Pro Tips for Easy Wire Shelf Assembly

by Nik Knacks

30 Minutes

Easy

I love wire shelving. It is adjustable, relatively lightweight and yet very sturdy, often holding hundreds of pounds per shelf. It will stand the test of time and use where shelving of other materials will crumble or molder away... and there is a certain pleasing aesthetic to its clean lines.
When choosing storage options for my work, the decision to invest in wire shelving was easy. Having put together more of these suckers than you can shake a stick at, I've assembled a few tips here to make your time of it a bit easier.

The first step, of course, is to assemble your tools and unpack your items. The only additional materials I use include a knife for opening the box, scissors for cutting zip ties and packaging, and a rubber mallet for pounding down shelves. Open everything up, and put the little black sticky-togetherers (that's a technical term) in a container you can easily keep with you.

Next: if you have a unit which requires screwing the posts together, DO NOT CONNECT THEM YET! Instead, assemble your first shelves onto the lower post and only screw the posts together when it is time to add shelves higher up. This dramatically cuts down on assembly time, as there's less wobbling around of really tall things and wailing in despair as that shelf you painstakingly pulled down six feet of post gets stuck and then knocks off the sticky-togetherers.

A rubber mallet will also make your life much easier. The rubber will not score the metal, but a blow or two to each corner will push the shelves down on the sticky-togetherers, assuring an even and firmly seated product.

For measuring, the posts are marked at regular intervals - but they should also have double-line sections, too! I take my measure off those, starting with taller spaced shelves at the bottom and progressing to shorter ones at the top.

Instead of putting the shelf right at the top knob, I also like to leave an interval of one or two spacers to enable one to hang things from the corners as desired. That buys me a bit more organizational power for the footprint of this... and the wavy wire fronts of the shelves are great for hanging hooks from for additional options!

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3 comments

Gypsiwoman on May 21, 2015
Nik, thanks for the tips. I've put together a few of these myself and I think you've hit all the salient points. I have a question for you. I have a wheeled six foot unit that I'm using as two three-foot units. One unit has wheels, the other does not. I have the wheels to install but I need the appropriate insert that goes into the upright tubes to accept the stem of the wheel. I have had no luck finding this thing. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you very much.

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- Nik Knacks on May 21, 2015
  Gypsiwoman - hello! Hmm. My first thought on this would be to check with a place that sells them by the component instead of by the full unit. I know the Container Store carries pretty much all the bits and bobs, for what that's worth.
  
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Jilene Williams on Jan 20, 2016
I have bought extra pieces that I have needed on line at ebay. Check out the sizes and verify with the pictures that it is exactly what you want. If you know the brand, that is extremely helpful. There are several different brands and most are interchangeable but not all. If you have picked up units with different brands the poles are not all interchangeable, so be extremely careful to keep the poles together by brand if you disassemble them for moving or are trying to put them together in another location. I love these wire shelves and have used them in every room in my houses for the past 25 years.

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