From Open Shelving Nightmares to Heavenly Solutions

Many houses, especially new builds, have embraced the latest trend of open shelving. This can be a nightmare for keeping your home organized (and cute!).

There are essentially three different kinds of open shelving used in homes:

In your closet
In your garage
In your kitchen

First, a note about organizing in general - but especially for things that are visible, out in the open, and can be seen - such as open shelving.

As OFab Insiders know, product - and choosing the right products - is key. For open shelving, the goal is to use the spaces of a shelf that are usually wasted - that includes the upper spaces and the entirety of deep shelves.

There are products that you can use to maximize these spaces for any room in the house that will make a huge difference, and we will show you how to use them.

1. For closets - we love open shelving in a closet. If you don’t have a dresser or enough drawers, you can use open shelving as if it has drawers just by using the proper bins.

You can also fold almost everything and keep it on an open shelf in a closet, using shelf dividers. These come in varying sizes and styles, using all kinds of different materials (acrylic, wood, plastic, etc).

There are also really pretty, clear acrylic shelf dividers that you can find at Target. They have them in various sizes for different sized shelves and for what you need to keep in them.

We love the inexpensive ones made of wire and sold at most Walmart and Target stores.

2. For garages - even though it can be a pain, consider re sizing the shelves, as most garage shelves are movable. For instance, if there’s a 20 foot opening between your shelves, you could lower the upper shelves so that you can fit your lower, heavier bins on the lowest shelf (or underneath the shelving, if there is space.)

Additionally, for the upper shelves, you may need to break them into two levels so that you can fit the right sized bins for your smaller, heavier items.

For example, if you have a shelf that is 16 inches high, there are 15 inch height bins that will fit perfectly. Then, with the two smaller shelves, you can double up on smaller bins for other items (eg, low profile bins for heavy items such as extension cords and tools, and deep and short bins for saws and electric tools and drills etc.) See how we used these wire shelf risers from Home Depot in this garage.

On this note, “Our” boxes at The Container Store are a must: they come in so many sizes and solve so many issues. Not everything needs to go in a big bin and, with the variety of solutions out there, you can find the right ones for whatever your needs.

3. For kitchens - as we’ve noted, there’s a new trend of using open shelving in new builds in homes.

The idea behind this is to use open shelving to do away with upper cabinetry to make a cleaner, more open concept look.

However, anybody with children will bemoan this style as it’s hard to keep these shelves looking tidy, keeping what is on them clean and making sure the fam is putting things back so that you are comfortable with them being seen.

Pantry shelves are leaning more towards open concept as well, which can be a real nightmare. We like to use these wire risers so that, again, the entire shelf is being used.

Spice steps or “stadium seating” can be used for spices, at your bar, in the pantry for cans or elsewhere for medicines, supplements and vitamins, which many people keep in their kitchen. With these multi-level steps, you can see what everything is and reach anything without knocking everything else over.

The short answer to, “How do I use the open shelving in my house?” is design and products.