Help! I want to corral my trash can, recycling, and cases of soda.
July 18, 2020 12:59 PM Subscribe
In this time of staring at some corners of my apartment a lot more than I used to, I need a better storage solution. What kind of vertical shelving (portable, I rent), would let me hold my trash can, my recycling can, plastic stacked bins of cat food and litter, plus cases of soda and some amount of the contents of the pantry?
I have about 3 feet of wall width to work with, and the trash cans are 2 feet tall and need about 3.5 feet of height to open enough for daily use.
From my seat in the living room (where I am a lot more these days), I can see a corner of my kitchen. It is currently stacked with cases of diet soda, and a lot of other accumulated clutter. I want to find a new place for the soda, in specific, and generally improve some of my other storage.
My trash and recycling cans, the cat food and litter storage, and the cat's food are along the hallway wall that I don't ever look at much. If I could figure out vertical shelving that would let me store those things + the soda + some other items, it'd be great. (Alternately, I could store the soda in the pantry, and move some pantry items to the new shelving.)
I usually have 2-4 cases of 12 cans at a time (due to bulk buying for logistical reasons.) The pantry is deep enough for the soda cases, but currently pretty packed, so I'd need to find other homes for things that are there. It has fixed shelves, so I can't move taller objects in there. I do not have other useful closed storage in the apartment (no coat closet, the bedroom closet is full of clothes and other necessities already.)
I'm wondering either about wire shelving (example) or using an over the toilet shelving system (example) - not attached to either of those as a final thing, just considering the shapes of them as a solution.
I'm looking for suggestions of other possible solutions (that keep the trash cans usable), recommendations for specific shelving that would be sufficiently sturdy, or ideas I'm not thinking about for storage otherwise. I'd like to keep the price under $100, but willing to consider higher for the right thing.
Again, my size specs are 3' of wall width to work with, need 3.5' height to clear opening the cans. Also relevant: I'm 5', so if the top shelf is more than about 6', I'm not putting anything on it.
Thanks!
From my seat in the living room (where I am a lot more these days), I can see a corner of my kitchen. It is currently stacked with cases of diet soda, and a lot of other accumulated clutter. I want to find a new place for the soda, in specific, and generally improve some of my other storage.
My trash and recycling cans, the cat food and litter storage, and the cat's food are along the hallway wall that I don't ever look at much. If I could figure out vertical shelving that would let me store those things + the soda + some other items, it'd be great. (Alternately, I could store the soda in the pantry, and move some pantry items to the new shelving.)
I usually have 2-4 cases of 12 cans at a time (due to bulk buying for logistical reasons.) The pantry is deep enough for the soda cases, but currently pretty packed, so I'd need to find other homes for things that are there. It has fixed shelves, so I can't move taller objects in there. I do not have other useful closed storage in the apartment (no coat closet, the bedroom closet is full of clothes and other necessities already.)
I'm wondering either about wire shelving (example) or using an over the toilet shelving system (example) - not attached to either of those as a final thing, just considering the shapes of them as a solution.
I'm looking for suggestions of other possible solutions (that keep the trash cans usable), recommendations for specific shelving that would be sufficiently sturdy, or ideas I'm not thinking about for storage otherwise. I'd like to keep the price under $100, but willing to consider higher for the right thing.
Again, my size specs are 3' of wall width to work with, need 3.5' height to clear opening the cans. Also relevant: I'm 5', so if the top shelf is more than about 6', I'm not putting anything on it.
Thanks!
We use that wire shelving, with the lowest shelf up a couple feet to accommodate our recycling bin on the floor underneath, bulk quantities of paper towels next to it, supplies on the shelves, mop-broom hangers on the side, etc etc.
What I love about this wire shelving is that you get yourself some spring clips, strong magnets, or strong magnet HOOKS (which I just upgraded to), and use those to hold cute fabric over the front/sides of the shelving. I'm in the middle of setting that up in my office, with several different panels of fabric covering 1-2 shelves at a time, easy to flip up or unmagnet when necessary. The hooks can hold kitchen towels, pot holders, aprons - stuff that's not so ugly sitting out. I've got a similar rig outside on the patio, but it's shower curtains (one plain plastic liner to protect the back and sides from water and dust, a pretty fabric shower curtain on the front).
If I needed a trash solution on mine, I would use s-hooks through the shelves to hang a lipped trash can from one edge so it hangs at an angle (I did this with magnet hooks and some smaller bins on the lower section of my fish tank stand to stash supplies in).
posted by Lyn Never at 1:35 PM on July 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
What I love about this wire shelving is that you get yourself some spring clips, strong magnets, or strong magnet HOOKS (which I just upgraded to), and use those to hold cute fabric over the front/sides of the shelving. I'm in the middle of setting that up in my office, with several different panels of fabric covering 1-2 shelves at a time, easy to flip up or unmagnet when necessary. The hooks can hold kitchen towels, pot holders, aprons - stuff that's not so ugly sitting out. I've got a similar rig outside on the patio, but it's shower curtains (one plain plastic liner to protect the back and sides from water and dust, a pretty fabric shower curtain on the front).
If I needed a trash solution on mine, I would use s-hooks through the shelves to hang a lipped trash can from one edge so it hangs at an angle (I did this with magnet hooks and some smaller bins on the lower section of my fish tank stand to stash supplies in).
posted by Lyn Never at 1:35 PM on July 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
I was going to suggest IVAR too. Standard width is something like 2'9", and there are two different depths to choose from, one foot or two. They offer complete flexibility when it comes to shelf positions. I've got one of the two-foot-deep units set up with the bottom shelf about 3'6" off the ground so that I can store suitcases under it, with three more shelves at varying intervals above for linens, towels and such; it's weathered two house moves, and I've never had any worries about its stability.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:48 PM on July 18, 2020
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:48 PM on July 18, 2020
I have two kinds of IKEA modular shelf units in my apartment - both the IVAR (pine shelving) and the OMAR (wire shelving like the one you linked to). Currently the OMAR is in my kitchen serving as my pantry and the IVAR is in my living room holding the stereo, turntable, guitar amp, printer, books, etc. etc.
I think you could make either work. The OMAR is incredibly fast and easy to assemble and disassemble, but the IVAR wasn't bad either (moved with both of them in January). Both feel very sturdy and have a lot of heavy stuff on them, no issues.
In your situation, I would lean slightly more toward the IVAR as 1) I have seen several friends do the exact thing you are talking about with the trash and recycling with the IVAR and 2) I had to buy a plastic shelf liner thingy from the Container Store as some of my pantry items were sliding through the cracks on the OMAR and it's annoying.
IKEA makes s-hooks so you can hang things off the sides of either type of shelf, just FYI.
posted by sparkling at 4:13 PM on July 18, 2020
I think you could make either work. The OMAR is incredibly fast and easy to assemble and disassemble, but the IVAR wasn't bad either (moved with both of them in January). Both feel very sturdy and have a lot of heavy stuff on them, no issues.
In your situation, I would lean slightly more toward the IVAR as 1) I have seen several friends do the exact thing you are talking about with the trash and recycling with the IVAR and 2) I had to buy a plastic shelf liner thingy from the Container Store as some of my pantry items were sliding through the cracks on the OMAR and it's annoying.
IKEA makes s-hooks so you can hang things off the sides of either type of shelf, just FYI.
posted by sparkling at 4:13 PM on July 18, 2020
Store the soda and cat bins under the trash cans? The trash cans are pretty small so you could put some shelves or cabinets directly on the floor and stick the trash cans on top.
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:26 AM on July 19, 2020
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:26 AM on July 19, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
We set one shelf right at the bottom, with notches cut in the back around radiator pipes, then the next shelf was above the radiator about 3 feet up.
We then had 3 or 4 shelves above that, with the brace behind. It was nice and stable, and pretty cheap and adaptable. It's in my garage now in another house a decade later.
posted by chrispy108 at 1:17 PM on July 18, 2020