A garage without storage is a pitiful thing. It gets cluttered, messy, and soon, it becomes impassible. Ive been looking for cheap storage options for my garage, but havent had much luck finding anything (I even googled how to build garage shelving instructions, but didnt readily find anything suitable). Home depot sells storage racks for way more than I would have paid for them…$60 for a 36″ x 18″ 72″ resin flimsy storage rack, and target sells a smaller wire rack for about $40. These didnt seem like suitable options, so I decided to save some cash take the DIY route, and make my own heavy duty storage rack instead.

I wanted my rack/garage shelf to fit the space in my garage just so, so I measured and calculated the figures. I would need ten 2′ x 4′ x 8′ studs to make a rack that was 70″ x 19″ x 72.” I ran to the nearest Home Depot and purchased the studs, and came across some small metal casters…little wheel attachments to make my shelf mobile. These were about $3 each. The total came out to be just shy of $30, and that was fine with me considering I would be saving a lot more if I wanted to buy a heavy duty shelf of this size.

1. First item on the list was to cut the four legs of the shelf to six feet tall.

Rack legs

2. Next I cut the shelf supports (the crossbeams) for which I needed six. These needed to be 66.5″ as the legs of the shelf would add 2.5″ to the width.

Cross Beams to support the shelving

3. After, I cut the short links which would connect the front and rear portions of the rack. I wanted my shelf depth to be 19″ so I cut these to 16.5″.

Links for front and back of rack

4. After all the cutting was done, I needed to drill the holes to where I wanted my shelving located. I drilled 4 holes, with two holes alloted for the crossbeam, and two for the links. I made three sets of the four holes on each of the legs of the rack. One set for the top, middle, and bottom shelf.

Pilot holes for screws which would hold the crossbeam and links

5. Now for the assembly. I assmbled both the front and rear of the racks first, by laying them on the floor and screwing in the crossbeams. I then attached on the front of the rack the links so I could attach the rear portion of the rack to the front portion after. I installed the casters after this was all done.

Front and rear rack faces attached with links

6. The joints of the rack look like this:

Bottom view

7. Next comes the shelving platform. I didnt buy any plywood or material to use for the shelving. Instead I scrounged around my wood shed and found some 1/4″ board of sorts, and some old pieces of 5/8″ plywood. I had to cut pretty creatively to utilize all the board and cover the shelf platforms.

1/4″ board for the upper shelves (where lighter things will be placed)

5/8″ plywood (where heavy things will be placed)

8. After finishing my rack, I noticed that I had enough space to add another shelf. I added this one above the middle shelf, and found some messed up 2 x 4’s in the wood shed. They were not in the best shape, but would work for this application. I installed these sideways as the shelf was not going to hold a lot of weight, and would allow more clearance for putting things on the middle shelf.

With extra shelf added.

The shelf took a few hours to build, but the satisfaction of making something and saving money (although with the time trade-off) is to me, definitely worth it. an added bonus are the casters which make my shelf mobile. After piling on the clutter in the garage, it was really convenient to be able to roll the shelf around and into different positions. I also realized that the casters have the extra benefit of keeping the wood off the garage floor where it might someday come into contact with water (washing the garage floor, flooding washing machines, etc.).

I did add one final touch to the shelving, in that I added an eye hook to tie some rope through which connected to the wall. Living right next to the San Andreas faultline, I wouldnt want to find my shelf and all its contents laying on my car after an earthquake. Now for the best part…when my wife pulled into the garage and saw all the clutter neatly organized onto the shelf, she was delighted…and finally realized I could build something that I always say I could for less. Score!