# Limited storage



## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

My house is only 984 square feet, so I need to be creative.

The garage is an option, but I don't know how hot it gets in the summer or how cold it gets in the winter.
I don't want to ruin every thing with extreme temps.

How difficult is it to run a duct into the garage to keep it at 50 degrees in the winter and 80 in the summer?
Is that even a solution to the problem? 
Is there a better option?


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Laura Zone 5 said:


> My house is only 984 square feet, so I need to be creative.
> 
> The garage is an option, but I don't know how hot it gets in the summer or how cold it gets in the winter.
> I don't want to ruin every thing with extreme temps.
> ...


How well insulated is it would be your first thing to find out. Otherwise you would be better off to either add insulation before heating or build a smaller insulated storage room for just storage.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

If you are going to store perishables out there get one of these


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Boxes of preps make great end tables/nightstands with a board on top covered by a throw of some sort. You can also put a box spring and/or mattress on top to make a platform bed, one or 2 rows at the bottom of a clothes closet also works well as does a row at the back of a closet.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

Do you have a cellar / basement ?


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

Laura Zone 5 said:


> My house is only 984 square feet, so I need to be creative.
> 
> The garage is an option, but I don't know how hot it gets in the summer or how cold it gets in the winter.
> I don't want to ruin every thing with extreme temps.
> ...


first get a thermometer in the garage and find out what your working with 

does the garage have a window that may be a possibility for a window a/c unit for the summer 

insulate the garage as much as possible may be an option 

a vent form the house furnace is only really an option if it is on or near the garage wall already

but you may not need to insulate the whole garage it depends how much room you need for things that need to be climate controlled you may get away with building a big closet int he front corner of the garage that you insulate heavily with a hole for a window ac unit and store your stuff in there like you own walk in cooler 

hard to say without seeing your space to know what it can or can't do 

the garage going to be the least cost effective however if you have to climate control it 

raising the bed for storage underneath , and any other place you can find for storage that is already climate controlled will be more cost effective


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

Build a shed with 2 X 6 lumber. Insulate well all walls, floor and ceiling. Put in a small window up high for an air conditioner, if needed. Place it where it will get shade and protection from the winter weather and I bet you'll do fine. 

I use a small 3rd bedroom for storage and pantry.


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## oldtruckbbq (Aug 8, 2016)

mnn2501 said:


> Boxes of preps make great end tables/nightstands with a board on top covered by a throw of some sort. You can also put a box spring and/or mattress on top to make a platform bed, one or 2 rows at the bottom of a clothes closet also works well as does a row at the back of a closet.


Those are great "hiding in plain sight" suggestions.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

I am sitting on a crawl.
The garage is well insulated; I am going to pop into Lowes and grab a thermometer to see what the temp is out there.....
I do need to replace the rubber strip on my garage door before winter; it's kinda chewed up and I can see daylight.

If you had a 10 x 11 room, with a 3 x 2 closet w/o a door, how would you arrange it for maximum efficentcy?


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

You could build a lean-to onto the garage the way you need it done with insulation. 

As to the room, I think I&#8217;d start with the closet. I&#8217;m assuming it is in the back of the room. What would really be practical? I&#8217;d put things there that I&#8217;d use last. If you need to rotate items, keep that in mind so that you can get to every area. With a room that size I&#8217;d probably have a center aisle and put the shelves/cabinets along the walls. If you run out of space remember you can put a shelf over the door frame. 

Have a battery operated light in the room in case you loose power. Put light blocking curtains over the windows as well as lace curtains behind them to keep people from peeking. The lace makes the room appear to be a bedroom. 

If possible, I would not heat the room. Cool and dry is best for storage. If you have a large freezer I would consider putting it in this room. A chest freezer needs room above it to open the lid. I would use an upright. 

If you can run your well water to the garage/lean-to in the summer (bury it like you would an electric line) and in the floor, then back, it will keep the building cool. In the winter, empty the line.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

The small single purpose wireless temperature gauges aren't that expensive. You could see the temp without walking out to the garage,


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

Laura Zone 5 said:


> I am sitting on a crawl.
> The garage is well insulated; I am going to pop into Lowes and grab a thermometer to see what the temp is out there.....
> I do need to replace the rubber strip on my garage door before winter; it's kinda chewed up and I can see daylight.
> 
> If you had a 10 x 11 room, with a 3 x 2 closet w/o a door, how would you arrange it for maximum efficentcy?



a few years ago we got new carpet where I work in the offices , they hired a moving company to help 

the moving company brought in home made ply wood carts that were made with it looked like a sheet and a half of 1/2 inch plywood they were 4 feet high 4 feet wide and 16 inches deep , with castors each person was given 2 carts they could put all the stuff in their office on it and roll it back to the warehouse they labeled their cart

the carts had clearly been designed so that you could fill them and they would roll into a moving truck then a layer of lighter boxes could go over the carts then another row of carts more lighter stuff on top 

this made me think of them for storage in the house you can almost fill a room with them but still get to every one of them by pulling them out adding or taking what you need then pushing them back in they hide their contents from view also 

a loft at one end of the room you could even have a bed or more storage above you would give up 4 feet of the end of the room for a lot of storage.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

if you made such a cart a 47 inch x 16 inch shelf would hold 48 ball quart mason jars per layer and if you used a divider you could probably get 96 quarts on the bottom shelf of each quart 

7 carts across the room the narrow direction maybe 8 the other direction it depends where the door is 

weight on your casters is going to start being the issue but harbor freight castors that can be had for 7 dollars each look to be rated for 330 pounds each 

I don'tthink I would load it that heavy but 1200 pounds is a lot of cart 

cost depends on the grade of ply wood you use but a little better grade of plywood should put the cost right around 80 dollars a cart that would actually leave you with either more shelves or half the wood for the second cart

one sheet makes the back bottom and both sides 

so if you build 2 at a time cost is about 65 each this figures the plywood at about 30 a sheet , it can be had in lower quality for about 15 a sheet but I have been seeing a lot of so so plywood lately in the lower grades 

the carts the moving company had used strips of plywood for the shelf supports I think I might use some 1x and rip it down to about an inch 
assembly is glue and brad nails , the glue really does all the work 
some 1x or 2x under the bottom shelf to help distribute the weigh to the castors


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## CajunSunshine (Apr 24, 2007)

Most garages are hard to vermin proof (esp. the door). A rat can chew through plastic buckets in no time. I would keep those in the house. 



.


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## tc556guy (May 28, 2013)

Your house is about the same size as mine, and I also have at best what could be deemed a half-basement for the utilities. Five rooms, total. Space is so tight here that you have to raise floorboards in the small pantry area to access the mechanicals area.

I use my detached 2 level garage for storage of excess property. My FFL business is in a shed that's been finished off behind the house. All in all, not a lot of room.

If you have the funds, you may want to consider an addition, with a proper pantry as part of that. I'm guessing your existing house doesn't have much in the way of free space that can be converted to storage as some are suggesting
If your water table and any building codes will allow it, consider an ice house-/ root cellar type detached structure. Doesn't have to BE an ice house. if the water table is too high there you could build it at ground level and simply bury it in dirt. More of an eyesore that way, I know..

As far as the muse problem, those things will find their way through the smallest of openings no matter what storage choices you have


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## Shoden (Dec 19, 2012)

Regarding adding a duct to the garage to heat and cool it, in most areas this would be a code violation, specifically:

"The 2006 edition of the IRC states the following concerning ducts that penetrate garage walls and ceilings:

R309.1.1 Duct Penetration

Ducts in the garage and ducts penetrating the walls or ceilings separating the dwelling from the garage shall be constructed of a minimum No. 26-gauge (0.48 mm) steel sheet or other approved material, *and shall have no openings in the garage.*" (emphasis added)

I copied that from https://www.nachi.org/attached-garage-fire-hazards.htm?loadbetadesign=0, but there are plenty of sites that have that info. 

I ran into that issue years ago at my old house. It had a great workbench in the garage, but was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. There was ducting behind drywall running across the ceiling (supplied the bedrooms over the garage) and I wanted to tap into that to put a duct opening over the workbench. I got as far as cutting an opening in the drywall before I found out about that code requirement, and ended up never cutting into the ducting and instead ended up patching the drywall hole years later before we sold the house.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Mice will also eat the darndest things. Here's some cheese wax they got into this summer.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Friends of mine who were preppers before it became popular were faced with a similar dilemma. The husband removed the drywall from half of a wall in a bedroom exposing the spaces between the studs then added 2 x4's to each stud thus increasing the depth between the studs to 6-7". They then hung curtains over the space (but doors could be installed as well). I was amazed how much they could store in that space and it only took up 4" of room space. If a person were trying to hide their preps you could use the hidden hinges that are pressed to open and make the doors look like it was still a wall.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I had another thought , I remember a friend who was on subs in the navy the amount of food they could carry was how long they could stay down as a result they had plywood cut to fit the halls and painted that a layer of #10 cans was laid down then the plywood over the top 

I presume Laura that you don't play for the WNBA meaning your not to likely to be over 6 foot only .7% of women are 5'10" or taller 

I am 6'2" my wife is 6'

even at that the upstairs ceiling height in our house is 7'6" I can stand flat footed and put my fist flat against the ceiling without stretching , but I rarely actually drag my knuckles on the ceiling like I did in my last house where the ceiling was only 7' 

so if you figure what the highest point on the wall you can reach flat footed with one hand and mark with a small pencil line using the other hand , then you know how much ceiling height you need the rest is essentially wasted space 

so that is how far you can bring the floor up 

making a simple floor joists over the floor and cross braced every 4 feet you would create 16 inch by 4 foot cavities to store cans or other goods in use a 3/4 inch plywood painted nicely as floor panels that can be lifted out if you say find you only need 7 feet or so and you have 8 foot common construction then 2x12 could be used giving you 11 1/2 inches of storage 

a 10 foot by 12 foot room you would need to leave room for the door to open but say you did 8 feet by 10 feet figuring in for the wood taking ups some space you would gain about 72 cubic feet of storage or if you put it into gallons 583 gallons 

this would be the equivalent of an entire wall with no window covered in shelving but without the weight load concerns and you could still put shelving up theoretically nearly tripling the capacity from 72 floor +72 wall +72 second wall , +72 third wall to 288 cubic feet of capacity minus any cut outs for windows putting that into gallons 2154 gallons of capacity or the equivalent of 144 16-gallon rubber maid totes minus windows 

but thinking about this cost wise 

my carts idea would net you 119 cubic feet using a 4 foot deep by the 10 foot width of the room and be about 4 feet 4 inches tall

the carts would definitely be easier to get to and move them in and out ad load them in the kitchen then push them into place cost is probably really close to the same because 2x12 lumber is expensive but they will not be able to hold as much weight being limited to around 4-5 hundred pounds each the castors could take more but would probably start leaving dents in your floor also just figuring the weight of water and jars you would probably be hard pressed to get much more than a 180 pounds per shelf putting you at 540 pounds fully loaded with quart mason jars


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I&#8217;m downsizing and really appreciate these ideas. I&#8217;m only 4&#8217;10&#8221;, so my ceilings could be very low!


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## Hitch (Oct 19, 2016)

Last year we remodeled a single car garage at our house into a workshop. Part of it entailed extending the HVAC into the garage. It was at the end of our house and just needed to be run maybe an extra 15 feet. When On you can feel very little air pushing through the vent. I think with heat it works a little better because it gradually heats up over time. When trying to run the A/C in makes virtually no difference. 

I think the greatest stabilizer of temperature is insulating the walls and garage door. Even with the HVAC vent in the garage closed the temp in there stays pretty constant and it's south facing. So if you're going to extend your HVAC you really need to insulate the walls and door or I think it'll be a waste.

Here are a few pics of our project...


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