Gonna build something like this:
I have small kids and they like to get into everything, so cabinets will help control access and allow me to teach them about tools safely.
Plus, now that the garage is the primary way in and out of the house, having things put away and cleaned up would help everyone's sanity.
As for having things disappear into cabinets and never be found? That's what labels are for. Label makers or even printed out labels applied with packing tape is better than nothing.
In reply to thedoc :
What I've been doing for tools - and everyone has their own approach. I have dedicated one shelf to "active tools". I define the task and put the tools on the shelf that I'll be using. So, like a whole set of ratcheting combo wrenches and sockets in the sizes I'll need, plus an extention or two and a ratchet. I lay them out in order to make finding them quick and easy. (Small to large, because I have Compulsive Disorder type Obsessive (CDO), because OCD is in the wrong order...). As I change tasks, I put the active tools away and move to a new set of tools.
The trick is defining your active tasks without getting sidetracked into other things (not easy). My next addition to the garage will be a small chalk board or dry erase board, so I can write tasks down and mark them off. To date, I've used cardboard - which works okay.
I bring this up, because shelves/cabinets/toolboxes/etc. Are all just ways or organizing your tasks to make things more efficient and make you more productive. It's not impossible to work around a pile of stuff, folks are doing just that in other parts of the world (yes this is a real shop doing custom work in Indonesia below: This is Made in Jogja (Speedhunters)). But it's a lot more productive, easier, and simpler to not do those things.
earlybroncoguy1 said:
I'm gonna say....cabinets.
Wow, you win!
I have both because there are always things that don't fit into cabinets. I have three 3' deep 11' high 8' wide industrial shelves and there's just enough space.
As for me, cabinets always win because they create a neater look when everything is finally arranged. Shelves are fine, too, but they are usually messier and don’t create this feeling of cleanliness in a room.
I have cabinets everywhere, including my room, because I have tons of stuff in my house. There are a lot of small insignificant and significant things there, and I have to arrange them all somehow. One of the best decisions was to move a part of the stuff I own to Storage units North York. This way, my house doesn’t look like a house of a completely insane person who collects all the garbage they manage to find. I just like to collect stuff that means something to me, and it’s a kind of obsession.
I like this thread but I don't like canoes.
Nice to see this pop up. I was always a shelf guy because I hated how junky used kitchen cabinets looked in a nice space. They were always light duty construction, didnt fit with the rest of the shop, too shallow, etc etc.
As part of my garage remodel this summer I ordered custom cabinets from https://www.garagecabinets.com/. They were awesome. Came as flat-pack DIY cabinets, like Ikea but much heavier duty. For example, the back, where the cabient gets its rigidity from, is full 3/4" not thin stuff with nailers. The other really nice thing compared to the Menards or Ikea cabinets are the doors are powdercoated, not melamine, meaning no seam/transition from face to edge. They also have an online configurator and really good phone support. My 5 foot tall wife and I got these all built and hung in a friday evening and saturday morning.
To finish it out, I went with aluminum slatwall behind the workspace, to keep sparks and whatnot off the walls and to also give it a nice finished appearance.
I'm firmly in the cabinet camp. Open shelves look cluttered and whatever is on them gets dirty. I prefer custom cabinets that are strong enough to hold whatever heavy car parts I want to store in them.
I know shelves look messier and collect dust, but if something is in a cabinet or a drawer, it may as well be on Mars as far as I'm concerned. I need to see stuff to keep myself from buying another one thinking I don't already have it.
I like having both. All the cans and jars and bottles are in a cabinet I built organized by door so they are easy to find. Bigger and random items go on a shelf in a bin.
I couldn't find a big ass cabinet to fit my space, so I built one. None of the cabinets have any real depth. I bought some stainless barbecue doors off Amazon and built a cabinet around them. It is 24 in deep, 32 in tall, and a full 8 ft wide.
JG Pasterjak said:I know shelves look messier and collect dust, but if something is in a cabinet or a drawer, it may as well be on Mars as far as I'm concerned. I need to see stuff to keep myself from buying another one thinking I don't already have it.
Cabinets with clear doors?
Still floor 
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