Whether their space is abundant or scarce, most homes need storage shelving. While a two- or three-floor house obviously provides a lot of potential storage space, it sometimes encourages people to keep things they rarely use. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a compact urban apartment, while space-constrained, may inspire the occupants to keep it neat, jettison unused items and take advantage of every spare inch for storage. Whatever your dwelling choice or storage needs, shelves are always useful to consider. Does this Spark an idea?
Kinds of Storage
Most of us store a variety of possessions on shelves: books and magazines, kitchen items, tools, clothing, kids' toys. If you have the requisite do-it-yourself skills, built-in shelves are great and can fit all kinds of nooks in a house, from space under stairs, to an alcove in a bedroom or kitchen to hanging on a wall in the garage. For the less-handy, shelving is available in many forms---wood or metal, mobile or fixed---at home-supply stores, many department stores and furniture stores like IKEA.
Closet shelving for clothing or kitchen storage items is also available at specialty stores like The Container Store as well as Walmart, CVS and many hardware stores. Home office storage is also available at these kinds of stores and office-supply outlets.
Kitchen, Bath & Closet Storage
The most important part of good storage is planning what you need room by room. Shelving for kitchen cabinets will organize dishes, pots and silverware so they are easily reached and put away. Shelves for the refrigerator can accomplish the same, so you can see what is there and keep food from spoiling. Use shelves for small appliances on the counter.
Most closets can use some good storage ideas to make everything easy to access. The first step is to decide what to discard---and be ruthless about it.
You can create shelves for all kinds of items, such as out-of-season clothing, which can be packed away in well-sealed boxes.
DIY Shelving ideas
Free-standing shelving that you can assemble and later pack up if you move is readily available from do-it-yourself furniture stores like IKEA or The Container Store. You can choose from a variety of modular units in metal or plastic, often brightly colored, which you can expand later should you want more storage space. If you only need a few shelves, try single-shelf units that you can mount on the wall. These come in wood, plastic and metal and can be arranged, for instance, in a staggered pattern for an interesting design. Another option, corner shelving, is also sold in many stores. You can mount these yourself and also create an interesting design. Beyond its role in, say, a home office, corner shelving can be useful in a bedroom for scarves, jewelry and other small items. A lot of modular shelving offers a choice of doors in different materials and designs to provide both open and closed storage. That arrangement can blend nice design with practical purpose.
Tags: stores like, also available, Container Store, corner shelving, furniture stores