Organize Your Garage in One Morning

Organize your garage quickly.

Introduction

Maximize your garage storage space apace and hands with simple and inexpensive shelves, baskets and hooks. And it volition only take y'all i morning to achieve garage happiness.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • 10d finish nails or 2-1/4-in. trim screws
  • three/iv-in. plywood
  • Brackets/hooks
  • Masking tape
  • Shelves / baskets

Overview

There are lots of means to create more than storage space in your garage, just you won't find another arrangement that's every bit elementary, inexpensive or versatile as plywood garage walls. It begins with a layer of plywood fastened over drywall or bare studs. Then y'all just spiral on a diverseness of hooks, hangers, shelves and baskets to adjust your studs. And because you lot can place difficult- ware wherever you want (not only at studs), you lot tin can arrange items shut together to brand the nigh of your wall space. As your needs change, you lot'll capeesh the versatility of this storage wall also; only unscrew shelves or hooks to rearrange the whole arrangement.

We used iii types of storage hardware: wire shelves, wire baskets, and a diversity of hooks, hangers and brackets. Selecting and arranging these items to suit your stuff tin can be the most time-consuming part of this project. To simplify that task, outline the dimensions of your plywood wall on the garage floor with masking tape. And then gather all the stuff you want to store and lay it out on your outline. Adapt and rearrange items to make the most of your wall infinite. Then make a list of the hardware you demand earlier y'all head off to the hardware store or home center.

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Money, materials and planning

The total materials pecker for the half dozen x sixteen-ft. department of wall shown hither was nearly $200. Everything yous need for building plywood garage walls is available at home centers. We used 3/4-in.- thick "BC" grade plywood, which has one side sanded smooth. You could save a few bucks by using 3/iv-in. OSB scrap board" or MDF. But don't employ particleboard; it doesn't concur screws well enough for this chore. Aside from standard hand tools, all you need to consummate this project is a drill to drive screws and a circular saw to cut plywood. You may likewise need a helper when handling plywood—full sheets are awkward and heavy.

This projection doesn't crave much planning; just make up one's mind how much of the wall you want to comprehend with plywood. You can cover an unabridged wall floor-to-ceiling or comprehend whatsoever section of a wall. Nosotros left the lower 3 ft. of wall and upper 18 in. uncovered, since those high and low areas are best used for other types of storage. To make the about of our plywood, nosotros combined a class of full-width sheets with a course of sheets cut in half. If your ceiling tiptop is nine ft. or less, a unmarried 4-ft.-broad course of plywood may suit your needs.

Project pace-by-pace (eight)

Step 1

Encompass the wall with plywood

To begin installing plywood garage walls snap level chalk line and locate studs

Snap

Snap a level chalk line to marking the bottom edge of the plywood. Locate studs and mark them with masking tape.

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Pace 4

Install shelves

shelves

Fasten the back edge of shelves with plastic clips. Prepare a level on the shelf and install the end brackets. Then add together center brackets every 2 feet.

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Step 5

Acrylic photo frame label holders

label

Acrylic photograph frames make great label holders. Just sideslip in your labels and hot glue the frames to wire baskets. Frames are available at office supply and discount stores.

Label your baskets

holders

Organize your supplies for quick access by any family member.

When yous've determined the starting top of the plywood, measure up from the floor at one terminate of the wall and drive a blast. Then measure out down to the nail from the ceiling and use that measurement to make a pencil marking at the other cease of the wall. (Don't measure out up from the floor, since garage floors frequently slope.) Claw your chalk line on the smash, stretch it to the pencil mark and snap a line (Photograph one).

Cutting the first sheet of plywood to length so it ends at the middle of a stud. Place the stop y'all cutting in the corner. That way the factory-cut edge will grade a tight articulation with the factory edge of the next sheet. Be sure to place the rough side of the plywood against the wall. Fasten the plywood with 10d finish nails or screws that are at to the lowest degree 2-1/4 in. long (Photograph two). We used trim screws, which accept small heads that are easy to cover with a dab of spackling com- pound. Drive screws or nails every 12 in. into each stud. If you add a 2d course of plywood above the first as we did (Photo 3), you'll have to cut the plywood to width. You can'use a circular saw, but a tabular array saw gives you faster, straighter cuts. Some habitation centers and lumberyards cut plywood for free or for a small accuse.

With all the plywood in place, yous could go alee and mountain your hardware. But we took a few extra steps to dress up our wall: Outset, nosotros added 3/iv-in. cove molding along the lower edge of the plywood. This gave us a neater look and covered up the chalk line and screw holes left by the support blocks. We also framed the window trim with doorstop molding to hibernate pocket-sized gaps between the trim and the plywood. And then nosotros caulked gaps betwixt the sheets of plywood and filled screw holes. Finally, we primed the plywood, lightly sanded it with 100-grit sandpaper and painted it.

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Step 6

Storage Supplies for Every Need

Wire cupboard shelves are sturdy and inexpensive, and they don't collect grit similar solid shelving. They come in lengths up to 12 ft. and y'all can cut them to any length using a hacksaw or bolt cutters. Standard depths are 12, 16 and xx in. You lot'll get more than shelving for your coin past cutting upward long sections than past buying shorter sections. Brackets and mounting clips (Photograph four) are usually sold separately.

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Wire baskets are perfect for items that won't stay put on shelves (like balls and other toys) and for bags of charcoal or fertilizer that tend to tip and spill. They are as well convenient because they're mobile; hang them on hooks and you can elevator them off to tote all your tools or toys to the garden or sandbox. Y'all'll find baskets in a variety of shapes and sizes at home centers and disbelieve stores. You can use but virtually whatsoever type of hook to hang baskets. Heavy-duty mirror supports fit our baskets perfectly.

hook

Hooks, hangers and brackets handle all the odd items that don't fit on shelves or in baskets. Basic hooks are often labeled for a specific purpose, but you tin can utilize them in other ways. Large "ladder brackets," for example, can agree several long-handled tools. "Ceiling hooks" for bikes likewise work on walls. Don't write off the wall area below the plywood—information technology'south prime space for items that don't protrude far from the wall. We drove hooks into studs to hang an extension ladder.

Step 7

Handy Garage Hooks

When you're out shopping, you might observe elaborate hangers designed to hold specific toys and tools. These specialty garage hooks are keen, but you lot don't take to spend money only to hang a bike or garden tools. With a niggling ingenuity, yous can hang simply nigh anything on simple screw-in garage hooks that are inexpensive. You tin place garage hooks anywhere on your plywood wall. If you lot don't put them on the plywood, exist sure to locate the garage hooks at studs.

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Stride viii

Editor's Note: Now'south the Time to Add Outlets

box

I have a gripe with the National Electrical Lawmaking. It requires only i outlet in a garage—and a single outlet is all most builders install. That'due south an insult to all of united states garage dwellers and our dearest ability tools.

If your garage has bare stud walls, adding outlets is easy anytime. Only if your walls are covered, our plywood storage wall makes calculation outlets or extra circuits easier because y'all can cut big holes in the drywall to run wire and embrace upwards the damage with the plywood. No patching needed. Since the plywood itself will exist covered with shelves and hangers, place new outlets below it for easier access. If you have an existing outlet that will exist covered with plywood, cut a pigsty in the plywood near one/8 in. larger than the junction box and add a box extender (run into photo). All garage outlets must be either GFCI outlets or continued to a excursion that'southward GFCI-protected, and then you may need to supersede your existing outlet with a GFCI version.

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Originally Published: April 16, 2022