Garage Storage Ideas You Can DIY
Organizing a garage isn’t a one-size-fits-all project, so we’ve compiled some of our best garage storage ideas. Check out these tips to find ways to make your garage more organized and better to use.
Wire Shelving In the Garage
- Wall-mounted shelves are one of the easiest small garage storage ideas. Maximize your garage storage space quickly and easily with simple and inexpensive shelves, baskets, and hooks. These garage storage racks will only take you one morning to set up.
Garage Storage Ideas for Fishing Gear
- We got sick and tired of our fishing rods getting tangled, so we came up with this easy fishing rod organizer. All you need is a length of 3-in.-diameter PVC pipe and a foam swimming pool noodle for this DIY garage storage system.
- -Drill 1-in. holes spaced every 4 in. in the PVC pipe.
- -Use a utility knife to cut slits in the foam noodle, spacing them 4 in. apart.
- -Line up the pool noodle on the wall so that at least two of the slits sit over studs.
- -Pull those slits apart, slide in a fender washer, and screw the noodle to the wall with 2-in. screws.
- -Finally, screw the PVC pipe to the wall beneath it at a comfortable height and insert your fishing rods.
Stack Bins Vertically To Save Floor Space
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Plastic storage bins are one of the great garage storage systems to separate and organize your equipment by sport or season. Unfortunately, they usually get stacked against a wall somewhere, which makes getting to the bottom bins difficult, especially for your household’s littlest teammates.
Luckily, a permanent DIY garage solution is only a weekend away with our easy-to-build storage towers that are an attractive and ingenious way to provide easy access to your bins. Consider different color bins for each sport to make finding what you need a breeze, and utilize the sides of the wooden frame for wall-mounted accessory items such as fishing rod holders or utility hooks for lightweight equipment.
Store More on Walls
If you mount hooks, brackets, and other hardware only on studs, you’re wasting lots of opportunities for garage wall storage ideas. The best strategy is to add a layer of three-quarter-inch plywood over the drywall or bare studs. That gives you a continuous fastening surface so you can mount storage hardware easily, arrange items in a space-efficient way and cram more stuff onto the wall.
Canvas Storage Bags Protect Decorations
Garage Overhead Storage
The garage ceiling is a perfect place to store light and medium weight seasonal items like holiday decorations and camping gear. Get those big plastic storage bins up off the garage floor and onto the ceiling! You can build a ceiling garage storage system in a day.
- Screw 2x2s to the ceiling framing with 3-1/2-in. screws spaced every 2 ft.
- Use the bins as a guide for spacing the 2x2s. The lips on the bins should just brush against the 2x2s when you’re sliding the bins into place.
- Then, center and screw 1x4s to the 2x2s with 2-in. screws.
Flexible Garage Storage Wall
This storage system solves two challenges: first, how to design storage space for the narrow alley between the garage side wall and your car; and second, how to create a solid mounting surface to hold shelves and hooks that are capable of carrying hundreds of pounds of stuff.
The solution is to create a framework of horizontal wood strips and inexpensive shelf standards. It can hold almost any arrangement of shelving and hooks, at any point on the wall, and it’s easy to rearrange.
- Position your ladder to the side of the spring ends so you’re never directly in front of the spring cones when they’re winding or unwinding.
- Keep the garage door opener disconnected from power at all times, and lock the door in the lowered position, especially when you’re winding the springs.
- Wear eye protection and leather gloves throughout the garage door spring replacement project.
- Step off the ladder and move it off to the side before unclamping the door and testing the balance. Never test a door while you’re standing on the ladder.
Add Garage Storage Cabinets
The garage is so frequently used as a catch-all for home improvement projects and off-season gear, these easy cabinets will be well worth your time and dollar. We’ve come up with plans for an easy storage system that can be modified to suit any garage. The best part? An 8-foot tall unit clocks in at only about $27 per linear foot–less than what pre-assembled shelving at the home center would run you. The materials include melamine, selected for its reasonable cost and the fact that is needs no finish, plus pine 1x4s. Plan out your configuration with masking tape on the wall and floors, ensuring that each cabinet has at least on stud behind it so it can be securely fastened.
Garage Corner Shelves
Who couldn’t use a few more shelves in the garage? You probably already have shelves in the obvious spots, but what about in the corners? This nifty corner shelf unit takes advantage of existing studs, and it’s fast, easy, and cheap. And it’s great for can storage ideas. Use scrap plywood or oriented strand board to make shelves that fit snugly between the corner studs and support them with 1×1 cleats. These corner shelves are perfect for storing smaller items such as glues, oils, waxes, and polishes, which get lost on larger shelves.
Easy Overhead Garage Storage
Stow bulky items overhead by cementing together a simple rack from 2″ PVC pipes and fittings. Bolt the straight pipe to the ceiling joists to support heavy loads, and screw the angled pieces from the ‘wye’ connectors into the cross brace to stabilize the whole rack. The PVC’s smooth surface makes for easy loading and unloading.
Garage Storage Tubes
Cardboard concrete-forming tubes are inexpensive and provide a great place to store baseball bats, long-handled tools and rolls of just about anything. Rest the tubes on a piece of 2×4 to keep them high and dry and secure each tube to a garage stud with a plumbing strap
Monkey Bars Wall Unit
If you need storage above your wall unit, these monkey-bar-style shelves might be the solution. Engineered of steel for durability, the system offers custom solutions to get tools and materials off the garage floor and out of your way—but still within reach. You can modify the hook-and-bar system to fit changing storage needs in the future.
Long-Handled Tool Rack
This compact tool storage rack is strong and simple to build. You can store shovels, rakes, a sledgehammer—any long-handled tools—conveniently up and out of the way. The unit holds up to 14 items, giving you more flexibility and storage capacity than nails pounded in the wall. It’s an easy and useful storage idea for small garages.
Gladiator GearTrack
Gladiator Gear Track wall storage offers flexibility: You can mount the horizontal track, then choose suitable hangers and slide them where needed. The best small garage storage ideas make use of vertical space.
