One thing that quickly became apparent during the pandemic was that if you wanted to make fewer trips to the grocery store, you needed to get more each time. It seems obvious, but once that sunk in – where do you put the stuff? This goal of fewer trips also meant more items that lasted longer, like cans of soup. The added number of items just didn’t fit in the places we normally kept those items, so new shelves were in order.
This was a simple project. It is made out of 1″ x 4″ pre-primed finger jointed pine boards. The dimensions of the shelves were driven by the the available wall space, and how high one could reach without need for a step stool. The spacing of the shelves was driven by the height of the various sizes of cans we normally purchased. They are located in the stairway to my basement
The assembly of the project was done with pocket screws. I was gifted a small Kreg jig, and this was my first project using it. I ended up using it for the assembly as well as to help secure it to the wall. There is a cleat I mounted to the wall at the bottom that carries the weight of the unit and that is screwed directly into the studs. The pocket screws just made it easier to secure the top to keep it from tipping away from the wall. It’s worked out well and my decision to keep it shallow – only one can deep – was also a good choice. Nothing gets lost in the back.
Once installed, my younger daughter took charge of filling them up and organizing everything.
Sawdusting 