Build a Garage Bin Rack With Spacer Blocks Instead of a Tape Measure

The Problem

Plastic storage totes stack six high exactly once — then you need the bin on the bottom. A rack that holds each bin on its own rails fixes that, but a five-ladder rack means dozens of rungs, and measuring and marking every rung location is where the project bogs down and the errors creep in.

The Technique

The build is ladders connected by rails; the trick is that nothing gets measured after the first cuts:

1. Cut spacer blocks first: two at 10½", two at 12", two at 21", and two at 22" (dimensions sized for standard totes — adapt to your bins). These blocks replace the tape measure for the whole assembly.
2. Cut the parts: ten vertical uprights, four horizontal connector rails, and 48 short rung pieces.
3. Assemble each ladder: lay two uprights down, hold them at width with the 22" spacers at top and bottom, and screw a bottom board across — the reference everything else butts against.
4. Set the rungs by block, not by mark: butt the 10½" block against the bottom board, screw the first rung above it, then switch to the 12" block and repeat up the ladder — block, rung, block, rung. Keep screws toward the inside of the rungs so they don't split out the ends.
5. Build the two single-sided end ladders, then the three double-sided middle ones — same blocks, rungs on both faces.
6. Join the ladders: stand all five on their sides, hold them at spacing with the 21" block, and screw the top and bottom connector rails across, working block-first the whole way.
7. Sheet the back with plywood for rigidity and fasten the top of the rack to the wall so it can't tip.

Bins slide in on the rungs like drawers — any bin, any row, no unstacking.