I’ve Rented Dozens of Apartments and This Is the One Thing I’ll Buy at Target Every Time

If there’s one thing old buildings often have a lot of, it’s charm. Many of my former apartments have had picture windows, adorable cabinet knobs, and beautifully tiled bathrooms that have probably been there longer than you’ve been alive. But the one thing they don’t often have is closet space. 

Rather than be deterred from nabbing a beautiful third-story walk-up up in New York’s East Village because of its tiny closet, I said I’d take it and figure out the storage problem later. That’s where my all-time favorite item from Target comes in. To my delight, the wire closet shelf I bought from Target for $20 worked wonders in my four-month sublet, then again in my new lease takeover. It could have easily been a standalone piece outside of my closet, but it’s the perfect size to squeeze inside such a narrow storage closet. 

Here’s how I maximize it: I put shoes on the bottom rung, then folded all of my sweaters and t-shirts to put on the remaining three shelves. This freed up enough room for my giant grey suitcase so it could be stored on the top shelf of my closet—the kind of shelf that’s impossible to reach without a step stool (another item I kept buying as I continued to move to different apartments).

While this Target shelf isn’t designed to be taken apart after that first use, I found it easy to disassemble and pack with me to the next place and the next. When I forgot it on one move, I didn’t try to sneak back into the building to get it back. Instead, I just picked up a replacement from Target and kept on moving.

I was worried that overloading it with items (I packed as much as I could on those things!) was going to make the shelf sag, but I found it was surprisingly sturdy. It even functioned better than some dressers I had. I could see everything that I stacked up and, best of all, it fit inside every closet I tried it in. (None were smaller than that East Village walk-up, and the piece always left enough room for even more of my stuff on the side.) While I try not to get too attached to my belongings, I still find a way of doing it. And with this shelf I grew to love, I didn’t hesitate to buy it more than once. It’s not that I haven’t looked for other closet storage solutions. Believe me, I have. I’m well-versed in the 3M Command fleet. I buy those over and over again. too. But it’s this Target shelf that sticks out in my mind, and I’m grateful it joined me on my apartment-hopping journey.