11 Smart Ways To Use Wood Pallets For Extra Home Storage On A Budget

Pallets are a great source of wood for storage projects, especially if you can find them for free. While you might prefer store-bought lumber for some DIYs, straightforward storage — bins, cabinets, sheds, boxes, racks, and more — can often be more rustic and utilitarian using pallet wood. Storage isn't always the most exciting of DIY wood pallet projects, but it can definitely contribute to other exciting, successful projects simply by helping you use free pallets to organize and store tools and supplies in your garage, workshop, shed, or other spaces.

We've found some pretty cool and practical storage solutions here, including a garden tool storage rack, a wood shed, a storage chest, and more. Most can be done with relatively little surfacing, though some will need at least a little sanding for comfortable use, and a few might benefit from the full jointer/planer/sanding routine. It's often a good idea to round over the edges of pallet wood where it might interact with people ... and by "interact' we mean "seek to puncture with splinters."

As always, the caveat with pallet wood is that what you save by getting free wood is at least partially offset by the labor required to break the pallets down. Some of these projects require very little in the way of breakdown, and most of the others can be completed using pallets that are cut apart rather than pried. If you choose the cutting route, just remember that your project will, of course, have much shorter boards than one for which a pallet has been completely disassembled.

This is one of the more popular pallet wood storage projects, possibly because it's mind-numbingly easy to create. This simple garden tool rack involves removing three of the pallet's deckboards. The pallet will sit on its edge, so it needs some stability. Use two deckboards to create stable feet perpendicular to the stringers that run alongside the pallet. From there, you have options: supports below your shorter tools to keep them as accessible as the long-handled ones, dividers, shelving on the front, and anything else you can come up with.

There are as many ways to build a shelf from pallet wood as you can dream up. This particular design is easy and takes advantage of the pallet's built-in structure. One pallet is broken down completely and used as vertical support members in the final shelf. Other pallets (how many varies based on the number and size of shelves you want) are cut from whole pallets — ⅓ or ½ pallet for each shelf. These are joined to the vertical supports. Some fairly aggressive sanding is also a good idea when using lumber as rough as pallet wood, especially for shelves you'll be coming into contact with often.

This project can be as simple or complex as you like. The most useful versions seem to be focused on functionality rather than appearance. Since your firewood shed is likely to be outdoors, it's smart to give it a foundation of treated lumber, which will add some expense to your project. You can usually use whole pallets to form the walls. Because of the height, you'll probably want to sink posts or at least use treated lumber for vertical support. Pallets don't help much for roofs, but metal is always a solid choice.

Perhaps the difference between a woodshed and a firewood rack is whether the structure can be occupied by a person. It's not as simple as size, because a firewood rack can be enormously long, but very shallow. The most basic design, sufficient for non-HOA firewood storage, uses pallets for the bottom and sides of a rack, with front and back left open. Your roof choice (metal or tarp, for example) depends on your budget and your neighborhood. Bracing keeps the stacked firewood from pushing the rack apart, and it's a good idea to put it on treated skids or similar.

A chest — a storage box with a hinged lid — can be as refined as you want it to be. For all projects, consider if jointing and planing your pallet wood is a necessary step. (For a quality finish and joinery, it is.) For this project, you'll need to completely break down the pallets and use the wood like you would, say, 1x4-inch lumber. Design is a matter of preference and skill. The pictured box, created by YouTuber @diycreationwoodworking3247, has features like a curved lid and rabbeted joints that might require intermediate woodworking skills.

A pallet shed can look like a work of art or like ... well, a shed. Focus on storage: let's look at what's involved in getting the most stuff stored as dry as possible with minimal effort. A dirt floor can work for some storage, though pallets are the perfect floor for a pallet shed. Walls are often made from whole pallets joined with cutoffs from another pallet. Again, your roof system will probably require something like a simple framed shed roof shape (a single slope) with decking and a metal roof.

In some ways, building a small, budget-friendly shed from wood pallets can be more challenging than building a large one. Tolerances are tighter, and more cutting is certainly required. Your major choices have to do with its structure ... height and door location, for example. Some small storage sheds open at the top and front (like rolling trash cart enclosures), but most will open on one side. You're more likely to have an improvised roof on a small shed. But, as dryness is one of the key goals of storage, you'll find yourself back to metal or shingles.

Woodworking can get done in a lot of ways — power or hand tools, indoors or out, fine or not — but two things all woodworkers seem to have are fasteners and scrapwood storage racks. For the same reason that a pallet standing on end makes a natural stand for long-handled garden tools, it can also serve well for storing boards. The best designs accommodate wood of substantial width and different lengths. This usually involves basically creating two or three single-height racks and attaching them together in a stair-step arrangement.

There's some sort of natural harmony between a pallet and a crate. Both are often coarsely built, have lots of open spaces between wood members, and are unbelievably useful. The average useful crate will have a solid bottom and slat sides joined to corner uprights. Crates don't require a lid, but if you're making more than one, it's a good idea to make them stackable ... usually by adding protrusions on the bottom that fit an inch or so into the open top of the crate.

We tend to think of pallet wood projects as large-ish constructions, but it's certainly possible to build a small and useful storage solution from pallets as well. Depending on your use case, you might want to consider jointing, planing, and fancy joinery, or aim for a more rustic cabinet from pallets. You'll essentially fully break down your pallet or pallets and use the wood like store-bought lumber. In most cases, you'll want to plan for shelves and take care that your structure doesn't interfere with a door that sits flush to the front of the cabinet.

Now, for something a little different. This whiskey display, built by YouTuber @Bearded-Viking-WoodWorks, is modeled after one he spotted online for $410. The display cabinet revolves around two uprights cut from pallet stringers. Between these, he built three shelves, each with a rail in front to keep the items from toppling off. It's mounted to the wall with a French cleat ... interlocking boards beveled at 45 degrees, one attached to the wall and one to the display. Whether this is truly a display or storage probably depends on how quickly you turn over the contents.