The Easy Dollar Tree Cooling Rack Hack That Creates Extra Garage Storage
When moving into a home with a garage, it's easy to be excited about all the extra storage it provides. Unfortunately, storage space never seems to go as far as one hopes. Not only that, but multiple shelving units installed in your garage for extra storage will clutter up the floorspace, making it impossible to use it as intended to stow your car safely. That's why many people look to wall-hanging storage solutions for their garages. Pegboards have always been popular, while slat walls and track systems have also come into vogue, but these can quickly cost hundreds of dollars. However, with this easy and inexpensive Dollar Tree hack, you can use kitchen cooling racks as a DIY wall storage project, incorporating as many, or as few, as you want.
Requiring a very small footprint, wall storage options can hold a multitude of different items, large and small, while also offering excellent visibility and ease of access. They can also be added to as needed, giving them a virtually limitless capacity. If you're looking to maximize the storage space in your garage, give it a whirl.
Building your storage rack
For this garage storage rack hack, you'll need Dollar Tree cooling racks, zip ties, and general drywall screws, available wherever hardware and tools are sold. Use the zip ties to attach the cooling racks to each other in a manner that best fits your needs. Snip off the excess plastic of the ties with scissors.
Determine what height you'd like the top of your racks to reach. Run your stud finder along this horizontal and attach the racks into the studs with the drywall screws by drilling them in with a power drill on all four corners and every midpoint. If you need a damage-free way to hang the racks, you can use adhesive hooks instead and suspend the racks from these. Just be sure to read and follow the directions carefully and to use hooks that will support as much weight as you need.
As soon as the racks are successfully mounted, you can hang any number of items on them. Spray bottles easily hang by their triggers, as do S-hooks, which can assist in holding items with small hanging loops in their handles. And if you want to hold other miscellanies, Dollar Tree also sells baskets that can be attached to the racks with zip ties or S-hooks, then filled as needed.
Bring it in to the house
This exact same wall storage rack works equally well in your house too. On the inside wall of any large closet or pantry space, or even mounted to the insides of the doors, you can hang scarves or belts, and with the use of S-hooks, it's also a great place for handbags, hats, and even bras. In your cleaning closet, use it for your most-used products that you want to grab quickly, and if you have a big enough pantry, it's a great place to put a few baskets to hold small packets that otherwise get lost in the shuffle of larger items.
Of course, there are a lot more visible places in the home where such a rack could come in handy too, but before you mount it here, you'll probably want to give it a little more flair first. Build or buy an inexpensive wood frame that has an inside perimeter slightly smaller and an outside perimeter slightly larger than that of your rack. Use a staple gun to affix the rack to the back side of the frame, then mount the whole apparatus on the wall before hanging your baskets and S-hooks. Now your cheap and simple Dollar Tree hack that's designed to provide some hanging wall storage has become a lovely and functional piece of decor too.