Naptime DIY: Garage Pegboard and Storage

At one point our garage was organized and could accommodate two cars.  Then we had one child, one car got moved outside and when that child became a toddler the garage was dangerously disorganized.  There were all sorts of tools that a curious toddler could maul, hurt or break something with-all at a level that he could easily reach. 

It’s was our own fault.  We have a big Craftsman tool chest that came with the house.  However, it already had some tools in it and then our tools often crammed up the top four shelves.  The quickest solution was to put up an all purpose peg board for these tools.

The Peg Board

It’s the classic peg board that every garage in America, (except ours) has on their wall.  The peg board can hold most hand tools like screw drivers, hammers, paint brushes and so forth.  Installing the peg board is pretty simple and straight forward.

• Place it against the wall
• Level it
• Mark it
• Drill the pilot holes
• Place the screw through the hole in the peg board and secure it.

We did that and the realized that one simple thing was over looked.  Because the peg board was flush with the wall; there was no space for the pegs to fit under the peg board-and against the wall, so that the pegs could support the hanging tools. D’oh.

Hint:  Don’t forget the shim or space holder between the peg board and the wall.  We used a paint stick to gauge it and placed a spacer through the screw, behind the peg board so that the space would be uniform and provide enough space for the pegs.  Once all of the support screws were semi tight in the wall they were tightened flush with the spacers.

Hooks or storage for the walls

The other key aspect to straightening up the garage is getting the bigger stuff off of the floors.  This will require a combination of big hooks or some type of storage units.  The storage units could be traditional shelving or some type of movable hooks on a static base.  Either way, they’re both very affordable and shouldn’t deter you from getting them.

Both the hooks and storage units will require you to find the studs and drill a pilot hole.   The hooks will simply screw into the pilot holes; while the units will have an anchor that you’ll hammer into the walls.  Once the anchors are in place simply align the storage units over them and screw them into place.

Hint:  Measure 3 times and drill once.  Even if the job is easy, measure multiple times or you’ll find yourself drilling holes that you won’t caulk for years, if ever.

Hint:  If your storage unit has multiple sections either use them all together or in even numbers.  We were going to use one of the four sections in a different part of the garage, but once we measured we were out of stud space and had to go back, uninstall them all and then put them all together.  The other option is to put some high and some low, but that option didn’t work for the items that we had to hang.

Hanging the peg board and storage units for the walls was technically easy, but took the better part of a day because the garage was so messy.  Plan the job out over a couple weekends if you can and it’ll be much easier.

This is the before photo of the tool chest that was entirely too full.  The tools that were jamming up the first two shelves of this unit were put on the wall.

Boom, the finished product to half of the garage.

Here is the version over at eHow: http://www.ehow.com/how_6107497_install-pegboard-garage.html