Have you ever wondered whether you should consider steel shelving when you were trying to figure out how to redesign your closet storage? Let's talk about a number of reasons why it might be a good option.
Steel shelving takes on many different persona's - open shelving, industrial shelving, four post shelving … the list goes on and on. This is probably one of the most versatile and useful types of organization systems available. You can use it for small spaces or large warehouses, it can be designed with just about any level of weight requirement, it is extremely adaptable and can be bent and built into any assembled configuration you can imagine.
Say you weren't even thinking of adding extra storage to a closet, because let's face it, the options for a household closet are pretty straight forward. The size of the closet is typically pretty limited, and the types of objects generally stored in a household closet are typically not very heavy. You can get away with any number of closet organizer system options, whether they turn out to be metal closet organizers, custom built in wooden closet organizers, or even bargain store plastic shelving systems, you can usually fair out pretty well regardless of the type of storage solution you end up with. You still need to consider the quality of the organizers and shelving that you buy, because as with anything you get what you pay for, and when it comes to shelving systems, there will be some wear and tear. Along with that, a shelving system that wasn't designed to stand up to the weight requirements will sag over time and may eventually crack or break.
So getting back on track, let's say that you weren't looking for indoor closet organizers, but instead you were planning a garage renovation and wanted to design and install a storage shelving system for your garage. It's always important to clearly define the kind of stuff that you will end up storing, because like I said before, your typical house closet contains lots of clothes and sports and hobby stuff, whereas a garage will be home to much different and typically heavier items - such as paint cans, renovation supplies, power tools, gardening supplies, your collection of car detailing products, etc. Other possibilities include boxes of old files and books, your ex's wedding dishes, a spare lawnmower motor which might come in handy someday for parts, a few old car parts, a spare set of tires for each vehicle … you're starting to identify with this? Oh, don't forget the golf clubs, skis and ski boots, tennis raquets, 2 broken lawn chairs, the spare cooler and all the camping equipment. The point is, in order to keep all this stuff in some semblance of order, and accessible regardless of the season, you need to have a fairly decent shelving system set up in order to hold everything, especially since a lot of these items are pretty heavy. When you take items individually they may not seem all that heavy, but once you put 5 pretty heavy items on a single shelf, then the weight adds up pretty quickly and you want to make sure that your organizer can handle the weight.
So for taking on a task such as getting your garage organized and creating a storage space that everyone dreams of, steel shelving is probably going to offer the best solution, for a number of reasons. Let's take a look at the advantages before you decide to research steel storage shelves further.
Size - you can find metal shelves in just about any size that you need. Garages range in height, so this is a good place to optimize the available storage space you have by building your storage system right to the ceiling. You can choose to have a custom installed system tailor built to fit your space, in which case the configuration you choose will be built in and typically bolted or welded together to form a complete integral shelving system. The anchoring system you use to stabilize the shelves needs to be appropriately suited to the weight that the system is intended to bear.
Strength - the high strength to size ratio that steel offers goes hand in hand with the previous size advantages. Steel shelving systems can support hundreds and even thousands of pounds of storage, so going right to the ceiling even if you have a double height garage is definitely an option. Because of the higher weight capacity that steel offers, you can also go with a deeper shelving system if you require. This can be handy for stacking things like your off-season tires, which just aren't going to fit effectively on a 12" wide shelf.
Flexibility - creating a shelving system that has space for everything, but also is organized with different sized items in mind, gives you the ability to store a large variety of different items - exactly what you are faced with in the garage, where you end up with everything that is either used seasonally or doesn't belong inside the living space. There are a wide range of open shelving systems, shelving with doors, drawers, pull-out shelves, and rollaway storage units available. Assembling a selection of different shelving components will give you the range of storage required to organize your garage perfectly.
Single or Double Entry - it might be useful to mention a couple of different shelving styles when we're talking about garage storage. Typically shelving is set or built against a wall, and access is what is referred to as 'single entry' - this is where you store and access your items from one side only. A different option available is what is called 'double entry', this is where a double shelf is located so that you can access both sides, allowing double the storage space in less space than it would require to install single entry shelving. If you have an extra deep garage, it might be a good option to install a few rows of double entry shelving and the back of the garage, creating a little 'warehouse style' storage space which is less prone to having objects piled in front of the shelves blocking access to less often used items.
So if you are organizing your garage or storage shed, steel shelving is worth a look. The list of advantages makes it an obvious choice.
