Tool Pegboard

This was a pretty easy and quick project that makes accessing tools a lot easier. I found a guy selling lots of pegboards on Craigslist, so I grabbed a couple.

The first step is to size some spacers. If the pegboard is mounted directly against the wall, there won't be room behind it for the hooks to fit in. To create a little space, I used some leftover wood scraps from the basement shelves.


Once everything was fitted and checked for size, the spacers were attached directly to the garage wall.


After I drill pilot holes, my wife attached both pegboard panels with washers. She loves organization and was very excited for this project. She mentioned that her mother once set up a similar pegboard for her father in an effort to keep the garage cleaner, but her father didn't like the bother of replacing tools back in their place afterwards.



She also arranged all the hooks on the boards. It's convenient to use and easy to find the tools I want. I even put them back afterwards. :)

Basement Pantry Shelves

Yes, another post with even more shelves. These are going in the unfinished area of the basement that holds the furnace and water  heater. The area is spacious enough to accommodate some good shelves for storage and, because it's inside, I wanted them to look a little nicer than my garage shelves. I settled on these plans for their nicer appearance, even if they were a bit more work.

The first step was to cut a bunch of 2x3 boards using a circular saw, rather than the World's Cheapest Table Saw, which I really do need to replace at some point. The circular saw worked well enough. I used a miter saw to angle the ends of the pieces on the left, which will be inserted at an angle later in the process.


I assembled the cut pieces to 2x4 boards using both nails and glue. Nails will hold it into place while the glue dries, and the glue will ultimately provide a lot of the reinforcement.


All three beams were assembled and ready to go in the basement.


In the basement, the beams were attached to overhead supports. I used furring strips to form the lateral surfaces. My wife dug through the pile at the hardware store to find the straightest ones they had available, which saves some money vs. using common board.


The rest of the furring strips are placed and secured with screws. Then the shelves are filled with food, nicely complementing the small pantry next to our kitchen. Despite appearances, the shelves are sturdy enough to stand on, though we haven't tried that while the glass jars are on them.