Stuff We Use: Off-the-Floor Garage Storage

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we have actually used or purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

There is an unspoken rule to which just about every gearhead falls victim: no matter how big yer garage or shed, you’ll fill it up with stuff. We wager most members of the B&B can attest to this fact. 

It doesn’t matter if a person is Rick Hendrick with a gazillion square-foot shop, a normie with a 12x20 space tacked onto their war-era detached home, or someone with a 24x24 two-car garage astride their suburban McMansion – it will get jam-packed with items sooner rather than later. Exceptions exist, as there are a few well-disciplined readers and authors amongst our ranks, but most of us end up tripping over life’s detritus whist we try to change the brakes on a Hyundai Elantra.

Fortunately, stout off-the-floor storage solutions exist. This author is a particular fan of such things, reserving a special hatred for cabinet sets which consume floor space and intrude on the working area. In fact, the last house I owned saw me immediately break out a crowbar and other demolition tools to remove tri-level shelving made up of entire 4x8 sheets of plywood running the length of my 20x24 garage. Since the old skipper from whom I bought the place simply hammered up full plywood sheets as shelving, it robbed me of four good feet of workspace. Ripping it all out made the difference between a tight squeeze with the handle of my Motomaster floor jack and easy use of the same. Outrageous, egregious, preposterous. He clearly never worked on cars.

Ranting into the clouds aside, even pack rats can benefit from an off-the-floor racking system. It effectively multiplies the amount of storage space in a particular area, since one can place stuff on the floor then essentially stack new stuff in the sky. For the rest of us, this type of shelving permits a gearhead to drive their car in a space and work on it without interruption from those boxes Christmas lights or the so-called family heirlooms no one has had the guts to throw away.

The specific kit deployed in my home was picked up on eBay under the vaguely witty but also apparently AI-generated name of Stoready. Numerous sizes are available, including ones which mimic the dimensions of those horrendous plywood-hewn shelves mentioned earlier. The ones above this noggin are white in color and measure roughly 3 feet by 6 feet, the smallest out of what was on offer. This was a conscious decision to try and limit the amount of nonsense kept around the garage. Is it working? As the Magic 8 Ball says, check back later. 

Weight is restricted to 450 pounds with that dimension, though the 3x8 and 4x8 options can bear up to 600 pounds, should you be so inclined. What’s hove up on my shelves is not even a quarter of that mass, though keep in mind that items can add up quickly if yer not paying attention. It is also critically important to pay attention to the correct installation of these things, making sure they are anchored properly into beams or studs and not just into the drywall. Done sloppily, the whole works can come crashing down guillotine style, potentially damaging your car whilst scything arms, legs, and Cole Haan loafers.

Other options are on offer, though there isn’t much need to spend much more than a hundred or hundred and fifty bucks on this type of stuff to get good quality product in this sphere. Another option are the rails which mount to a ceiling (again, studs or beams are needed) and can accept plastic totes slid into place which then hang from the ceiling like old-fashioned light bulbs. This may work for some folks but the hassle of removing a bunch of totes to get at what I need which is invariably in the middle one would be annoying. Maybe I just need to try it out.