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I own way too much stuff, but I’m always working on decluttering and streamlining what I have. Ironically, my quest to organize the items I do decide to keep often entails buying something new—and one recent purchase has been truly beneficial. It’s time to talk about how tiered storage has changed my organizing life.
How I use tiered storage to organize everything
I’ve previous written about how much I love acrylic organizers for storing stuff like makeup, since they keep all the tiny objects in order and easy to reach. I’ve ordered so many of them, my shopping apps have picked up on my proclivities, and a few weeks ago, one of them offered up something different: tiered, acrylic mini-shelving units.
The algorithm always knows what I want, even before I do, and it wasn’t wrong this time. I dutifully added to cart. When the little units came, I set about reorganizing my perfume shelf to test them out. I ended up loving the result—and buying more. Now, I can see everything in my cabinet without taking anything out, and reach in without knocking anything over.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
What I really like about tiered storage shelves—and why I believe you should add some of your own—is that they helps me follow the Organizational Triangle rules I’m always writing about. Specifically, the rules advise that all similar items must be stored together, and everything must have a place. Typically that means using containers to group items into categories.
That works fine in some cases, but for oft-used but varied things like makeup, perfume, and accessories, I like to be able to see what I have while I’m getting ready. Yanking open a storage container and rifling through it is less than ideal. Tiered storage not only allows me to keep everything out on a shelf and grouped together, but makes them easy to see and access.
Prior to picking these little stacked shelves up, I had a lot of perfumes lined up precariously on small boxes to create my own tiered effect. It wasn’t exactly a stable setup, and it resulted in me breaking a beloved, nowhere-near-empty bottle of Glossier You. (RIP.) These sturdier, use-specific shelves will prevent me from making that mistake again.
My favorite tiered storage ideas
I used my first round of tiered organizers to manage the delicate glass bottles of my perfume collection, but there are a lot of uses you can put these to. They’re great for organizing spices in a cabinet, displaying sentimental items or collections of knick-knacks, managing office supplies littering a desk, or even storing condiments in the fridge. Anything that you have an abundance of and don’t want to rifle through when you only need to grab one is a candidate for tiered storage. Because they make use of otherwise-wasted vertical space, these shelves provide better organization in a relatively small footprint, so feel free to get creative.
Another advantage of tiered shelving is that it’s generally not very expensive. Consider this three-tiered riser stand for $6.99:
You can get one with four tiers for $12.99. If you want something more stylish than clear acrylic, you have loads of options:
Whatever you choose, you’ll definitely appreciate being able to actually see (and use) al the stuff you’ve bought to put on them.
