Meet the Mother of All Pallets

Smart Girls DIY has moved to SmartGirlsDIY.com and this post can now be found here

This project isn't entirely finished {much like every other project in my house}, but I couldn't wait to share it with you.  Plus, you might think I was slacking all weekend, and that definitely wasn't the case.  It all started a few weeks back when I sent hubby to pick up some pallets.  I make it a regular habit to check the free section of craigslist, and low and behold there was a listing for free giant pallets and they were right near our house.  I sent hubby in search of a motorcycle shop, which gets deliveries on giant-sized pallets.  He must have been only half listening because he sent me a text when he got there, something to the effect of, "These are the biggest freaking pallets I've ever seen!" But he managed to get 4 of them home anyway.  And they sat like this in our yard for weeks.

Here they are on his truck...

And then it hit me!  Our garage is a disaster.  You'd never know 
that I've built multiple storage shelves, a work bench, etc.  It 
looks like crap!  

I told ya!  Wait, it looks even worse from this angle...

I wasn't lying, huh?!  The main reason for all the chaos is because I decided to swap my storage area with my workshop area a few months ago.  Hubby wasn't really on board.  And after I got this far I kind of gave up.  It used to be tools on the far side, by the window, and storage closer to the back door (foreground).  Then I realized that was crap because we come out the back door to get the tools and we have to walk through all that mess to get them. You can see my workbench below the window, now covered with beach toys.  The new plan also works better because hubby's workout area will also get moved closer to the back door, and he'll double his square footage.  This was the basic plan, to divide the garage into these areas.

But do you see all the wasted space above the bikes but below the garage doors?  What to do with this space?  You can't attach something to the ceiling because the garage doors are in the way.  So what's a girl to do?  Build a free-standing dividing wall and then add a giant shelf over the bikes to create easy-to-grab storage.  I loved this idea.  But wood is expensive, and I'm already up to my eyeballs in projects, and hubby's not going to like me buying all the supplies.  And then it hit me people... I'll use the mother of all pallets!  {Yes, it seems obvious to you, but I did not have a blog title to go by!}

So while hubby was at work, I lugged this giant sized pallet over...

 Cleared some room in the garage...

And pushed that sucker into place. 

Before you ask, let me tell you, I didn't do a single thing to that pallet.  That's how she came!  Unfortunately, the other 3 are smaller, so I am going to have to send hubby back to search for another one this size.  I'd like to put one more next to this one.

And now for the shelf.  I brought one of the smaller pallets over, measured her, and cut her to size.  She was too wide.  Then I took off the extra wood that was screwed on top.

Then I waited for hubby because there was no way I was lifting this thing into place and connecting it at the same time.  Definitely a 2 person job!  And boy was hubby stoked.  He didn't quit get it until we lifted the smaller pallet and put it in place against the larger one.  But then he loved it!

He let me add these handy dividers.  And helped take apart one of the other pallets for scrap wood.  We used two of the thin pieces to fill in the gap you see above.  Then we used 2x4s as the support pieces for the left side.  In the end, we didn't buy or use a single piece of new wood.  Yay!

This is the first pic of the giant pallet organizer in place.  You can see hubby on the floor unscrewing my workbench from the wall.  Good work hubby!

 And here is the workbench moved to its rightful spot on the workshop side of the new pallet wall.  I can not express to you my joy.  Even though I have a lot of cleaning/organizing left to go.

 A few more "in progress" pics...

I'll finish up tomorrow {in my dreams} and take some more pictures for you.  Goodnight!  I'm off to watch Gilmore Girls with Smart Jr.  I am so happy to share one of my favorite series of all time with her.  She L.O.V.E.S. it!  I own every season on DVD.  We are watching it episode by episode.  :)

Smart Girl