems (store-purchased and self-contrived) will have limited load capacity and/or leave it to you to validate that the ceiling is built to the "appropriate strength." Typically ceilings are designed to only hold the up drywall. If you have a floor up above, they typically can't handle the point loads (even a few pounds) of some shelf systems vs. the distributed loads intended for them.)

If you can build a floor-supported rack or purchase pallet racking that stands on the floor and then spans over your garage door tracks, these systems will be able to hold serious amounts of weight and you won't need to worry about your floor/ceiling sagging.

 

[Joemctag]

I built some 2-decker, 4 ft deep shelves on 3 sides of. 2-car garage . New home with the really high ceiling. I’m trying to remember how we made sure the owner wouldn’t be up on a 10 or 12 ft stepladder getting stuff up or down and his wife pulls up outside and opens the garage door. Maybe he would disable it . Did seem like a hazard for sure.

 

[Jeff T]

If it hasn't moved in 10 years, it gets pitched. ... Not all parties are aligned.)

Fighting that battle for a long time!! We did pitch quite a bit on the way out. Just hoping for a "cleaner" garage.

 

[Mike65]

In our last house when we lived in NJ we had a one car garage & no basement, so storage was at a premium. I built a storage rack that would be above the garage door when the door was open.

 

[CraigStu]

A previous garage had 2ft deep shelves 2ft down from the ceiling. I had all kinds of stuff up there for years and it looked like ****. One day HD had clear plastic tubs on sale so I bought maybe 12 of them. Took all the stuff down and organized it into the tubs and put them on the shelves. I made sure to keep the tubs reasonably loaded so it was no problem to grab the step ladder to get one down or just pop the top to get something out.

 

[JerseyJeff]

It helps to have a written or photo diary of container contents. Save excessive digging later.

Hard to lose the “Magiver” thought process that everything has a use no matter how rare or remote