Your shed is one of the hardest-working areas of your home. It houses everything from power tools to potting soil, lawnmowers to sports equipment. It’s such a convenient catch-all that it can fill to bursting before you even notice.
Before you trip over your garden rake again, check out these tips for maximizing storage in your shed.
Vertical Storage
The challenge of a small space is how to keep things off the floor. The solution is to think vertically. With a few modifications, you can store even large items on the walls or overhead.
Pegboards
If you’re looking for simple tool storage that keeps your floor space clear, pegboards are the way to go. Hanging lighter things like tools and sports equipment keeps your shelves and surfaces free for larger items. A pegboard will keep the items you use the most displayed and easily accessible.
In addition to providing accessible, visible storage for your most-used tools, pegboards are easy to install. They also offer versatility — rearranging your board is as simple as moving the hooks. You can also increase the types of items your board will hold by customizing your hooks. Add a dowel rod to make a hanging bar or a piece of PVC pipe to create a container for paintbrushes, zip ties or rulers.
French Cleat Wall
French cleats are strips of molding with a sloped top, often used to hang cabinets or other heavy items. With this system, you can turn an entire wall into storage for as many things as you want, heavy or light, large or small.
Like a pegboard, a French cleat wall offers flexibility. However, its higher weight capacity makes it much more versatile. You can add shelves, hooks and racks to fit your needs and hold everything from power tools to gardening equipment.
Overhead Storage
If your walls are packed or you have too many bulky items that need a better solution, look up!
Vertical storage includes more than just the walls. If your shed ceiling has a few feet of overhead space, you have a great solution for keeping your floor space free of larger items.
- Overhead sliding racks can offer quick and easy storage for large plastic bins.
- A hanging T-rack gives you an out-of-the-way option for storing long items like lumber or pipes while keeping them easily accessible.
- Add in loft shelving for long-term storage.
Shelving
If you want to take advantage of your vertical storage options and prefer a little more structure, shelving is the way to go. Storage shelves will help you optimize your shed by giving you more storage space with a limited footprint so your floorspace can stay clear.
You can purchase pre-fabricated shelving or build your own. Whichever you choose, ensure that the shelves are deep and wide enough to fit the things you want to store there.
Open or wire shelving is the best option in your shed, where your lighting may be limited. This type of shelving will maximize your visibility and make it easier to find the items you want. For even more versatility, shelves with wheels will let you easily move and rearrange entire shelving units.
Workbenches
If your shed is a workshop or gardening station as well as a storage unit, you need a workbench. Choosing one with its own built-in storage for your tools frees up more space on shelves, walls or overhead. It also means that the things you need will always be accessible, even when the rest of the shed is packed with yard tools and off-season camping equipment.
Make your own portable workbench with a wide board attached to a pair of rolling cabinets. The extra mobility will let you rearrange your shed as much as you want. You can even roll it outside to take advantage of nice weather!
Small Item Storage
It may seem as though the best option for storing small items is to minimize the number of containers. However, it’s often better to have more containers that are devoted to specific items or categories. Luckily, you have many ways to store your smaller items so they’re easier to find while also taking up less space.
Tools
Even if you don’t want to commit to a French cleat or pegboard system, hanging your tools is still a great way to maximize storage in sheds. This method takes advantage of your vertical storage options while keeping your tools visible and organized.
If you want to give pegboards some more thought before you commit, or if you know that you prefer a different system, you still have several options. You can use a magnetic bar to hold metal tools, build a wall-mounted screwdriver rack or customize a power tool rack.
Hardware
Storing your nails, screws and bolts in jars or bins is a classic organizational trick. You can take that one step further by moving your containers off of the workbench.
You can find hardware bins designed to hang on the wall or hang the ones you already have by installing mounting rails. If you already have a pegboard, you can buy containers to fit it with no additional installation required.
Glass jars with a screw top can find a home hanging on any shelving unit. Simply attach the top to the underside of a shelf and screw your jar into place. When you need to open it, carefully unscrew the jar again.
More Shed Organization Ideas
There are countless other ways to get the most out of your shed’s potential. Here are a few more quick tips for shed storage:
- Re-Purpose Items: Hang an old dresser on the wall a foot or two off the floor and create instant storage. An old entertainment-center with compartments is great too.
- Leave nothing empty: Avoid empty ice-chests, pails, buckets, boxes, trashcans, and containers of any type. Always put smaller items inside empty larger items.
- Install floating shelves: Try this middle ground between shelving units and permanent wall storage. For a decor boost, pick your most appealing items to store here!
- Use the shed doors: When you’re thinking of vertical storage, remember the doors. They can be a great place to hang yard tools like rakes, shovels and clippers.
- Hang your garden tools outside: The side of your shed is another great place to store your yard and garden tools! Buy a tool hanger or make your own with PVC piping.
- Hang up your wheelbarrow: Wheelbarrows take up a considerable chunk of floor space. You can hang yours on the wall with just some wood, mending plates and hooks.
- Store your seeds in a photo album: This takes up far less shelf space than a box or a crate. It also makes it easy to find what you’re looking for come planting season!
Maximizing Your Shed and Storage
If you’ve tried all these shed storage tips and you’ve found that you still need more space, it might be time to start considering an upgrade. Check out the selection of high-quality options at Reeds Ferry Sheds®, New England’s leading shed brand.
You can visit our showroom or use our online 3D shed builder to customize your selection and purchase it directly through our website.
Remember, if it says Reeds Ferry®, you got a good one.
