[Shop-talk] Modular wall-mount storage rails?

[bjshov8 at tx.rr.com]

I posted this photo on another link, in the background you can see pegboard on my wall for small tool storage.  I think the pegboard is great, and almost infinitely customizable, but my problem is lack of patience and imagination.  If you had a perfect layout you could fit a lot of tools on the pegboard and it would be very efficient.  The problem for me is starting with a clean slate and coming up with the perfect layout.  I just started hanging stuff wherever it would fit and that's where it stands today.  I have made very minor refinements when I noticed something didn't fit just right- pull out its hook and move it over a few holes.  I think people buy the pre-made systems thinking they will provide the perfect layout for you already.  They might help but you still need to make them fit your requirements rather than having them work for you already.

And for bigger stuff you just need a bunch of nails to put in the wall.  Rather than buy the big fancy wall system you can nail some long boards onto the wall and then put nails into the boards wherever needed to hang your brooms and shovels and so forth.  But again it takes more thought and imagination on your part than the pre-made system does.

Besides hanging stuff on walls I want as many open shelves as I can fit in there.  I remember a TV show or movie one time where the main character lived in a 2-bedroom apartment but her profession required her to have a lot of clothes so she converted one bedroom into a closet and filled it with clothes racks.  This seemed reasonable to me.  I noticed that my brother in law in his new house has a room between the garage and the house where he put in a bunch of the wire shelving and he stores all of his hunting and outdoor gear there.  Again just having some extra shelving makes that storage so much easier.  I would like to have an extra room at my house that I could just fill with shelves like a little warehouse.  It would make it so much easier to put things there and be able to find them rather than having to dig 10 boxes out of a closet to look into the box that is on the bottom like I have to do right now.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a370/bjd70/MG/IMG_2036b.jpg
 

> I looked at a bunch of them and I can't justify the expense to get sucked 
> into having to buy their storage systems.
> 
> If you want your garage to look nice, they can't be beat.
> 
> But, if you are more concerned about functionality and maximizing the 
> storage space available, these are a waste.
> 
> I have found that custom built is much better.  Get some cheap shelves 
> from places going out of business, then keep 'upgrading.'