Best tubs for rack build?

[RXLReptiles]

So I've slowly been working my way back into the hobby over the past year, after nearly a decade of being away from it.

As my collection has grown,I started looking at racks that were commercially available and realized that the can be pretty pricey.

So I decided I wanted to build myself a rack, the issue I had is that I wanted something that could hold several different sized tubs so I wouldn't have to build a new rack every time I needed to upgrade a snake to a larger tub size. (Even though I knew on some level I was gonna be building many more racks anyways )

Naturally I looked into the hobby standard, sterilite tubs, and while they were close to the same height between the 16 and 32 quart sizes, anything larger or smaller had a much different height. Not to mention the length and width dimensions were very inconsistent, this led to the inability to build something that would comfortably fit more than one or two sizes of tubs in one rack.

It got to a point where I carried a small tape measure with me to measure any tub brand I came across while the wife and I were shopping. (much to her dismay(read: annoyance))

Then it happened, I was in my local Lowe's hardware store and I stumbled upon the perfect totes. Or at least perfect enough for me.

The Hefty brand latching totes are the answer. Not only do the heights of the 6.5,15,34, and big 52 qt tubs all match to within less than .1" of each other, the 15,34, and 52 all share a common dimension in width. All 4 totes measure 6.6" high and the 3 larger sizes share one dimension of 16.75" or so. The only difference is length in either 12", 24", or 36". The 6.5 qt is slightly different at only 12" x 8" x 6.6".

What this means is if you build a shelf that is 36" x 18" you can house either 3- 15 qt, 1-34 and 1-15, or 1-52 qt on each shelf, with the two larger sizes having the short side be the depth. And the 6.5 quarts will work as well but be recessed back 6" or so when fully seated.

I've built one rack so far with a 36" x 24" shelf so I can sit 2-34 qt's side by side or one 52 sideways, it's a concept rack that I'm testing before I go full size with the idea. It also neatly fits under a workbench in my office/reptile room, so no space wasted.


Has anyone else found or used these tubs? And if anybody else wants to take this idea and run with it, I think it could help make multipurpose racks way easier to build/design.