Storage Ideas for those with too much stuff….or….not enough space

  • POWER TOOL ORGANIZATION

    I’ve seen alot of things on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, etc on elegant ways to store, organize power tools. The challenge I found was the time, materials, and skill to make them look presentable. I took some spare wood in my shed, a jigsaw and made my own:

    I then mounted the chargers for these tools right below. Convenient, right? (Interestingly, the picture looks better than in real life — kind of like some of the homes I see on Zillow).

    Another option is to buy one from a cheap online provider like Temu or Amazon. Here is an example:

    Amazon: https://amzn.to/4i3NPNz

    This one looks nicer and is not unreasonably priced.

  • Organizing nuts, bolts, screws, small hardware

    When I finish a project, or put a kit together, I have leftover stuff — screws, nuts, bolts and other assorted hardware.

    For the more fastidious of us we can

    • Throw the leftovers away (which in many cases is the smartest choice
    • Put items in some kind of container — jar, drawer, plastic bag….
    • Or, a purpose built container

    Think about the efficiencies this provides. Even a small apartment dweller will have a need for such hardware from time to time. The time it takes to drive to Walmart or the hardware store (a gallon of gas $3.00), buying the item $2 to $5 dollars, combined with the your time (worth $millions and irreplaceable) adds up.

    The purpose built container becomes extremely useful. They are available at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and places like Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Gi3zze

    The better containers (in my humble opinion) have the discrete little insert boxes. For the ones with dividers, there are issues when the dividers are jarred or inadvertently lifted, then stuff gets mixed up.

    Amazon: https://amzn.to/43JP7dj

    Another useful idea is to buy variety packs of nuts, bolts, washers, etc. They can be found cheaply at Walmart, Harbor Freight, and Amazon. Again, this saves trips to the store and time.

    Amazon: https://amzn.to/4jreeWQ

  • SHOE BOX CONTAINERS

    When storing stuff in your garage, shed, closet, cabinet….using a smaller container to keep related items together can be very useful for organizing, decluttering and usability.

    In this case I used a shoe box type container to keep plumbing repair materials left from a project. Obviously these bunches of pieces parts would clutter any shelf or be prone to loss or trashing.

    And (though this is not a pretty picture, these are truly stackable. They also fit into cabinets or even larger bins.

    You can buy these at Amazon: https://amzn.to/4ct8VE6

  • MESSY SHED

    Keeping my shed organized is an endless battle

    What is an organized shed/workshop?

    An organized shed is one where I can

    • Get to my tools without having to rummage through a pile of things on my bench
    • Get to some supply — nuts/bolts, plumbing part, piece of hardware, weed-whacker string….whatever
    • Get to and functionally be able to use my workbench when I need to fix something.

    I show you my shed, dear reader, so you know you are not alone. Note the generator under the DeWalt tool bag. We got that after the hurricane last fall and didn’t have power for 10 days. The generator was a lifesaver. Now the problem — it takes up a big chunk of the shed.

    Notice there’s no push mower. I decided it was too much of a hassle to have it in here — to be addressed in another post.

    The seeds of redemption (for this shed) are there if you look. See the next few posts as I go thru various items

  • MAXIMIZE SELF STORAGE SPACE

    This is a subject near and dear to my heart…or should I say wallet. The wife and I pay about $400/month in self storage. We have a 10x20ft space and a 10×10 space. I’ve spent alot of time organizing this space (when honestly I should just get rid of some stuff). I’ve often wondered why storage places don’t rent units with shelving. I’d pay more for shelving. It makes having “useful” access to our stuff (my $H!T is stuff). And if stuff is organized in some form (or if you at least know what is where), then if you want to get rid of stuff it become easier. In the earlier part of our storage journey in our current town (Aiken, SC), we had boxes stack on top of boxes. You know what that looks like. Boxes start to get squashed. Also, getting to stuff in the boxes at the bottom requires alot of effort. Shelves make a world of difference. The problem is that shelving is ridiculously expensive.

    I recommend the heavy duty shelves — Husky — at the HomeDepot.  They’re a bit pricy but very sturdy.  You can take advantage of the vertical space in the storage unit.  Boxes do not stack this high (at least if you care about the contents).  I bought two sets of these for my storage area and it makes moving around inside much easier.  

    The shelves in this picture are 90″x90″x24″.  Assuming you would stack boxes 3 high without shelves, that’s like getting another 32 square feet (or a 3×10 addition). I have two of these in a 10x20ft storage space so that’s like getting an additional 5×10 for free.  And more importantly, I can get to things.  If I take the extra step and label boxes where I can see the labels, it really becomes handy.

    The shelves are $389 currently.  If you plan on keeping your storage space for awhile they’ll pay for themselves in a few months.   Just don’t fall in the trap of putting more stuff in without shelves and making the place a mess again (as I’m trying to do in this picture)!

  • SHELF LINK 2 X 4 SHELVES

    Shelves you can build easily

    Another shelving solution I’ve had good luck with is the Shelf Link solution.  Shelf Link (ShelfLink?) are preformed tough plastic mouldings that can be used with 2x4s to build very robust shelving.  I built these below at home, then disassembled, and took to my storage area and really loaded them up.

    Now be advised….they are heavy!  But they are heavy duty.  They are also very configurable to accommodate boxes, containers, items of varying heights and widths.  These are 8 ft wide and over 6 feet tall.  They are probably cheaper than the big husky shelves I show in another post but admittedly they are more work.  

    Buy from Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4ckP6hY

  • YOUR STUFF

    George Carlin famously quipped, “How come everyone else’s stuff if $H!T and your $H!T is stuff?!”

    I live in a small house (~1,600 square feet with 2 tiny closets).  I used to live in a big house (~5200 square feet with walk in closets, and huge amounts of storage space in the basement, 2 car garage and external 2 car garage).  We have 4 dogs, lots of stuff (even after getting rid of lots of $H!T). 

    I can do with minimal stuff but the wife cannot.  She is what I’d call a stockpiler.  She is not a hoarder (in the can’t throw away trash kind of way).  She likes to make sure we have enough of stuff on hand — 8 cases of bottled water, a ton of canned goods, and the fridge is always stuffed.   In the old house we could live with this.  Not anymore.

    Currently we maintain two storage units —  10×20 and 10×10 costing us over $400/month.

    So……the goal of this site is to share storage ideas and to give you links to products to help resolve your storage challenges.

    This is also a marketing experiment.  Storage is a problem to be solved.  I want to see if showing good deals through affiliate programs is effective.  If you see a product you mind find useful, please consider purchasing through my affiliate links.

    Rich Johnson