ᐅ Shelving for Basement Storage – Recommendations

Swoti schrieb:

I played around a bit with the measurements... if you don’t want to fill everything up completely, this could be a reasonably priced option.

I wouldn’t fill every space completely with shelves. Most things are stored differently—for example, drink crates are stacked on top of each other or at least placed directly on the floor. Then there’s a lot of outerwear, which is best hung on a rail or stored in a closet. You also don’t want to store boxes or items inside boxes on shelves, and so on.

So buy two shelving units for one side and experiment. Not everything fits well in identical storage boxes. Even if they are transparent and labeled, it makes sense to store important items in a red box, children’s things in a colorful hat box, or use the three free boxes to keep whatever you want. That way, you immediately know where to look instead of having only identical boxes in front of you. Wrapping paper stands upright in a bin; other items need a different organizer, and perhaps a workbench or rolling cabinet might be better for some things.

I wouldn’t rush into buying large quantities.

ypg schrieb:

I wouldn’t fill the entire space with shelves. Most items are stored differently—for example, beverage crates are stacked on top of each other or at least better off standing freely on the floor. Then there’s a bunch of coats and outerwear, which are best hung on a rod or stored directly in a closet. You also don’t want to put boxes or items inside boxes on shelves, and so on.

So buy two shelves for one side and experiment. Not everything fits well into uniform boxes. Even if they are transparent and labeled, it makes sense to store important items in the red box, kids’ stuff in the colorful hat box, or the three free boxes that have XYZ inside. That way you immediately know where to look instead of having identical boxes in front of you. Wrapping paper stands upright in a bin, other things need a different organizer, and maybe some kind of workbench or rolling cabinet would be better for certain items.

I wouldn’t rush to buy in bulk.

That might apply to you, but people are different. Especially boxes, cartons, and crates, I find are better kept on a shelf. When stacked individually, you have to remove five boxes or crates first because you want the one at the very bottom today. But when stored individually on a shelf, you simply take out the right one.

I also wouldn’t like the different types of boxes or cartons—it would mean constantly searching. Who wants to keep remembering what is inside which box? Especially for things that are rarely needed.

Aside from that, shelves just make a space look much more organized.

I use Euro boxes in my projects. They are available from various manufacturers. I use different colored handles and labels.

K a t j a schrieb:

Okay, then I’ll argue back—I am not a fan of Ikea junk at all. All the cabinets I had warped. If you want something sturdy, adjustable as needed, and able to hold a good amount of weight, I go for TEGOMETALL. These are the shelves used in supermarkets to hold products. That’s why many dealers sell them second-hand.
Various shelf depths and feet, heights, colors, accessories, and at least three widths as far as I know, all of which can be combined, leave very few wishes unfulfilled. And their load capacity far surpasses any Ikea cabinet.
Easy to assemble—a rubber mallet is the only tool you need.

Just checked it out. Of course, the price is quite high.
I am into heavy-duty shelving. The ones generally known for the best price-performance ratio are from TKT. They’re available standard at Toom. Often on sale, a 180 x 90 x 40 cm (71 x 35 x 16 inches) unit with 175 kg (386 lbs) load capacity per shelf (5 shelves) normally costs 40 EUR, and during sales often about 30 EUR. And if b1 (Toom’s discount branch) or Lidl or Aldi carry them occasionally (clearance stock), they sometimes get even cheaper.

I have also bought other brands very cheaply and assembled them. These are often fiddlier and the stamped metal parts can have sharp edges. Still, you only need a rubber mallet here as well, or with some handyman skills not even that.

Granted, these are not as versatile and probably not quite as sturdy, but they are worlds cheaper (what I found was about 8–10 times more expensive).

I would like shelves with a height of 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) to make better use of the room height. The room height is 2.46 meters (8 ft 1 in). Then I could make a 6 cm (2.4 in) "base" and install six compartments with 40 cm (16 in) each (6 shelves), or I could do 50 cm (20 in) with five shelves... although the top one would then of course be less than 50 cm (20 in). Do you have any other alternatives to Master shelves?

And I would adjust the height of each shelf depending on the items to be stored. Storage containers, for example, won’t need shelf spacing of 40 or 50cm (16 or 20 inches). That’s why I’m a fan of the Ivar system, because the shelves can be easily adjusted to different heights as needed.