Storage Container Shelving & Lighting

The best layout depends on the size of the container and how it's used, but a few patterns work on most jobs:

Shelving takes up a couple of feet of width along whichever wall it goes on, so the container size matters. A 10 foot container has so little floor that shelves are almost a must if you're keeping more than a few big tools. A 20 foot with shelves down one side is the classic job site supply room. On a 40 foot, a 40 foot high cube gives an extra foot of height, which means an extra shelf, and a double-door container puts both ends of a long run of shelves near a door.

A container has no windows, so the only light inside comes through the doors, and it reaches about halfway back on a sunny afternoon. On a December morning at 6:30, or on a 40 foot container at any hour, it reaches almost nothing. Lighting puts a light where the work is: over the shelves and down the aisle, so the crew can read a label, find a part and see the floor they're walking on.

Lights in a container are generally battery-powered or run from a power source on site, depending on what the site has. Tell us on the quote whether there's power where the container will sit, and we'll set it up to match.

Anyone who goes into the container more than once a day gets their money back on it:

A container worth organizing is worth locking properly. A lock box over the padlock keeps bolt cutters off the door, and the shelving keeps the valuable small items off the floor and out of sight from the street when the doors are open. Both go on the same quote.

Ask for shelving and lighting when you request the quote, with the container size and a word about how you'll use it, so it arrives set up and ready to load. Each is a line on the quote, and the container rents by the 28-day period until you call for pickup. A dumpster and porta potties for the same job go on the same invoice.

On a Philadelphia rowhome rehab, the container is often the only dry, lockable room on the job for months. The house is open to the studs, the basement is wet and the first floor is a staging area for whatever trade is working. A container with shelves becomes the job's supply room: the electrician's boxes and wire on one bay, the plumber's fittings on the next, finish hardware and fasteners by the door, and the cabinets and vanities on the floor at the back.

When the superintendent needs to know whether there are enough outlet covers for the second floor, the answer is on a shelf, not in a pile. That's the difference between a container that stores things and one that helps run the job.

Philadelphia winters make a container a cold, dark place to look for something at 7 a.m. Lighting matters most from November to March, when the sun is low or not up yet when the crew arrives. Shelving matters more too, because nobody wants to dig through a pile on the floor with gloves on. Keep the most-used items on shelves near the doors, keep the floor clear so nobody slips on ice tracked in on boots, and keep anything that can freeze, like caulk, paint and adhesives, off the floor and toward the middle of the box.

Retailers, restaurants and property managers use containers differently from contractors, and shelving is often the reason they rent one at all. A restaurant renovating its kitchen keeps dry goods, paper products and small equipment on shelves where staff can find them during service. A store keeps seasonal stock sorted by category. A property manager keeps paint, filters, fixtures and turnover supplies for a building in one organized place instead of a basement storeroom. In every case, the shelves make the container something people can use without a map.

Shelves only stay useful if someone keeps them that way. On a job site, give one person the job of keeping the container in order: putting returned tools back on the right shelf, breaking down empty boxes and keeping the aisle clear. Ten minutes at the end of the week saves an hour of searching the next one. Take a photo of the shelves when they're set up the way you want, and tape it inside the door as a map.