Shelving Ideas

How tidy is your home? Do you feel as though you are drowning in a sea of clutter?

Don't worry - the answer is in your hands. Modern homes are often lacking in cupboard and storage space, and a simple solution to get rid of all that clutter is to install a really good shelving system.

So where do you start - and what if DIY is not really your forte? A good place to begin looking for shelving ideas is Shelfstore's website, shelvingsystem.co.uk - their ingenious system can provide shelving ideas for any kind of home or storage issue.

The first thing to do before considering shelving ideas is to take a look around your home and see exactly what things you need to store. Perhaps you need shelves for CDs, or for books - or maybe you have ornaments that you think could be better displayed with the help of some shelving ideas.

One type of person who is very much in need of shelving ideas is a collector. To have a great collection that is all tucked away in boxes and cupboards is to reduce the pleasure - it's much nicer to have every item of your collection spread out to view whenever you want them.

Shelving ideas can also enhance the interior design of your home. In small homes in particular, shelving ideas can reduce clutter and make the space seem wider and more airy, while in large rooms such as loft apartments, shelving can help divide the space up into different living areas such as eating and relaxing.

Once you've decided exactly what items you want to store on shelves, you can start looking round your home for the best place where shelving ideas can make a difference. Shelving systems can make the most of unconsidered spaces such as the area above the toilet cistern in the bathroom, which is wasted space yet can be ideal for shelves.

Another area where shelving ideas can make a real difference is in the kitchen, where they can be tucked above the cupboards to provide extra storage space for crockery, jars or display items such as dried flowers. You can always use more space in the kitchen - one of the busiest rooms in the house and also one of the most likely to look messy and cluttered if everything is not stored away.

Think about the space under your stairs, too. Is it just a dumping place for discarded shoes, or could shelving ideas create a great place to tidy away all those books that are currently lying all over your living room?

Many people who love books go the whole hog and create a library space, giving over a whole room to shelving ideas that create floor-to-ceiling storage for all that literary wealth. Shelves are a great way not only to get things out of the way, but also to put them in order - many people with music collections like to store their CDs with the artists in alphabetical order so they can easily select the music they want to listen to at any particular time.

One of the best ways to find shelving ideas and design shelves to suit your own space is to use the facility on Shelfstore's website, which helps you to create shelves that will fit snugly into the available space - and will also be ideally sized for whatever you want to display.

Shelfstore's shelving ideas also fulfil a further important consideration for your shelves - they need to be strong enough to bear the cumulative weight of all the goods you want to store on them. Shelfstore's shelving ideas are created in solid varnished pine of high quality, which means they are sturdy enough to stand up to whatever you put on them - no chance of your precious possessions ending up on the floor!

We also give you a step-by-step picture guide on how to fix your shelves once you get them, so even if you are not big on DIY, you can still put them up.

It's well worth the effort. A well-designed shelving system in your home can make your living space more attractive, and a more serene place to be - how frustrating is it to have to search constantly through piles of CDs to find the one you want? You'll be more organised so you'll spend less time hunting for the things you need - and you won't be crunching your goods into the carpet because you've been storing them on the floor up to now…

Take time to design a great shelving system and it will keep you and your possessions in order for years to come, preserving your collections from harm and displaying them to yourself and to visitors to perfection. And if you ever move, you can even take your shelving system with you - after all, you'll find you can't live without it…