For years, there have been three ways to get a shed: Build it yourself, hire someone to build it or buy a prefab model. A new method—constructing a shed from a kit—combines the sweat equity of building from scratch with the simplicity of using factory-cut components. All that’s required are basic tools and novice-level carpentry skills. It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle with instructions: Fasten the parts together in the right sequence, and voilà—a shed is born.

If you have an unfinished basement, a garage or a storage shed, you can store much more in it if you have shelves. Built-in shelves are great, but if you’re renting or want the flexibility to rearrange the shelving units, you might want to make some free-standing shelves. Here’s a simple method for building some inexpensive storage shelves — and you can build them without power tools.

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