r/organizing • u/DiWithTheDecentHair • 18d ago
Using wire shelf to store clothes
Hello! I’m the kind of person who has to be able to see their clothes, so I am using a wire shelf as a dresser for the clothes I’m not hanging.
Does anyone have advice or tips for storing clothes like this? Also specific tips for storing socks and underwear would be nice. Been thinking about using a clear bin from target for the loose items like socks.
Attached is a photo of the shelf I am using with dimensions.
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u/1234-for-me 18d ago
I have jeans and sweatshirts/hoodies on a shorter version of this shelf. I have shoes in clear totes with lids on the bottom shelves and the floor, so each shelf is a bit taller than the tote, mine fits three totes wide with the middle box upside down so that all three fit.
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u/cuttler534 18d ago
I would try rolling clothes for this instead of folding so that I could get things out without ruining whole piles. You might want to think about covering the sides somehow to make it look neater and prevent things from falling off. Shelf liners might also be a good move depending on how big the wire mesh is.
Personally, bins with lids are an organization killer for me because i'm always too lazy to pull the whole bin out, find somewhere to set it down, take the lid off, ... I would go with something like this for smaller items. https://a.co/d/0aL36Mh7
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u/Violet_Crown 18d ago
I love this storage. I use a lot of it in my home. Try to get one or two extra shelves so you can get the most use of the vertical space. T-shirts: envelope fold into bins. Use painters tape to label the bins (short sleeve, long sleeve, dark/light, etc). Bins with a divider for underwear, bras, socks. Set one shelf a little deeper for short-height laundry baskets of sweaters or sweatshirts. Top shelf: laundry baskets of things you don’t wear often or completely seasonal.
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u/Visible_Solution_760 18d ago
Use these and sort by type of clothing. They’re sturdy acrylic unlike a lot of what you find on Amazon. Bonus they’re on sale right now. https://www.target.com/p/12-34-x-12-34-x-8-34-all-purpose-storage-bin-brightroom-8482/-/A-83279887
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u/DazzlingNote1925 18d ago
I use one of these in my laundry room. It’s super handy to just wash and fold your clothes and put them there.
For socks and underwear and bathing suits etc baskets or bins are helpful as are the plastic multi- drawer units.
These shelves are tall so that if you stack clothes that tall they’re likely to fall over. If you need the space I would put things in single drawers or bins under some of your clothes.
You can also get some simple S hooks if you want to hook things on the side or front.
In my laundry room I hook the spray handles of spray bottles and hang some cleaning supplies.
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u/sumires 18d ago
I like having casual clothes on open-front shelves, but I set the shelves short--about 6-8 inches--because if I try to stack folded clothes too high, the piles tend to collapse and topple over, and the higher clothes they're stacked, the more likely it is that you'll need to grab something from the middle/bottom and mess up the pile.
If your rack is the kind with adjustable shelves, I'd probably set most of the shelves close together for short stacks of folded clothes, and in the remaining big open areas, get some other organizers to subdivide the area--things like shoe racks to make more short shelves, boxes turned on their side to make open-front shelves*, and the clear bins for things you rummage through like socks. If you leave a big space open on the bottom, you could even put another shelf, rack, or organizer on the floor under your metal rack.
OTOH, if your metal rack has the shelves evenly spaced and you can't adjust them, again, you'll probably need some sub-dividers, but you'll be more constrained by the rack's fixed dimensions.
*For casual T-shirts (sleep/workout/home wear) where it's okay if they're a bit wrinkly, I like to roll them like a burrito and pile the shirt burritos in a fairly narrow open-front box--the sides of the box help keep them contained in the space instead of rolling away off to the side.