Durable and Cheap Shelving System for Garage or Storage From Home Depot Materials

We decided to organize a better garage with labelled boxes and maximum capacity shelves. Just before covid-19 lockdown, we went to IKEA to look for garage shelves and found these shaky metallic things for 12 EUR. They would not hold even one of the boxes I have. Another alternative is to buy a crazy expensive 606 shelving system or something similar (they have also similar shelves at IKEA).

However, don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of things about IKEA user experience, but it is not always the best solution for everything.

Yet another alternative is to think up something durable and cheap using readily available materials at the Home Depot. Therefore, this is it. It is made from metal profiles normally used for drywalling and a few screws and corners.'

I strongly believe that it is important to place all items in clearly labelled boxes, otherwise, these items might as well not exist in your inventory or garage. I also sometimes list all my inventory in Evernote or Notion note-taking apps so that I can find things even quicker. In future, I am planning to replace cardboard boxes with plastic ones, but still labelling should be visible on each box with appropriate color coding.

Supplies

Dimensions of profiles can be adjusted to your needs, I think the main input from this instructable is the method itself.

1. 12x CD metal profiles (for drywalls), 6 for sides, 2 for middle and 4 for ribs for shelves (dimensions 60x25x3000mm)

2. 3x UD medal profiles for each shelve to make 3 "planks" by joining 2 of them (dimension 100x30x3000mm),
in my case 21 UD metal profiles

3. 300x 1cm self-drilling metal screws

4. 200x 5cm self-drilling metal screws

5. 3mm metal drill, 5mm drill for a wall + 9 dow

6. Leveler

7. Riveter for middle part (50 rivets)

8. Angle grinder

9. Electric drill

Step 1: Step 1: Prepare Parts

List of materials given in the supplies section of this instructable.
Mark multiple profiles at once using a marker, then cut them using an angle grinder with a cutting disk. Large UD profiles must be stuck within each other to form a strong "plank" that does not deform when a force is applied on top of it. Cut all of these UD planks to a length of 1500mm (exactly half of the original 3000mm length) Cut smaller parts in your chosen width depending on how wide holes you want in between plans for each shelve - in my case, it was around 70mm to hold 300*250*450mm boxes. In total 5 per each shelve. I also cut multiple profiles at once to save time.

Step 2: Step 2: Piece Together Sides

Using small self-drilling screws (1cm) pieced together sides of the shelves. I used 5 per joint to make sure they hold strong, but less might also work.

Step 3: Step 3: Piece Together Middle Part

First, using screws join the metal corners and then using rivets and ribs to the corners before placing it in the construction.
Rivets are used to avoid screw heads when metal "planks" are laid over the ribs, but screws with flat heads might also work just fine.
At this moment we tested out the initial construction with my helper 🙂

Step 4: Step 4: Attach Shelves to the Wall

Attach shelves to the wall firmly using corners and dowels that are placed in the wall.
I used 9 attachments in total for the whole structure.

Step 5: Step 5: Attach Metal "planks" to the Ribs

Finally, place metal "planks" that are made of 2 inter-plugged UD metal profiles on the ribs, drill the holes using a metal drill in the top part of it, then use long 50mm self-drilling metal screws to join them together with the base structure.