Our large three car garage is being used for 2 two vehicles and lawn equipment including a riding mower, push mower, trimmer, leaf blower. The space also contains chairs and other miscellaneous items. The area above these items was not being used. A shelving system high enough to put my lawn equipment under and strong enough to hold some heavy items would solve my storage fee problem (See the Photo A).

I looked at readymade shelving, but that cost was worse than the storage unit rent. You should see how outragly priced shelving units have gotten. They are pretty units though.

The next option is to build a beast of a shelving unit, so I researched the internet but nothing really fit my purposes. A note here, I did not want to subscribe to any of the handy do it yourself type online magazines since I only needed this for one project. This limited me to only free online information so I got what you would expect.

I roughly drew up my own plans and used basic measurements. The height of each shelf was based on my boxes and the height of the riding lawnmower (See the Photo B).

Our budget was $300, which was two months storage unit rent. We came in at $303.48. My actual finished size was eight feet tall, 16 feet long, and three feet deep. You can cut the materials list down if you only can go eight feet wide.

Material list:
32- 2X4x8, $4 each = $128
50- 5/8-in x 5-1/2-in x 6-ft Fence Picket, $2 ea = $100
3-inch construction self-drilling wood screws large box $45
Saw – hand, circular, or miter will do.
1” brad nails $8 package, or you can get 1-in Finish Nails $3 box

Tools list:
Pencil, Level, Hammer
Drill with bit for screws
Yard stick
Miter saw
Nail gun if you have one.

Read Part 2 coming next month for the step-by-step instructions.