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How to Use Pegboards for Stockpile Organization

pegboards for stockpile organization

Note: This is an update of a 2014 post from Trish — who still uses pegboards for stockpile organization! 🙂

Have you ever thought about how to use pegboards for stockpile organization? This is such a great way to free up shelf space and find products easily, because so many items have handy built-in hangers for display in store that you can just as easily make use of at home. Pegboards are also helpful for storing small or awkwardly shaped health and beauty items that don’t always lend themselves well to being stored on shelves.

So, this week I’d like to share some ideas for organizing your stockpile — using pegboards and more!

Pegboards for Stockpile Organization are Awesome!

This might be an obvious solution to some of you, but I was a novice at both couponing and stockpiling when I began the search for stockpile storage. Here I have to credit a former owner of my house, who was most likely using these pegboards in the basement way back when to store tools and such.

aha

Above, the orginal wall of a weird room at the end of my basement. We discovered this pegboard after spending the better part of a day removing the previous owners’ home improvement junk from the tiny room. I looked at this, and a light bulb immediately went off in my head: This is how they store the smaller HBA products in stores!

So (once we dealt with the condition the room was in), we decided to also line the remaining available walls with pegboard. I bought my pegboard at my local hardware store, where they were happy to cut the big sheet to fit all the odd-sized bits of walls I had to cover. They were also nice enough to cut the 1″×2″ sticks we needed to secure the sheets to the wall while, leaving enough space for the pegs to fit in. Finally, I hit up Menards for reasonably priced pegs of varying sizes.

tada

These stockpile pegboards work for food and non-food items alike!

A larger stockpile storage solution

We all have living spaces with their own quirks and limitations, and it’s always useful to think creatively about how to make the best use of what we have. My main issue with storage space in my own home is that my kitchen storage is extremely limited: I have just enough cabinets for dishes and cooking stuff, with a TINY closet left open for food. This closet does have floor-to-ceiling shelves, but is a whopping one foot wide! Needless to say, I was compelled to look for some overflow space.

I have seen many options for stockpile locations:

  • garages
  • under beds
  • laundry room shelves
  • closets in various parts of the house

It all depends on what you have to work with. I am fortunate that I have a basement, but also that it is unfinished and therefore available to store my stockpile.

My Stockpile Storage Solution

I started out using wire racks set up in my  100 year-old house’s unfinished basement. These and other types of shelving units can be great solutions. They worked well enough for us at the beginning, but I found that some things just don’t sit well on wire. (My basement floor is also not the least bit even, so things were always falling to the floor.)

Enter: The scary little room. I wish I had more before pictures, but here the photo below will give you an idea of what this room looked like before we tackled the stockpile project:

before

Scary, right? And this is after we removed all of the scrap wood, other junk, and SPIDERS from the room and put the first coat of primer on the shelves. (Fortunately, the water issue is decades old and has been resolved, but the concrete in the corner still showed evidence of it.)

So we started by cleaning everything well with soap, as it wasn’t just moldy, but really dusty and dirty as well. Then. we cleaned from top to bottom with a bleach solution.

kilz

Then we primed the floor, existing shelves, and concrete lower walls with Kilz primer. Finally, we painted everything and began loading up the shelves and pegboard.

early stockpile

This is what the stockpile looked like when we finally were able to move everything in, plus the pegboard across the top to hold smaller items. As you might guess, that was a long time ago. This is a throwback to winter and early spring 2012: very cheap Grande chips, free Ronzoni Garden Delight, moneymaking Kikkoman panko, and free Nivea body wash. Ahh, the memories…

The Evolution of Stockpiling

Everything evolves… Since those old days, Dominick’s has closed, Jewel has changed ownership (resulting in significantly less exciting sales), and Walgreens has changed its whole system. (I have also realized that veggie pasta gives me heartburn, my husband does not eat instant oatmeal the way he used to, and we almost never drink soda anymore.)

current stockpile

Fast-forward to the present day. As I now have a smaller stockpile in general, my paper products have moved into the scary little stockpile room from another part of the basement, Kellogg’s Family Rewards has helped me keep up with my husband’s Frosted Mini-Wheats habit, and I have to keep us stocked on juice boxes for when it is our turn to bring snack to school. But, we still love those croutons!

I try to keep things put away (but I will confess to quickly emptying a few bags that were sitting in the middle of the floor before I took these pictures today), and the specific ways the space is used shift based on what we have in the stockpile at any given time.

More Stockpile Storage tips?

I would LOVE to hear your favorite tips for organizing your stockpile, whether you have a lot of space or a little. For more tips, see also:

Please share your tips here!

More Frugal Homemade Ideas?

If you’re looking for more “frugal homemade” ideas, read more here:

Anything else you’d like to see covered in these categories? Comment here!

Pam

Saturday 4th of October 2014

I have 2 steel shelving units from SAMs club. They were a little expensive ($100. Ea) But I saved & bought one at a time. I figured for a long term investment (Ill be couponing for a long time) it was worth the investment. Each shelving unit has 6 shelves & when I put them together I used my current stockpile as estimated height adjustments.... So I could use all space possible. Including above & below the shelves. I have 12 clear smaller containers with lids that are double stacked that sit on the floor under each shelving unit. I use them for things that don't sit well on shelves. (Ex. Cough drops, vitamins, aspirin, efferdent, single candy, gum, Zyrtec, poly grip...etc) The shelving units & all the containers sit against one smaller wall in my dining room / kitchen. One unit I use for all hygiene stuff, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, body wash,shaving gels & creams, adult & children cold meds, asthma meds, dish soap, cleaning supplies, etc. The other is for food.... Pasta , rice, cereal, soups, can veg's, snacks, pasta sauces etc. In my main bathroom I bought #2 larger clear 3 drawer units (I stacked them on top of ea other) to store hygiene stuff like toothpaste, toothbrushes, band aids, perioxide, men & women's razors, sun tan lotions & sprays, first aid stuff, face cleaners..etc. in my smaller bathroom... I bought #2 smaller 3 drawer units (I stacked them in top of ea other) to store all the make up we get awesome deals on, eyeliner, eye shadow, lipstick, chap sticks, finger nail polish,perfumes, panty liners, hair accessories, combs & brushes etc. As for my actual coupon inserts... I store them in a large enough clear container in file folders labeled by date. I do not pre-cut any coupons. I look up deals & cut what I need when I need it. When I go grocery shopping I'll look up coupons I might need under coupontom.com & will cut those too. If I find a deal while I'm out & don't have my coupons with me... I will make an extra trip back if it's that good. My coupon insert container is portable... So I can & have taken it with me. I do not take it in the store with me but I leave it in the car. Hope this might help some. Wish I could post a pic to make my explanation into a visual.

Pam

Saturday 4th of October 2014

I forgot to mention... I have a family of 5 & live in 3 bdrm bsmt apt. No storage at all. I have a lit pet peeve when it comes to my stockpile... I hate having things all over the place. So I did what I could... Buying a lit at a time. Now I have everything where I want it & use it. When family or friends come over... Is easy for them to see what I have... I don't mind sharing as long as it's not my last one... Lol. I know we all have plenty to help others...

Carrie R

Saturday 4th of October 2014

WE have a small house so I utilize the tops of my cabinets in the kitchen for extra cereal and boxes of crackers... its a good use of wasted space that otherwise gets dusty. Makes me wish that I had bought the taller cabinets when we redid the kitchen. Would love to have a basement and I'm jealous of your wonderful organization skills. Thanks for sharing.

Jane

Saturday 4th of October 2014

In the last house we did NOT have this wonderful basement so my husband stored lots of stuff out in the garage up in the rafters. If you have space up there, you can store toilet paper or Rubbermaid bins full of non foods. We had all of our Christmas stuff and many other out of season things there. This frees up the house prime spots. I used to store things above the cabinets like you do but after we had to make the place "showable" when we were selling the last place, I have kept stuff off of there. But I will resort to that in an emergency! Some other obvious spots are the attic and a dry crawl space if you have to.

Sarah

Friday 3rd of October 2014

I bought an over the door shoe organizer for the laundry room door. My preference was a plastic one in case something ever leaked. It's great for holding cosmetics, floss, razors, toothbrushes, etc.

rachel

Saturday 4th of October 2014

I have shoe organizers on the inside of my pantry doors -- these from IKEA a couple of years ago I love, because they're large and see through, but when we went back recently to look for more it looks like they discontinued them so I have a regular one on the other door now.

http://www.mashupmom.com/pouches-for-pouches-stockpile-organization/

(Remember when all those weber packets were free at Jewel? It IS a trip down memory lane!)

Jane

Friday 3rd of October 2014

We have a teeny kitchen, so I have to store food in my hall coat closet and down the basement like you do. My husband does not trust anything except cans or bottles down there because he is afraid of mice! We can get a lot of cereal boxes or pasta or even popcorn or oatmeal stacked up in the coat closet. We keep the hats and gloves in a bench by the front door, so that frees up all the way to the ceiling in the closet for food! When we run out of room, I have to stop buying. Even if it is a steal, it's either stop or give it away.

Maureen

Friday 3rd of October 2014

Very impressive! I'm boring - steel shelving units in the basement.

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