Optimal garage shelf depth?

[julianf]

Daft question, I know...

My workshop almost has a roof on it now and I'm looking at the dexian that I acquired years ago.

Oddly I have 18-off 10 foot lengths, but very little else. I have no idea why!


So I'm going to have to chop it up, and you can't really choose the depth after cutting.

What would you think the optimal depth of shelf is?

I reckon about 2 foot. Deeper and too much stuff is behind other stuff.
Shallower and you can't fit that much on.

What depth are yours and would you like them different?


Note - we are talking semi commercial home workshop. Not racking for a pallet distribution firm!

Thank you.

 

[Pete.]

18-24" IMO. If you have the space go for 24" deep and start collecting plastic crates. A great way to maximise storage space.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Depends on the size of the garage more than anything else my garage no more than 400mm each side. Anything more and it eats up floor space. Ideally would be 600 if space permits

 

[julianf]

18-24" IMO. If you have the space go for 24" deep and start collecting plastic crates. A great way to maximise storage space.

I worked in a private school physics department years ago.

Plenty of money to spend. Plenty of equipment collected over the years with no regard to proper storage.

I spent a considerable amount of cash on dexian and those "really useful" storage boxes.

If I had unlimited finances, that's the way id go now. A lot of them stack on others of different sizes so you can seperate things nicely, and they're see through, and replaceable when they get smashed (which is infrequent)

But you can just burn money with them rapidly.

 

[Mark 2]

583mm

 

[Blobber]

I guess if you only have the uprights your going to use some sort of sheet material for the shelf, divide the sheet up for minimal waste, depth sorted

 

[julianf]

583mm

Any further explanation?

 

[julianf]

I guess if you only have the uprights your going to use some sort of sheet material for the shelf, divide the sheet up for minimal waste, depth sorted

That sounds a bit clever. And maybe what mark was on about above also?

 

[Mark 2]

Any further explanation?

Nice round figure

 

[RWD3M]

Depends on how long your arms are!

 

[MCKDAVID]

depth, make a range of depths between shelves so you can put taller stuff (heavier) lower down, thinner stuff up top... width, I've never see the point in going further than arm depth...... if I can reach all the way to the back of a shelf, that's fine

 

[Morrisman]

My garden shed has 24” deep shelves, and most stuff is in labelled B&Q plastic lidded boxes, so I simply slide the box out to get to the chaos within.,

 

[tigdlo]

I have a mixture of 400mm and 600mm to fit euro size boxes. Cheap storage boxes are definitely false economy when used euro boxes are so cheap.

 

[graffian]

Sort of happy with my 13" deep shelves.

 

[My Old Landy]

I have various depths depending on what is stored. I personally don't like them too deep as I lose stuff as it is! 12" to 18" is about max for me

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I've started using euro containers rather than pound shop plastic boxes as there incredibly tough. So shelves specced to suit them, 400mm I think.

 

[timgunn1962]

400 or 600mm. That gets either 3 or 2 shelves per 1200mm sheet of plywood.

 

[rtcosic]

Mine were sized to fit the plastic boxes I could buy at the time.

Now I'm with @julianf - Really Useful Box 42 litre size.

 

[8ob]

Mixed bag in my store room of 24" chipboard and 12" deep steel shelves.

 

[Richiew]

Mine are 450mm cos narrow garage. Well it's narrow with everything else in there. Maybe do a plan of the garage floor with all your stuff and make sure you have enough room to move around.

I have stuff against both main walls and a "project" in the middle. I can still walk around it all. It would have made things a lot tighter going the extra 150mm. I know it's not much but it is the difference between catching myself on something sharp or heavy on occassion or not as I walk around.