Best Garage Cabinet And Storage System Brands For DIYers, According To Users

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Stocking your garage with a decent tool collection can open the doors to all kinds of projects, but you're going to need a place to store them all. If you've ever been working on a project, only to need to stop halfway through and search for that missing tool that you need before you can move forward, then you know there comes a time when solid organization shifts from a luxury to a necessity. It doesn't matter if you're tackling automotive repairs, wood and metal working tasks, or simple weekend home improvement jobs; having a well-organized garage is going to help you find the tools you need when you need them, and one of the best ways to keep your tools organized is to invest in a decent cabinet or storage system.

There are a lot of different brands that make these. Some of them are affiliated with certain stores, while others are widely available from multiple retailers. Some models offer heavy-duty steel storage solutions, while others offer more affordable, lightweight options. Some are made to be immobile, and others are designed for easy transport.

But those who are thinking of investing in one of these systems may want to know a bit more about them. One of the best ways to gauge the quality of a brand is to see what previous customers have had to say about its products. By taking a look at customer reviews, it's much easier to see which of these brands are consistently highly rated and what it was that customers liked about them, allowing you to shop with confidence.

If you've ever walked the aisles of your local Home Depot, then you've probably seen more than a few Husky products. The house brand makes many of the hand tools that are sold in the retailer's stores, but it also makes a lot of the storage solutions. Husky manufactures everything from stackable storage bins and personal workbenches to storage shelves and tool chests. It even makes some massive storage systems that combine steel cabinetry, workspaces, and lockers into a single, modular setup.

Husky has a good reputation for treading the line between affordability and quality. As a house brand, Husky storage models are often more affordable than those made by other manufacturers that are sold at Home Depot. That affordability doesn't necessarily reflect a reduction in quality, however, as many of the brand's storage solutions are among the highest-rated models that Home Depot sells.

The vast majority of storage solutions that Husky makes are rated 4 stars or better on the Home Depot website. Reviews of these products regularly cite their strong, heavy-duty construction, their solid price-to-performance ratio, and their adaptability to the needs of different users. That said, the heavy-duty models tend to be rated higher than the more budget-oriented ones. Complaints of thinner gauge steel and cheaper casters are more prevalent on these, which is likely why Husky brand garage tool chests can be counted among the best and worst models, depending on your price point.

Another major brand that you might consider is Gladiator. You might see this company's products at Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon, and from various other major retailers. Gladiator makes all kinds of storage solutions, including track-based hangers and bins, overhead storage racks, heavy steel wall-mounted cabinetry, large GearBox standing cabinets, and welded steel shelving units. Gladiator even offers some more unique items, like a wall-mounted shoe rack, a golfing rack, and a caddy for storing sports balls. One of the nice things about Gladiator products is they're customizability. They're specifically designed to be mixed and matched with various storage types, fitting together seamlessly. This modular design allows you to get any combination of wall-mounted and freestanding cabinetry that might so happen to fit your space and slot them together with minimal fuss. It also makes your storage scalable, so you can buy what you need now with the knowledge that you can add new stuff later.

Gladiator is also known for having heavy-duty steel construction, with a bit more consistency in its design quality than most other brands. The flexibility and integrability of its storage solutions also make it a great way to mix and match for specific spaces and needs.

All of the Gladiator products on Amazon appear to be very highly rated, just as they are on the Home Depot and Lowe's websites. Nearly everything the manufacturer makes is rated over 4 stars across all three platforms, with a majority of them scoring higher than 4.5. The durability, modular flexibility, and value are all regularly cited in reviews. There have been a handful of complaints about the diamond-plate finish on the cabinets scuffing easily, and some people have had trouble installing the wall-mounted units.

An alternative option for some of these big, heavy options is to invest in the Milwaukee Packout system. This is a completely modular series of hard plastic cases that are designed to stack and interlock. Moving parts, like drawers, also generally include locking mechanisms that prevent them from accidentally falling open while being moved. This is good because the models that serve as the base of these stacks, such as the Packout Rolling Drawer, often feature wheels and dolly bars, making the hot-swappable storage solutions incredibly mobile.

Milwaukee makes a handful of other garage storage options, such as tool storage lockers, workbenches, and tool chests. These are all highly rated, but somewhat limited in scope. The Packout system is definitely the place where the brand really shines in terms of versatility. There are an incredible number of useful Milwaukee Packout storage options to help keep your tools nice and organized, such as basic crates, toolboxes, organizing cases, and drawer systems. There are also specialty options, like the Milwaukee Packout Radio with a built-in charger. These don't have to sit on the ground when they're not in use, either. They can be mounted to the wall, and there are a variety of other modular mounting solutions.

As with the other brands we've discussed thus far, the entire Milwaukee Packout system is almost entirely composed of highly rated products. Items sold on Amazon and Home Depot are typically rated 4.5-4.9 stars by consumers. In addition to the praise you would expect about the modularity and portability, the Packout system is also regularly cited as durable, impact-resistant, and having strong weather sealing. Most complaints are about either the price or the fact that the modules are made of plastic, and not metal.

Those seeking big, all-in-one garage system storage setups might want to check out NewAge Products. This company doesn't offer a lot of smaller storage solutions. This is sort of a 'go big or go home' type of situation. NewAge Products doesn't make a whole heck of a lot that you can get for under a grand. The company specializes in large cabinetry sets that mostly look as if they're designed to fill an entire wall. There are several different sizes and compositions available, but most of them feature the same general design: Large, standing cabinets on either side with a workbench and an equally wide row of floating cabinets sandwiched beneath them. The company also sells a few accessories that you can buy to customise these setups, like slatwall backplates to go on the wall between the central workbench and cabinets.

Just about all of the NewAge Products cabinet systems on Home Depot and Amazon appear to be rated over 4.5. There are a handful of lower-rated models on the Lowe's website, but the majority of these appear to have only received a few reviews from customers, making their scores a bit subjective. People generally seem to appreciate their relatively solid build quality and attractive design. They like that you can get an all-in-one system that gives your garage that "finished" feeling with a single purchase. They've also stated that the kits are easy to assemble. Most complaints seem to be based on a lack of quality control in cheaper units and less-than-satisfactory customer service.

DeWalt has a sterling reputation as one of the best power tool brands on the market. And those who collect the black and yellow tools might appreciate having some storage solutions to match. Fortunately, DeWalt makes a few storage options, and a lot of them have been pretty well received by users.

You aren't going to see as much variety from DeWalt as you do from other brands, but the products they do make are all very heavy-duty and come highly recommended. The company mostly makes storage shelving inuts. These are made of thick steel and have options for steel wire or powder-coated plate steel shelving. One unit even combines this shelving into a multi-form factor workstation with an attached pegboard for tool storage. The company also makes a handful of other organizational products like a wall-mounted lumber rack, a wall-mounted tool organizer, and a tool chest.

But while there aren't nearly as many options from DeWalt as from other brands, the products that the company does make are all extremely highly rated. All of the shelving units on the Amazon and Home Depot pages are ranked close to five stars, with only the tool chest being ranked lower at 3.8. Customers generally report that they think DeWalt's storage solutions offer top-tier construction and heavy-duty capability. This is reversed on the toolbox, however, where customers complained that there was poor quality control in the condition of the units out of the box and that they appeared to be cheaply made in comparison to other major brands.

I've designed shelves and cabinetry in the past, in addition to using units like these for years. In writing this article, I used this knowledge to break down the most appealing aspects of the top-rated garage storage system manufacturing brands. I started by looking at the Home Depot, Lowe's, and Amazon digital marketplaces, as these three major retailers off have built-in aggregate rating systems. I organized my search results by average customer rate and made a list of the names that appeared frequently across all three platforms.

Once I had a good-sized list of candidates, I searched these individual brands to make sure that the high ratings were moderately consistent across their entire catalogue, and that they didn't just have a handful of highly rated products. I chose the top five that met these criteria, while also offering a good range of cabinetry and other garage storage solutions.

I examined the list of products on offer from each brand, noting any common themes among the features and design. I then dove into the user reviews, examining the traits that were most often praised by customers as well as the most common complaints, reporting both so that readers might have a better understanding of the brands' strengths and weaknesses.