The local lumber yard / hardware store in the town where I live occasionally has pallet sized piles of assorted lumber for a reasonable price, last year I bought one pallet load of pressure treated outdoor wood for $25 Cdn. All the boards are approximately 4 feet long, Among the assortment I found 2 x12's, 2 x 10's, 2 x 6's, 2 x 4's, 2 x 2's and lots of 1 x 6 fence boards. This year I purchased a pallet with twice as many pieces on it. I'll list what it included on the next step.

Step 1: What I Bought This Year

This year the pallet load cost $75 Cdn. It took me an hour to load into the back of my truck and a hour and a half to unload and sort it.There was no pressure treated boards this time but there is some cedar and some T&G paneling, here is a list and quantities of what I got:

2x10 10

2x8 6

2x6 71

2x4 60

2x3 5

Tongue and Groove paneling approx. 3/8 x 5 inches 37 pieces

1x12 3

1x10 12

1x6 12

1x4 14

1x3 17

cedar:

2x10 2

2x8 1

2x6 4

Step 2: The Load of Wood and the Storage Rack

The storage rack is a set of climbing bars for kids from the place I used to work at, ( they use to have families living on the pipeline station where I worked, when the families all left they decided to get rid of kids play ground equipment and I was the lucky bidder for this piece) It's made of 2 inch pipe and all welded together. It's a great storage rack in the back corner of my yard.

As you can see in the pictures of the truck it was quite full by the time I was finished loading it. I was able to back up to within 5 feet of the rack that made unloading and sorting quite easy.

Step 3: Some of the Things I Made Last Year

With the pressure treated 2 x 12's I was able to make two sets of steps for my house, the steps shown are from my back deck.

As you can see in the picture I reused the old front steps as a planter stand.

In the other pictures are a BBQ stand that I made for one of my daughters using the 1 x 6 PT fence boards

My other daughter wanted a fake fireplace so I helped her build it, one of the 2 x 12's made a perfect mantel for it.(I'll try to find a picture of how it turned out).

Step 4: This Year and Future Projects

So far I've only made an outdoor bench from plans I found on the internet (Jays Custom Creations) the plans were great and easy to use and allowed for modification, I used 2 x 6's for the bench and back.

I asked my daughters if they wanted something built and they both asked for shelves made to fit in certain locations of their homes.

Step 5: The Reason Behind This Instructable

I wanted to write this because it shows the bargains that a person can find and purchase and store for future use, it has saved me several trips to the lumber store when some thing has to be knocked together quickly. Not many of you would be fortunate enough to have a storage rack such as mine, but this type of lumber can be stored in the corner of a garage or shed. So keep your eyes open for project wood and storage ideas.