How to Not Get Ripped Off on Closet Storage Systems

Review by Sunflower Sister for John Louis Home JLH-522 Standard 12-Inch Depth Closet Shelving System, Honey Maple
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My husband and I are delighted with this solid wood closet organizing systerm. It’s classy and beautiful–unlike the tacky particle board, plastic or wire systems in most stores. There’s room for everything and more than one unit can be put together to fit any closet. Plus, shelves and towers can be purchased to fill any gaps. Would recommend this to anybody!

Review by juniee for John Louis Home JLH-522 Standard 12-Inch Depth Closet Shelving System, Honey Maple
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The finsished project is a thing of beauty and so very wonderful. Glowing words I know for just a closet. My closet was such a mess I literally could not find thing in it. Now everything is within plain sight and easily accesable.

The project was not as easy to install as the manufacturer led me to believe however with the help of an able handyman it was installed perfectly. I would not advise the average DIYS to try this project. Another fault is that we had to keep ordering additional accessories to achieve the results we thought we saw in the photos. The photos are not misleading, its just that you really don’t know what you want or need until the project is underway.

All in all I’m in love with the finished project.

Review by CactusJack for John Louis Home Standard Closet Shelving System, Red Mahogany
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I bought 2 of these systems for our master bedroom closet about a year ago and I must say they have really made a big diffence. Several different categories of satisfaction so I’ll list them to make it easy as possible:

Aesthetics: The wood,finish and hardware are of considerable quality and look great. I chose the Red Mahogany finish and it truly makes a difference in our closet (we had those regular white wire organizing systems). The edges are soft yet masculine enough to appeal to any husband/significant other and the shelves are reminiscent of a spa-type atmosphere.

Options: The kits include design ideas for numerous closet sizes and configurations and have everything you need. Hardware, drywall reinforcements, touch-up stain, diagrams.

Ease of installation: Although capable of being a 1-person installation – the job would be much simpler with 2. Simple enough for the novice handyman, tools required are limted and basic – if you have a hammer, power drill/screwdriver and a saw of some type, you’re in business. Obviously, the right tool for the right job makes any task easier, but if your toolchest is limited, the above mentioned items will easily get you thru this project. Instructions are easy to follow and installation time isn’t long and drawn out; it took me working by myself to completely install one kit approx. 2.5hrs (for our closet, 1 kit outfits one side with some remaining pieces). Be sure to install into as many studs as possible for strength. I hit 90% of the studs in our closet and the shelving is strong enough to hold the weight of my 3-year-old who decided to sit on one of the lower shelves (shoe shelf/rack) to help daddy work:-)

Modifications: If you’re really handy and like a challenge, take any remaining pieces to really go all out. Since i needed 2 kits for our closet, the pieces remaining from both kits gave me enough shelving and hardware to place a shelf above the entrance to our walk-in, plus 2 extra stringers and 1 shelf to outfit the back wall of our closet (I then matched the wood and built cabinet doors, drawers and 2 more shelves to give my wife a built-in jewelry drawer).

Pricing/Cost: For the price of the 2 kits (and the extra work/modifications I added) I saved literally thousands of dollars doing the job myself and we got exactly want we wanted in our closet!!

Delivery: I opted for standard delivery and the kits arrived well packaged and by UPS. Each kit weighed approx. 80Lbs. And surprisingly, delivery only took about 10 days

Review by cobayley for John Louis Home Standard Closet Shelving System, Red Mahogany
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We live in a 30 year old manufactured home. (Trailer to most of you young folks). It is a large mobile and we have just the one large double reach in closet and little storage. We shopped the home improvement stores for closet organizers and were disappointed that all we found were laminated or metal wire organizers. We decided to go home and look at Amazon before we made a purchase. We were really surprised by the John Louis organizer. The price (at the time we purchased) beat any local home improvement store by at least 30%. I have Prime and the shipping was free. It arrived within 3 days. It was packaged safely and we assembled and installed it in one day. It is beautiful. We are planning a move in the next couple of years. I will look for this product again if the need arises.

Review by SteveO for John Louis Home Standard Closet Shelving System, Red Mahogany
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The pieces for this set are pretty basic.

3 long pieces (either 48″ each or 60″ each)

3 2′ shelves

4 contoured support brackets

9 or so spacers for the hanging rods

4 6′ trim pieces

Tons of hardware (screws, anchors, brackets, etc.)

You really need a good trim saw, or a table saw…I can’t imagine cutting the shelves with a hand saw…

It took me a while to “lay out”, and design my own little customized piece. I think that I started sawing a little too early, and didn’t think to make the shelf on top long enough to be one of the “stacking shelves”. But it all worked out in the end…Fortunately, there is plenty of “dummy room” with the brackets in that if you cut a shelf too short by an inch, the bracket will cover for you. I had a hard time with some of the screws and brackets that were to support the shelves. If you wiggled the shelf around trying to get it in to the right spot it “crunched” the wood…Once I got going though, it really came together quickly, and looks great as a final product…Wife is very happy with results…I have tons of hardware left as I used much longer screws to really drive it in to the studs for years of use…Do get some spackle though, because leftover damage from removed wire shelving left nice big holes.

Review by Don K. Yoshikawa for Rubbermaid 3H89 Configurations 4-to-8-Foot Deluxe Custom Closet Kit, Titanium
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I have used all three of these. I first bought the Elfa (Container Store) for one bedroom. It was extremely expensive. Spent 5 times more than the others for something very simple. Everything is cut for you once you have the measurements. It is very sturdy and very well made, of course. It is probably over kill for a closet organizer. They have a lot of nice accessories for it and can be dressed up to look nicer than the others. Biggest negative which really surprises me since Closetmaid and Rubbermaid doesn’t have this problem is you can’t slide a hanger all the way across.

My next project was using Rubbermaid. I liked the idea it was adjustable. It was very easy to install. I bought the delux 8 feet kit. One problem is you will sometimes have left over parts and in my case I also had to buy one extra part since the way I wanted it was a little different that what options you had with their kit. After installing it I found I just didn’t need to change it, so the adjustability probaly was not a plus for me but some people may want to make changes after using it for awhile. Biggest negative which really isn’t a negative is that it is flimsy compared to the Elfa which is like a tank. That is because it is adjustable but it is sturdy enough. I have no problems with that. Another possible negative is it only comes with 12 inch shelves for closets. If you really need something bigger you can go into their garage sections which has 16 inches shelves.

My last project was Closetmaid. I used Closetmaid for my wife’s closet since she wanted 16 inch shelves and I didn’t feel it needed to be adjustable. Now if you don’t want to be doing your own cutting which can be a chore without the right tools then go with Rubbermaid. But I have the right tools so cutting was not a problem. I bought mine at Lowe’s. If you have all your measurements you can do the cutting their. They have a bolt cutter that cuts right through it. I did all my cutting at home since I have bolt cutters and metal saws. I like Closetmaid since it was sturdier than Rubbermaid and I just buy what I need. It also has a nice selection of accessories from wire drawers to shoe organizers. What I really liked is their clothes hamper. It pulls out on a slide then pushes in after you throw your dirty clothes in.

Now the surprise is the vertical hangers for all three companies all have the same slot design. How the verticals hang on the wall is differnt but once you have the vertical hangers secured you can interchange most accessories. I can install shelf supports for any company on any one of the vertical hangers. So I used the Closetmaid clothes hamper in my Rubbermaid closet. Closetmaid shelf supports and shelves will fit on the Rubbermaid or Elfa vertical hangers and vice versa.

If money is not a concern then buy the Elfa, built like a tank will last forever and looks better than the others with the righ accessories.

Rubbermaid is the least sturdy of the three but does the job. It is very easy to put up so if your not handy around the house then buy this one. You also can easily make changes to how you want the shelves organized much more so that the other two. If you want 16 inch shelves then look at their garage organizers, the system is the same.

I like Closetmaid but it does require more work to put up since you have to do all the cuttings. It is much sturdier than Rubbermaid since it is meant to be permanent once you put it in. Shelves snap in place which took some effort and would be difficult to remove. Rubbermaid has a simple slide to lock shelves in so you can makes changes easily but then again you give up some sturdiness.

Review by Craig F. Dominey for Rubbermaid 3H89 Configurations 4-to-8-Foot Deluxe Custom Closet Kit, Titanium
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I wanted to post a review that addresses why a lot of people look into Rubbermaid Configurations – to get a cheaper, comparable version of Elfa shelving. Some on here claim that this is just like Elfa, minus Elfa’s high price. That’s how I found out about Configurations and compared the two.

The problem was, my fiancee and I had already looked at Elfa shelving with the Container Store closet designer and had that system on our minds when I started looking at Configurations. It’s not quite apples to apples as some people claim.

To look at the system, I ripped open a box at Target. Three things I noticed that made this system different.

1. Some of the smaller pieces are plastic. Elfa is all metal/steel. Granted its not the pieces that “count” i.e. the tracks, shelving. But its not quite the same quality.

2. The shelves are a foot deep at most, and there are no other options. With Elfa you have the option of getting deeper shelves – and yes, for some folded clothes those extra inches matter.

3. As some on here have noted, for full closet systems you may end up buying two sets of the Configurations systems in order to get all the pieces you need. But I priced what I would have needed at around $200, which was $100 less than the comparable Elfa system for my closet.

This system is fine for kitchen, garage, office, kids room organization – for this, Elfa is probably overkill. But for a master clothes closet, the shelf depth was the killer. I ended up biting the bullet and buying Elfa.

If you think this might work for a clothes closet, my suggestion would be to visit Container Store and get a closet layout from a consultant there. Then take that list and see how many Configurations sets you need for the same layout. You’ll probably come out ahead cost wise. If you wait until Elfa is 30% off around the holidays, though, the gap will narrow.

Also worth mentioning is that the Configurations platinum system (and of course white) look very similar to the untrained eye to Elfa. So another option is to use this as your shelving and invest your money in the Elfa stand up drawer units to complete the closet. These are where the real expense is. But a combination of the two will give you a pretty killer closet.