Milk Crate Storage.

Do you have an assortment of materials to store out of way? I had a bunch of aluminum, steel rods and angles etc. always in the way.

I took two plastic milk crates and made a stock organizer. Suitable for any similar shaped items.

I had a cardboard box full of pieces of aluminum and other long stock and it had to lean against a bench or fall over. It was always in the way. Decided to put some milk crates to good use.

I started by taking my oscillating saw ( any cutting method will work ) and cut away 3/4 of the bottom of one crate leaving the remainder to act as shelf / holder for smaller diameter long pieces.

Tie wraps hold them together as shown.

Using the piece I cut from the bottom and some more tie wraps, I attached that as a divider to create a compartment using the shelf left on the first crate. This helps keep items from "leaning" in the way of the other larger pieces in the main compartment.

I also created a simple "L" shaped wood separator to provide for a solid bottom and end for smaller pieces. This prevents little cut off pieces from falling all the way through the lattice work into the bottom of the crate.

Here is the final organizer with various pieces of aluminum and other metal stock in place.

The rear "deep" section holds longer items up to 4 foot long without tipping. The "shelf" holds shorter pieces up to about 18" or so long. The smaller place holds little stuff life cut offs less than 8" long that I don't want to fall down through the lattice.

Pieces small enough to fit through the lattice placed in the compartment will be held upright by those neat square little holes.

If you wanted to store longer or heaver items without tipping, the inside of a typical crate is 12" x 12" which would make it easy to just drop a 12x12 patio stone on the inside to add weight. Really heavy might require more tie wraps.

Of course just because I put metal stock on this it could just as well hold wood dowels, or Christmas wrapping paper...what lights your fire.