The Blue Collar Kitchen

In order to create a storage area for extra food storage, you must have good shelving. This can be expensive with the average shelving until costing between $30 - $50 each. You could spend $250 on five shelving units to setup your storage area. I have a better idea, build them yourself for free.

I know what you are thinking, where can I get free lumber? The company I work for has a warehouse division. They are constantly getting things in on pallets. The unused pallets just stack up and are then usually given away to anyone willing to pick them up. You can use these to make all types of outdoor woodworking projects and they also make strong sheving units. Just drive around town and ask local businesses if they have any palets they want to get rid of, you will be surprised how easy they are to find.

The average pallet has three 2X4's and 10-15 planks. I drew a diagram of the dimensions I needed my shelves to be and figured out how many pallets I needed for the project. When selecting pallets to use, try to find ones with thick planks to use for the shelves and 2X4's that have not been pieced together. I disassembled the pallets with a Sawzall, cutting the nails between the planks and the 2X4's.

I assembled the shelves using the 2X4's for legs and support arms and the planks for the shelves. If you need tall shelves, you can stack two units on top of each other and use short peices of the planks on the sides of all the legs to connect the two units together.

This project will take a Saturday to complete, but will save you money. Using pallets for shelves are not cosmetically attracting, but since I used mine in the garage, they worked fine. They can be sanded and painted if you need them to match your decor.

This is another great project to get the kids involved in. My sons loved hammering the nails. Since the pallets already had nail holes and flaws in the wood, I did not have to worry about the mess ups.