Instant order:
Get your workshop shipshape quickly by storing everything you can in same-sized cardboard boxes. Cut off the tops, label the boxes by general categories, such as ‘brackets’ or’sandpaper’, and arrange them alphabetically on shelves. Identical boxes measuring 12″ (300 mm) or so in height, width and depth work well. Storage firms and office supply stores are good box sources.

Recycled dish rack:
Turn that old vinyl-coated wire dish rack into storage racks. Use bolt cutters and pliers to cut and bend the rack into the sizes and shapes you need. The long sides of a dish rack make convenient wall racks for hanging tools and supplies. Turn the bottom and ends into a portable table rack by bending the cut ends at the bottom and fitting them into holes in wooden dowels.

Serving up hardware:
Turn discarded baking trays (or other items with a projecting top lip; such as cake or cafeteria trays) into handy, ready-made pull-out shelves for tools or fasteners. Mount the trays in a box made from plywood or particleboard, with grooves routed in the sides so that the trays can slide in and out of the box.

Pegboard lore

Put it everywhere:
Don’t limit your use of perforated hardboard, otherwise known as pegboard, to workshop walls. Mount it on the inside of cupboard doors and on the sides of your workbench and cupboards. Pegboard is fine for hand tools: as well as for heavier items.

Hook security:
Keep a pegboard hook from coming loose by putting a dab of glue on the ends that hook into the board. If you need to move the hook, a light tug will usually free it. Otherwise, you should be able to soften the glue with a heat gun.

Outline reminder:
You’ll always return tools to their proper places on pegboard if you outline each tool with a wide permanent marker. Or put up tool silhouettes cut from the adhesive plastic used for shelf lining.

Drawer magic

Protect your toes:
To avoid pulling a heavy drawer out too far and spilling its contents, paint lines on the drawer edges to indicate how far it can be safely putled out. Also attach a wood block on the back that will catch on the frame. Pivot the block and make one end longer than the other. That way it will hang vertically but you can turn it aside to take out the drawer.

Stronger pull:
Does the handle on a tool-laden drawer keep pulling off? Replace it with a garage door handle, or similar, secured with bolts going through the drawer front. Put flat and lock washers onto each bolt before screwing on the nut.

Workshop shelves

Open stud wall?
Narrow 2″ x 1″ (50 x 25 mm) shelves installed between open studs in a garage or workshop are ideal for storing cans of paint, jars of fasteners and car needs. Secure the shelves with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews going through predrilled holes in the studs into the shelf ends; stagger the shelves in adjacent spaces.

Deeper shelves on studs:
To store larger items in the space between studs, install 3/3″ (19 mm) particleboird shelves supported by 4″ x 2″ (100 x 50 mm) brackets. When making a bracket, cut the diagonal support’s ends at a 45 degree angle; attach both pieces to the stud and to each other with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews. Mount a bracket on every other stud for a moderate load, on every stud for heavier loads. Notch the shelves to fit around the studs and attach them to the brackets with 1-1/2″ (38 mm) woodscrews.

Utility shelving

Great for workshops with no exposed studs to hold shelves, this four-shelf, 11-1/2″ (285 mm) deep storage unit can be up to 8′ (2400 mm) high and 3′ (900 mm) wide. To make it you need five 8′ lengths of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) DAR timber, two 6′ (1800 mm) lengths of 12″ x 1″ (300 x 25 mm) shelving, one 8′ (2400 mm) long 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) brace and two 2400 mm long 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) braces. Multiple units can be screwed together.

1: Clamp four of the 2″ x 2″ timbers together. With a square and pencil, mark across all four pieces the length you want the legs, and the position of each cleat. Cut the legs to size.

2: From the remaining 2″ x 2″ timbers, cut cleats that are the same length as the shelves’ depth. Then align each cleat on a marked line and attach it with 3″ woodscrews.

3: Cut the shelves to the length you want. With the end frames on edge, secure the shelves to the cleats with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Stand the unit up and check that it’s level and square.

4: Mark and cut a 4″ x 1″ brace to run diagonally across the back from the top to bottom shelf. Attach with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Add 2″ x 1″ braces to both sides in the same way.