No Cost Garage & Basement Storage

There never seems to be enough storage space for all the "stuff" we accumulate, especially when we have several hobbies. What does one do with all the garden equipment and supplies, the gift wrap, the extra groceries we bought on sale, tools, etc? Here is a novel way to solve all storage problems at practically no cost.

I learned from a friend who has a remodeling business that whenever he has a kitchen remodeling job, getting rid of the old kitchen cabinets is a problem. He has to rent a dumpster and the old cabinets are hauled off to a local landfill. He commented what a shame it was to see, quite often, beautiful, solid wood cabinets being thrown away, just because they were out of style, or didn't match the new kitchen decor. When I told him I really needed more storage space, he quickly offered to pay me $100 if I would haul off the cabinets. I quickly agreed and, after several trips, I had a garage full of solid oak wall and counter top units, all in great condition, with melamine insert counter tops. This article details some of the utilization of these units. You can probably discover more, novel uses for yourself in the process. Consider this an adventure in reinventing and recycling.

In case you don't know anyone in the remodeling business, a quick scan of the yellow pages, or classified ads will provide you with several possible sources. With a few phone calls, you can learn if they have a kitchen remodeling job coming soon, what they do with the old cabinets and if they would consider allowing you to haul them away, on two conditions. The first condition should be, are the cabinets in good enough condition to warrant keeping. The second condition being, could the contractor take a little care in dismantling the old cabinets, saving the drawers, tops, hardware and mounting screws and trying not to wreck the cabinets when dismantling them.

You might be quite pleasantly surprised at the quality of many kitchen cabinets being discarded. Many have solid wood paneled doors, full suspension drawers, adjustable shelving, nice hardware and decent counter tops. If you have more cabinets than you need, you can afford to be choosy, picking only the units that suit your needs and are in the best condition. The leftovers can be offered to friends or family, or you can cannibalize the remainders for parts to be used when modifying the units you are keeping. The few pieces that are left can be broken up and put out with your weekly trash.

The next challenge is getting the cabinets transported from the job site to your residence. Hopefully, you will have a "redneck moving company" at your disposal, which is two buddies and a pick-up truck. If not, a truck can be rented from a Lowe's or Home Depot for around $19.95 for the first 11/2 hours.

Now that your garage is stuffed with the cabinets, you might want to make a list of each piece, its width height and depth, with separate lists for base cabinets and wall cabinets. Go one step further and write these dimensions on a strip of masking tape to stick on each piece, for ease of identification. Then, with your list of dimensions you can begin to "place" each piece where needed, making certain the piece will fit the the designated space. For safety sake, care must be taken when hanging wall units, making certain the mounting screws go through the mounting strip at the top of each wall unit and are securely screwed into a wall stud, using at least 21/2" screws and making sure the wall unit is level.

A thorough cleaning of all units before putting them in place is highly recommended, since you have no idea how old these units are, or the cleanliness of the person using them for the past 10 or 20 years. A good household cleaner will also help eliminate any odors found in the cabinets.

Keep an open mind about uses for these cabinets. For example, wall units do not necessarily have to be hung on a wall. You can take two wall cabinets of similar dimension and stack them, making a singular, tall storage unit, taking care to modify the base with some additional boards to make it level and stable. You can use one wall cabinet as a base unit by adding a counter top, cut to size and reversing the door pulls from the bottom of the unit to the top. It makes a great toy storage for a child's room.

A smaller base unit, three or four feet wide can be modified to make a great sewing table or even a student desk. Another smaller base unit can be cut down to make a handy computer or printer stand. The largest piece, usually where the sink used to be can be the base for a great workbench. Rollers can be added to the base unit and a new top can be fashioned either by cutting out the section where the sink used to be and piecing together several cabinet top pieces, or making a new top from 2x4's or 3/4" plywood, topped with a piece of tempered masonite. If you want to get fancy, you can find some flooring on sale to make a really nice work bench top.

So far I have lined my garage with wall units to store everything from garden supplies and tools, to auto related items, to woodworking tools, to cleaning supplies, plus a dynamite workbench. The basement has cabinets for the food pantry, holiday decorations, a gift wrap unit, complete with worktable, a hardware storage unit for all the nails, screws, nuts and bolts and another stacked unit filled with paints, solvents, varnishes, brushes and rollers. The advantages of these cabinets, aside from having a place for everything and everything in its place are, the enclosed cabinets keep dust and dirt off the items being stored, they look nice and have actually increased the available space in both the garage and basement, because nothing is left lying on the floor or stacked in corners.

In addition to now having a low, or no cost complete storage system, you have saved a contractor some money, saved some perfectly good cabinets from the landfill, and, if you pass this idea on to others, it might actually begin to make a positive difference. It's a win/win for everyone.