Project Shed: Shelving - You need plenty.

So you've only got a smallish shed, you've got heaps of small bits and pieces of junk and need quite frankly the entire shed to store it all in?

After several years of experience and experimentation I can safely say that the following shelving arrangements work well for me.

What I did here was buy lengths of modular angle iron. It has holes and slots in it, about 1.5mm thick, 50mmx30mm. Basically just measure, cut to length and bolt it together in situ; quick and easy.

shelves2.jpg
You can see here how the modular
angle iron fits together.

I found 350mm deep represents the best compromise between taking up too much shed space and having wide enough shelves. The shelves themselves are legths of scrap MDF and chipboard I had laying around screwed to the frame from underneath.

The layout of the shelves is a big U and takes up roughly half the shed. The back of the shelves is the shed wall itself, ie, there is legths of the angle iron bolted to the wall that hold the back of the shelf in place. I think you get the idea from the pictures, there is no rocket science going on here.

The *real* beauty is the placcy boxes that everything is stored in. Stuff is grouped into boxes, labelled and placed on the shelves. By far the most important part of storing things in a shed is that everything must have a home. Without a home, it will just be sitting on your bench or laying on the floor. Boxes, category labels, shelves. That is the answer.

So here is my recommendation for your shelving needs:

shelves1.jpg
Looking at the main wall of shelves and the neat arrangement of boxes. Could there be any better way? Don't skip though - *all* your stuff should go into boxes, I still have a shelf or two to rationalise ;)