Storage Solution

It seems like no matter how large your house is, no matter how many closets you have, there's never enough storage.  Or maybe there's just too much junk stuff.  Regardless, you can never go wrong finding creative ways to create storage in a house.  With some inspiration from our neighbors and my father-in-law, Hubs came up with a grand plan to create additional storage in our tiny two-car garage.

We had some constraints, however.  While we do have a two-car garage, it's a rather narrow two-car.  And Hubs feels very strongly about keeping both cars stored indoors, out of the sun.  For now, the outdoor toys are minimal, so with a little effort, and some strategically placed tennis balls (I'll explain at the end of this post, if you're interested), we can park both our vehicles in the garage.  So, in order to preserve the valuable space required to fit an Explorer and a Mazda, our storage needs to eat up some of the wasted space near the ceiling.

Here's what Hubs came up with:

Shelf 1, at the front of the garage

Shelf 2, on the left side of the garage

Using Shelf 1, pictured above, to explain the method:

• Measure the space between the two walls, as well as the depth desired for your shelf.  In our case, we needed 10 feet across and 24 inches deep.
• Cut three sections of 2 x 4 according to the depth (in our case, 24 inches long) to brace the sides and middle of your shelf.  You may want more than just one brace in the middle, depending on how long your shelf is.
• Using a stud-finder and a level, drill two braces into the studs so that the wider (4-inch) side is against the wall and the more narrow (2-inch) sides are parallel to the floor and ceiling.  Drill the remaining brace onto one side of an L-bracket.
• Cut 6-inch wide deck planks to the length required (10 feet in our case) and lay them across, using the 2-inch side of the 2 x 4s as a lip upon which the planks rest.
• Again, using the stud-finder, locate the stud closet to the middle of your shelf.  Drill the L-bracket into this stud high enough up the wall so that all the planks are firmly resting on the brace you already attached to the bracket.
• Nail the planks into the 2 x 4 braces to prevent the planks from shifting when you pull things off the shelves.

For a slight variation, when you only have one wall to attach your shelf, as in Shelf 2 above:

• Use the method above, but rather than drilling into a braced stud, use a second L-bracket (drilled into a stud, as always) to brace the open end of the shelf.  Brace the closed end and center of the shelf exactly as in the above method.

And, a super scientific method for precision parking (great for maximizing space in any sized garage, but especially useful for smaller, tight fits!):

• Park your car in its desired location.  This works best if you have a second person to direct you so you can pull in as far as possible and as close to one side as possible.
• Pick a focal point on your car (we used the spot where the rearview mirror is attached to the windshield) and mark the place on the garage ceiling directly above this spot.  This is tricky, since you need to be directly above the car while the car is parked.  Since we didn't have enough "reach" even when we raised our ladder right next to the car, Hubs had to climb on the hood/roof of the Explorer to mark the ceiling.  For the Mazda, I opened the sun roof, and using the pointy end of a flag pole, made a mark on the ceiling (mind you, I was 30+ weeks pregnant when I did this!).
• Screw an O-ring into the spot you marked on the ceiling.  
• Drill two holes into a tennis ball and thread one end of a length of cord through the ball and knot the end.  Thread the other end of the cord through the O-ring and tie the cord off so that the tennis ball hits the focal point (on your car window) you chose earlier.
• Voila!  Now, when you pull into the garage, pull forward until the tennis ball touches your focal point, adjust as necessary, and rest assured that your tail end is not in the path of your automatic garage door!  (In the picture of Shelf 2 above, you can see the tennis ball "hitting" the focal spot on the Explorer!)