Go with bins, but ditch the loose stacking before you give up on it. Mount a couple of cheap shelf brackets or a wire rack along that wall so the bins slide in at chest height, and you never have to lean over or climb for anything. I did that two winters ago in Minnesota, which is basically Denver with more ice, and I can grab my chains in about thirty seconds. The cracking incident was your setup, not the idea, since a tight stack with no shelf is just an accident waiting to happen. One thing to keep in mind though is weight, because you do not want a heavy bin up on a bracket you put in with two screws. Keep the salt and scrapers low and the light stuff high and you get the best of both.

Got wrecked in a mock interview my senior year too, and honestly the hard part was hearing that my answers had no actual story to them. What fixed it for me was recording myself on my phone and playing it back, which felt so weird at first but showed me where I was rushing and where I went flat. Then I started using a simple trick where I'd name the problem, say what I did, and end with what changed because of it, and that made everything way easier to follow. It still felt stiff for a few tries but the more I ran it out loud the more it sounded like me just talking instead of reciting. That retired lady did you a favor even if it stung, because two days for a callback is crazy fast and you clearly took the feedback seriously.