We have a ton of those plastic storage bins stacked up in our garage. The problem is they don’t fit on the plastic storage racks (except on the top shelves) you get at Home Depot or Lowes.

Typically the shelves on the fixed store bought units are 12 to 16″. The taller bins are about 17 inches tall, you’ll want a shelf with 18 inches of clearance for a single layer of totes.

I’ve had a bunch of scrap two by fours laying around and have been wanting to make stronger storage shelves for a while now.

I spent a few minutes looking at photos of other DIY projects to come up with a sturdy design using the wood I had laying around.  A couple of the boards I actually fished out of the river behind of my house last year.

Once I saw this corner post joint I had a strong simple design come to me for the whole rack.

Image source: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/147633694010532646/ via http://davewirth.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-build-garage-shelves.html

 

The ceiling height in my garage is just a little over eight feet. I wanted to be able to double stack two totes or other larger items on the top shelf so I measured down from the ceiling 36 inches and came up with a top shelf height of 67 inches for the build.

Most of my boards were 8 feet long (96″). To keep things simple I went with a length of 8 feet and depth of 2 feet.  To achieve a 2 foot depth I needed to cut the end boards to 21 7/8 inches.

I used long  2 3/4″ coated deck screws to hold everything together. The short end boards went on the inside of the 8 footers leaving  a boards thickness for the end legs.  Make three of these. I only made two for a top and bottom shelf to test out the first one.

Leaving the first box (shelf frame) on the ground I used automotive c-clamps (that’s what I had) to hold the legs in place while I checked the level to make they were fairly straight up and down.

The I pre drilled small holes to make driving the long deck screws in without stripping the philips heads. Square heads might be a better choice.

Once I had the four legs secured to the top shelf I measured 39 and 3/4  inches and marked each leg with a horizontal line for the bottom shelf. I clamped some scrap pieces even with the lines to set the next box over the legs from the top.

After checking the level of the shelf while resting on the clamped scraps holding it up I pre-drilled and added 4 screws like in the photo above to the next shelf.

Now we have completed super strong storage shelf frame sitting upside down in the driveway. I made sure to add 4 screws to each side interlocking the corner joints.

I got my 10 year old son to help me flip it upright with the four legs facing down and the top shelf flush with the end legs.  My four year old daughter blurted out “yey bunk beds!” I guess that’s going to be the next project. Two of these together would probably be about the right depth for bunk beds.

They both proceeded to climb up as soon as I turned away and “test” the strength of the frame without any plywood attached for the shelf surface.

I plan on using square one inch railing (fence) wood spaced about 4 inches apart for the shelf surface. Plywood or OSB set on top of the completed frame would be easier but I have a lot of the fence boards I need to get rid of.

Pros: Strong simple design, just a few easy cuts, cheap – boards are $2-3 each if you have to buy them and it takes 10 for each 2′ x 8′  3 shelf unit.

Cons: took 4-5 hours to build the first one, sore back, now I have to build bunk beds for the kids too.

Tools needed: Circular saw, screw gun or drill tip, drill and 1/8th” bit

Supplies: deck screws, 10 – 2×4’s, plywood or OSB