EASY DIY GARAGE SHELVES FOR $40 IN LUMBER

Our new house doesn't have a storage closet that I'm so used to. But we were in luck and the garage is very deep, could fit two cars in it. Since we have only one car and are usually too lazy to drive it to the garage, I decided that this space we will use for storage. I needed shelves to be able to store all our belongings that we don't use on a daily basis. These plans for DIY easy garage shelves were exactly what I needed.

You know, when you start moving, you realize how many things you have. Even though I went through all our stuff and got rid of a lot of items (Hello, Facebook marketplace), we still had a lot of items. I'm talking about Christmas decorations, camping gear, hiking, snowboarding, my husband's extensive DVD collection, Halloween costumes, and a bunch of other stuff that you don't need right now but there a moment during the year you look for it.

I didn't want to store everything in boxes as I used to do in our previous place. Marie Condo changed my view on clutter and organization 😉 So I decided to stock up on cheap plastic containers from Walmart and put them on the shelves.

My research on shelving units wasn't successful since I didn't want to spend $100 for a 2ft shelf that wouldn't fit all our belongings.

Is it cheaper to buy or build garage shelves?

Even with the highjacked prices for lumber these days, building garage shelves is definitely cheaper than buying pre-made ones. You just need to make sure that you do everything right the first time and don't end up running to the store for extra materials.

If you build garage shelves yourself you can also customize it to the right size to fit your place instead of buying standard size.

Easy DIY garage shelving plans

There are a lot of other shelving units plans online, but this one is the BEST! Trust me!

I found this absolutely amazing, super easy to make plans for garage shelves from Ana White. If you follow me, you probably noticed that I use a lot of her plans. She is simply AMAZING and comes up with such easy, functional plans. You can look at the video on how to make these shelves here.

It just blows my mind how easy it is. It took me overall about an hour to make them. Most of this time I spent figuring out how to put screws and what screws to use on the cinder block since I discovered I don't have studs and it's not drywall I'm dealing with.

Time: 2 hours

Cost: $40

Difficulty: Beginner

How to put screws in a cinder block

To get more familiar with the subject, check out this helpful video. I went to my local hardware store and got special screws and a drill bit for this type of wall. Once the holes were drilled, it was relatively easy to put screws in. Be aware of the black dust coming out when you drill the cinder block. I used my shop vac right away to clean it up since it didn't seem healthy to inhale or lie around.

How long and wide should garage shelves be

After I was done with screws in the cinder block I followed Ana's directions and made the shelves. I measured my container boxes and made these shelves customized to the dimensions I needed. Ana recommends using 8ft, 10ft, or 12ft to optimize the usage of wood. I used 8ft since longer planks wouldn't fit into my car and I didn't want it to pay for delivery. After all, we are trying to save on the cost of the shelves, not spend tons on materials.

I ended up using 10 planks 2x4x96" and a 15/32 x 4 x 8' plywood sheet that I asked to cut for me in Home Depot to 3 pieces to make shelves.

It's so easy and cheap, anyone can do it! DIY easy garage shelves are such a great alternative to store-bought shelves since it gives an option to customize them to fit your boxes and also provide more storage space.

Watch how I made shelves on the other wall of my garage in this video

It was a fun project to tackle! This garage shelving is so easy to make

If you are interested in more ideas on how to organize your garage (and keep your sanity), I wrote about 10 DIY garage shelves ideas. I think you will find it helpful!