Downsides That Will Convince You To Ditch Wire Closet Shelving

Closets across the country suffer from the boring look of white wire shelving as the primary means of organization. The look is bad enough — it's hard to find inspiration for a perfectly creative outfit when you're surrounded by vinyl-coated wire shelving that feels overused since it's found in so many homes. But this type of shelving system also interferes with how you store your clothing and accessories. Not only does it leave your clothes out in the open, but it also lacks any practical storage for smaller items. Plus, it's common to end up with wire marks on folded clothes. Any of these reasons could be enough to make you ditch your wire shelving to build or buy a closet system with solid shelves that's customized to your needs.

Take the indentations that you get on your clothes, for instance. The bottom layer of clothes that lies directly on the wire shelving often ends up with lines or creases on the fabric from the individual wires on the shelving. Even if you don't notice major lines on your clothing, you may notice that it gets wrinkly while sitting on the shelf since it isn't a solid, flat surface and can't provide as much support. Wire shelving could create more work for you if you have to iron the clothes you've already neatly folded and put away. Solid shelves or enclosed storage compartments, like drawers and cabinets, help keep your clothes wrinkle-free and smooth.

Your closet is a natural spot to store accessories to keep them out of sight and free up space in your bedroom. However, wire shelving doesn't provide much support for smaller items. The spacing varies but can leave gaps as wide as 1 inch. Watches, jewelry, and other small accessories are often small enough to fall through those gaps. Storing the items in their original boxes may help, but those boxes are still relatively small and might be unstable on wire shelving. Delicate clothing, such as lingerie and silky camisoles, might also slip through the slats, making them more difficult to fold and store. 

Custom closet solutions allow you to incorporate felt-lined jewelry or watch drawers to remedy the issue. Not only does this option prevent accessories from falling through the cracks, but it adds extra protection to prevent scratching. Divided drawers help you organize small items neatly and prevent tangled necklaces or separated earrings. 

If you don't want to install a custom closet system, you can hide ugly wire shelves to create a lovely closet aesthetic while eliminating the small gaps that let delicate and smaller items slip through. Placing a piece of wood over the slats or building a custom shelf cover creates one solid surface that's better suited for small items. You can also use bins on the wire shelving to hold smaller items if you're not ready to upgrade your closet.

Wire shelving creates an open, airy look in your closet, which can make it easier to spot exactly what you need. However, it can also leave your closet looking messy with all of your clothing pieces sitting out in the open. For some people, having all of the clothing visible is a motivator to keep things folded neatly and piled in tidy rows. The problem is it's easy to get sloppy with the folding and stacking. Plus, your clothes are different sizes, fabrics, colors, and thicknesses, so you'll never have perfectly symmetrical piles.

Even if the chaos of randomly piled clothes doesn't bother you, keeping your wardrobe out on open shelves could cause other issues, such as your clothes gathering dust. The open storage method could also perpetuate the sneaky damage your closet window is causing — fading your favorite clothes. UV rays that reach your clothes could damage the fabric and cause patchy fading.

Installing a custom closet with enclosed storage helps prevent these issues. Drawers and cabinets hide your clothing and make it easier to organize pieces. The storage compartments help keep the piles of clothes upright since the areas are smaller with supportive sides. And keeping your clothes tucked away can prevent fading and dustiness, so they stay clean and last longer.