Add A Shelf To Your Closet In Seconds With This Must-Have TikTok Find

A closet without enough shelves to store everything is a messy closet or, worse, an empty one. Winter coats, a box of hats and mismatched gloves, and that bin with all your high school poetry end up piled at the bottom or sitting on the floor outside the closet. TikToker @boldxbooks discovered a product that solves the problem for you instantly with no need for saws or nails: expandable tension shelves, which are available on Amazon for approximately $25.

Amazon sells a number of tension shelves in different sizes. These expanding shelves basically work like the tension rods you hang clothes on or use to stand-up caddies in the corner of your bathroom. Two telescoping tension rods push against the walls and support several shorter ones in between, forming a shelf that simply expands into place in your closet or cabinet. Voila, instant budget-friendly closet organization! 

The support rods often have adjustment collars for fine-tuning the shelf's width and set screws to lock it at that size. The shelves typically have a fixed depth, front to back, so measure your space to make sure the shelf will work for you. And keep an eye on weight limits... @boldxbooks' closet had a convenient sort of ledger board in place to support her shelf. Without the shelf support, the combined tension rods usually support 22 to 45 lbs.

Tension shelves come in a wide variety of sizes, and along with alternative designs, you can find shelves for almost any space. Other expandable shelving options extend and attach in various ways. Many attach to walls or the sides of cabinets by means of a large, transparent sticker. Reviewers say this usually works fine, though they have trouble sticking to some wall materials. They're not usually repositionable since the tape stickers are very strong, but, if you don't get the shelves level on the first try, you can use a spare sticker (if one is provided) for a second chance. Other shelves support themselves with legs at each corner, like a table, which presumably works best in the short spaces you might find under counters and inside lockers.

The tension rod shelves are great for clothing and boxes, but the open design can allow smaller items to fall through. Other shelves include solid surfaces, such as woven shelves (that look like seventies lawn furniture), wire mesh, and each has its own advantages. The open tension rod models can be used with hangers, enabling some nifty hanger hacks that'll make your closet more aesthetically pleasing. They also work great for boxes, shoes, and anything else that's large and doesn't particularly need to be level, but they wouldn't be ideal for storing small containers like cleaning products or cosmetics.