The Affordable Way To Turn Dead Garage Ceiling Space Into Useful Overhead Storage

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Garages are a convenient place to store things ... and therein lies the problem. Your garage is often the place where everything from garden tools to Christmas garland gets stashed. Even narrow items such as rake handles, spare pipes, and garden stakes can get in the way when there's an abundance of them. One way to keep that clutter under control is to look for solutions overhead. The space just below the garage ceiling offers a wide open area for making your own custom storage space for long, narrow items. The secret ingredient: PVC pipes. A series of wide pipes attached to wood strips becomes totally tubular storage for rebar, rake handles, pole saws — you name it. Overhead storage could be the hack that really helps with your garage storage and organization woes.

Making a pipe-based storage system requires ample headroom to ensure you have room to walk beneath the tubes once they're installed. You'll also want to make sure you have enough room to hang whatever it is you'd like to move off of the floor. For instance, if you're looking to store a spare 5-foot rake handle, you'll need more than 5 feet of room overhead so you can slide the handle into or out of the PVC pipe once mounted. If you have too many rakes and shovels to store all of them overhead, make a wall-mounted storage system for some of your yard tools instead. 

Since PVC pipe comes in a variety of sizes, you'll want to check what's available at your local hardware or big-box store. Many stores carry at least a 4-inch-wide PVC pipe, which is wide enough to store a few items cluttering your space. If the pipe comes in a 10-foot length, you can cut it in half with a miter saw to make two 5-footers. Arrange the pipes next to one another; how many you use is up to you based on the amount of space available. Then, construct the supports that hold the entire structure together. To do so, place a 2 x 4 across the pipes perpendicularly with the pipes spaced out a few inches. Mark the pipes and the wood in the areas where the two meet. Repeat the process with a second piece of wood near the other end of the pipes running parallel to the first piece of wood. These two pieces of wood will be screwed into the PVC pipes to keep them together as one unit, while also serving as the wood mounts that connect to the ceiling. 

Next, trace the curve of a PVC pipe onto each piece of wood, cut out the curves using a jigsaw. and sand the wood. These indentations will give the pipes room to sit against the wood braces better. Then, you'll connect the PVC pipes to the wood braces with bolts. Begin by drilling holes through the arc cutouts of the wood and into the pipes. Push a bolt through each hole in the wood and through the PVC pipe on the other end, then screw a nut onto each bolt. Enlist a friend to help hold the assemblage up as you attach the wood support braces to beams or rafters in the garage using long wood screws. All that's left to do is store your various items overhead, then sit back and admire your decluttered garage.