Introduction

There never seems to be enough storage space in garages, but rollout shelves and sliding bypass units can make more efficient use of the sidewalls of your garage.

Sliding Shelves Overview

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This bypass door hardware is the key to smooth-gliding rollouts.

Let’s face it. No matter how big your garage is, there never seems to be enough room to store everything. But by making ultra-efficient use of the narrow area on the sidewall of your garage, this storage project can help.

The heart of the system is a series of double-sided rollout shelves that allow easy access to everything that can be stored in a narrow space. With these rollouts, you don’t have to store your paint cans, nails, screws and other stuff four layers deep and then shuffle everything around to find what you’re looking for. When the shelves are pulled out, everything is in full view and easily accessible. Plus, the garage looks neat and tidy when the shelves are pushed back in.

Don’t worry if you’ve also got some large items to store. The 16-ft.-long top shelf is 32 in. deep to hold big storage containers, and there’s a 3-ft.-wide section of 16-in.-deep shelves for medium-size items. The storage unit is 16 ft. long, 84 in. tall and 16 in. deep.

The cost of the materials for this project is about $800. If you want to save some money and don’t require as much narrow storage space, just reduce the number of rollout shelves. Each rollout, including hardware, costs about $75.

Expect to spend three or four days building this project. It’s not complicated or difficult, but there are a lot of parts to cut out and assemble. For the most part, we used standard carpentry tools, but we used a table saw to cut the particleboard and a biscuit joiner and pocket screw jig to assemble the rollouts and bypass unit. The latter tools are optional, though. You can cut parts with a circular saw, but it’ll take longer and won’t be as accurate. And you can substitute screws and glue for the biscuit joints. You can also nail through the face of the cabinets to secure the divider rather than use pocket screws.

The particleboard and framing lumber you’ll need are available from home centers and most lumberyards. The bypass door track and three-wheel rollers we used to support the shelves may be hard to find locally, but you can order them online at johnsonhardware.com. You can also buy the shelf standards and leg levelers online at wwhardware.com.

Sliding storage = More convenience, more space

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The rollout shelves provide better access and make small stuff easier to find. They’re versatile, too. You can set the divider wherever you want to create different-depth shelves.

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The bypass unit adds 50 percent more storage for long-handled tools and all sorts of items that take up too much wall space. You simply slide it to either side to access the stuff behind.