Simple shelves do wonders for closet organizations.
Well organized closets are critical to finding clothing, boxes, books or anything else that you store in your closets. Commercial closet organizers and shelving systems are expensive and sometimes very complicated. Creating a simple closet shelving unit yourself is easy and can save you money. By making a closet shelving system, closet organization becomes much easier. Does this Spark an idea?
Brick & Board Variations
A closet is an ideal place to install brick and board shelving. Because the two side walls of the closet will prevent the brick and board shelves from tipping over. Brick and board closet shelves can be installed the full height of the closet. Brick and board shelves can be made with bricks, cinder blocks or other concrete blocks, or glass blocks. Brick and board shelves and their variants, are made by placing bricks on the floor height wise, then placing wood shelves over the bricks. Another set of bricks are placed on the shelf you just placed, then another shelf is placed on top of those bricks. Repeat this interleaving of bricks and boards until the shelves have reached the desired height.
Molding Supported Shelves
Maybe you may want to have a single shelf in a closet with an area of storage under the shelf. In this case, you can take a piece of wood molding, usually used for trim around a door or at the intersection of a wall and floor. Cut the molding to the width of a board to be used as a shelf. Measure the height of the shelf on the walls inside the closet and nail the molding to the sides of the closet to support the shelf. If desired, molding can be nailed to the back of the closet wall to support the back of the shelf and prevent bowing of the shelf under weight. Use small nails or brads to attach the shelf to the molding supports.
Hanging Shelves
An interesting, and often overlooked, shelving system for closets is hanging shelving. Hanging shelves are not ideal for heavy items, but can be good for storing sweaters, folded clothing or shoes.
To make hanging shelves, cut wood squares. One ft. x one ft. squares are a good size, but you could cut any size you need, as long as the weight of the wood is taken into account and the intended contents for the shelves are lightened to make up for wood weight. Measure the height from the floor to around 2 ft. from the closet rod. Decide on a shelf height and divide the total available height by the desired shelf height. This will give you the number of shelves per hanging shelving unit. Cut that number of shelves. Use a good, stout rope, probably at least 1/4" in diameter, as the shelf supports. Drill holes in each of the four corners of the shelves. The hole needs to be just big enough for the rope to pass through. Knot the bottom of four pieces of rope. Slip the bottom shelf down to these knots. Measure the desired height on each rope and create another knot in each of the four ropes. Slide another shelf down to these knots. Repeat this until you have an assembled shelving unit. Tie the top ends of the rope over the shelf support and you have a functional hanging shelf.
Tags: board shelves, shelving unit, another shelf, Brick board, brick board, closet shelving, desired height