Garage entry storage center

Five easy options for five kinds of clutter

WHAT IT TAKES

TIME: 3 hours per cabinet

SKILL LEVEL: Beginner to intermediate

If you have an attached garage, the door to the house is probably a dumping ground for shoes, sports gear, jackets and all kinds of other stuff that you don’t have space for indoors. These five cabinets can eliminate that mess so you don’t have to walk through an obstacle course to get in the house. Each cabinet is a simple box that has been customized to solve a different storage problem. Build one or all five.

You can build, install and load these cabinets in a weekend. The only power tools you’ll need are a drill and a circular saw.

But a table saw and a sliding miter saw are handy for ripping and crosscutting the plywood, and a brad nailer helps tack the cabinets and drawers together before you drive the screws.

Each cabinet requires one sheet of plywood or less and costs about $50, including the hardware and finish. Shown is birch plywood. You could use oak plywood or even MDF. For the pantry cabinet, you’ll need 1/4-in. plywood for the drawer bottoms. All the materials are available at home centers, though you may have to shop online for the drawer slides for the pantry cabinet.

3 hours per cabinet

These cabinets were designed with economy and speed in mind. Here are three tricks to cut costs and assembly time:

■ Size all parts to use the plywood efficiently. The sides, for example, are just under 12 in. wide (11-7/8 in.), so you’ll get four from a 4 x 8-ft. sheet.

■ Eliminate the cabinet backs, saving time and materials. Just be sure to handle the cabinets gently—they’re a bit flimsy until they’re screwed to the wall.

■ Apply the finish before assembly. After you cut the parts to size, sand everything with 120-grit sandpaper and apply a coat of wipe-on poly.