Building a Pallet Wood Storage Bin (With a Matching Lumber Rack)

Every shop ends up with two piles that never go away: cut-offs too small to throw out, and full-length boards with nowhere to lean. This build tackles both at once: a fully enclosed rolling storage bin for scraps, and a companion open-divider lumber rack for longer boards, both built the same weekend from the same stack of reclaimed pallets.

Two finished rolling storage carts built from reclaimed pallet wood, an enclosed bin and an open lumber rack, parked in a driveway next to a vintage pickup truck — The finished pair: a closed storage bin (left) for scraps and cut-offs, and an open divider rack (right) for longer boards.

The Idea: One Base, Two Storage Styles

Both pieces start from the same repurposed part: a wood pallet, used flat as the rolling base and fitted with casters. From there, the two builds go different directions. The bin gets a boxed-in frame that’s fully clad in horizontal pallet boards, closing it in on all sides so smaller offcuts don’t fall through. The rack skips the solid sides entirely and instead uses a grid of vertical dividers, so longer boards can stand upright and stay sorted instead of getting stacked in a pile.

Wood pallet, used as the rolling base for both pieces
Reclaimed pallet stringers, repurposed as the bin’s corner legs
New dimensional lumber, used for the bin’s top rail/compartment dividers and the rack’s vertical divider frame
Reclaimed pallet boards, used as horizontal cladding on the bin’s sides
Casters, mounted to the underside of each pallet base

Exact lumber sizes, fastener types, and caster specs aren’t confirmable from these photos.

Building the Storage Bin Frame

The bin starts as an open frame: weathered pallet stringers stand as the four corner legs, still carrying the notches and forklift-pocket cuts from their original life, sitting on a slatted pallet base. A new-lumber top rail ties the legs together and is already divided into compartments. It’s the nailing surface the cladding boards will eventually attach to.

Storage bin frame built from reclaimed pallet stringers with a slatted pallet base, photographed before the plank siding is added — The bin frame takes shape: reclaimed pallet stringers form the legs, resting on a salvaged pallet base.

Front view of the unfinished pallet-wood storage bin frame, showing the compartmentalized top rail and pallet-slat bottom against a concrete block wall — Before the sides go on: the compartment dividers and bottom shelf are already in place.

From this stage, horizontal pallet boards get fastened around the frame to close it in, turning the open skeleton into the solid-sided bin seen in the finished photos.

Building the Companion Lumber Rack

The rack starts the same way, with a pallet laid flat as the base, but the frame built on top of it is different by design. Instead of legs meant to carry solid siding, thin vertical dividers run the length of the rack in two rows, creating open slots for boards to stand in on edge.

Early frame for an open lumber rack with vertical dividers, built on a reclaimed pallet base, shown inside a garage next to a tool chest — The rack frame comes together in the garage: vertical dividers keep boards sorted upright.

Once the divider frame was built, the whole assembly moved outside and got casters fastened to the underside of its pallet base, the same detail that makes the storage bin mobile.

The open lumber rack frame moved outside with casters attached, parked in a driveway next to a vintage pickup truck — Casters added, the rack is now mobile and ready to load with lumber.

Finished and in Use

Loaded up, the difference between the two pieces is obvious. The bin swallows shorter offcuts and scraps out of sight behind solid sides, while the rack keeps longer boards visible and upright, sorted by whatever order they were leaned in, easier to flip through when you’re hunting for one specific board.

Close-up of the finished open-divider lumber rack loaded with reclaimed boards and offcuts of varying sizes, mounted on casters — The companion rack uses the same pallet-base-and-casters approach, but with open vertical dividers instead of solid sides.

Wide view of the finished storage bin and lumber rack outside a garage, alongside a stack of reclaimed boards, a salvaged door, and a pallet-wood bench — Parked next to the shop, ready to roll wherever the next project needs them.

Being on casters is the detail that makes both pieces earn their keep. Either one rolls out of the way when the driveway needs to be a workspace, and rolls back against the garage when it doesn’t.

Jeremy's dog Sam resting on a bare pallet-wood platform next to a cordless circular saw and framing square, with the finished storage bin visible out of focus behind him — Sam, supervising quality control on the shop floor.

Would This Work in Your Shop?

If you’re drowning in scrap wood and don’t want to spend a dime on lumber to fix it, this is close to a free build. Pallets are usually available for the taking, and the only real purchase is a set of casters. The trade-off is that pallet stock is inconsistent by nature: no two stringers or slats are quite the same width or condition, so this is more of a “build to fit what you’ve got” project than one you can follow with a fixed cut list.

DIY Pallet Reclaimed Wood