What do you do when you have very little room in your shop but you have 12' long boards to store? You build a 12' storage bin that your wife can use to put plants on. The bin is open in the back so the wood can get air. It has stringers inside so you can put slats at different levels for wood storage. The top comes off in three sections. No, there are no doors on the front, and yes, that makes access a little harder, but this way I have an 8' opening in the middle of the top (two crossmembers on each end 2' in for structural purposes) and if I angle the wood in just right I can fit 10 foot boards in it by accessing through the top. Bendable strips I can do 12' by bending them to get them in. If I had put doors it would have been harder to make it sturdy and have that big of an opening.

The only problem I had is that since it's hard to get formica here I tried a product that is a plastic flexible product for putting on bathroom walls. I glued it to the top with industrial glue. The glue apparently off-gassed and made air bubbles under the top! Oh well. Lesson learned there, but otherwise it came out really nice. Amy has a place to put plants. I have storage for wood, and the shop (which is part of my kitchen!) is going to have a lot more room.

The wood and what-not that will go in here is stuff I rarely have to get to, so it won't be an issue to have to move the plants when I need to get something out. I have the top in three sections so the stuff I need most I can put at one end where I just have to lift a 4' top to get to it.