Ceiling Storage

We are always looking for extra room to put things and it seems like we’re always running out of that room, go for one storage option sometimes all we need to do is look up and see how much empty room we have a near or on the ceiling. Sometimes this can work out great like if the ceiling or garage or storage room is pretty high or may not if you have a ceiling that is much lower. But even if you have a low ceiling like down in the basement that still has the open floor joists, you still might have more options than you realized for some decent ceiling storage. So let’s take a look at some of the following options and methods and see if some of these extra storage opportunities may work for you.

Ceiling storage racks – if you have the room upon ceiling in the garage, a storage room, or anywhere else for that matter, a storage rack that mounts the ceiling might be the easiest method for you. This is simply a shelf with four supports that go straight up to the ceiling. Think of a table with four legs flipped upside down with the legs mounted to the ceiling. The bottom of the table now becomes a shelf. This is nice as you can mount these out in the middle of a room or an area that is the way from a wall. If you do have tall ceilings you can open up quite a bit of storage room using this method.

Ceiling storage racks on cables – this is pretty much the same idea as a regular ceiling storage rack, but comes with the option of you being able to lower the rack down to a height that you can load or unload it. This is great in situations where the ceiling is rather tall and getting up to it is not convenient or very feasible. The only drawback to this is extra cost of the system and the fact that you may not build store as much weight on this type of system as it will be up to you to pull it back up into the air.

When you have a low ceiling but exposed joists – most basements in older homes do not have very tall ceilings but the ceiling is unfinished you might be able take advantage of the room in between the supports for the floor on the main level. Here are couple examples of methods that you can use to utilize that room.

Multiple shelves – you can simply nail some wood across the bottom of the floor supports to get some quick and dirty shelves. This is one way they can make some easy bookshelves or some spots to put some clear plastic containers that will fit in there. Be sure to use clear containers so you do not have to pull each one down to see what’s in them.

Sliding storage racks – if you get the correct size clear plastic storage containers you can put some slide rails up in between the floor supports to where the plastic containers will hang off of them and slide back and forth. The only drawback to this method is if you need to get something that’s eight containers deep you have to pull them all out the end to get to them. This is another situation that you either want to use clear plastic containers or label each one so we need to get that one item you’ll have to play Easter egg hunt for the afternoon.

So if you run out of all the easy storage if you have available, take a look up at the ceiling and see if you got some room to hang a ceiling storage rack or use some other method to suck up some of that dead space and make some use of it.