Stepladder
 

In the previous pic I am standing on a small stepladder in order to
reach the highest shelf. I shopped for a small stepladder and the
cheapest I could find (no wood acceptable) was over $50! But I had this
black two-step folding stepstool thing in the house which I never used.
So I just cut lengths off some old fencerail pipe I had lying around,
slipped it up over the legs of the stool, drilled a couple holes and
screwed it on for stability, and presto! I had my stepladder for free
and it folds up easily out of the way when not in use. It has a ribbed
rubberized step surface for grip (wet in the pic)and the rail along the
back to help stabilize me.