Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read
As soon as the closet tornado hit, I said to myself “well, that happened.” It came out of no where. I didn’t hang anything up, I didn’t stack anything new on the shelf, the wire shelving system just fell. My niece called it my “closet tornado” and I couldn’t agree more. If you’ve ever had a closet wire shelving system fall after the silent and invisible closet tornado hit it, this article is for you. Read on to learn how we fixed our wire closet shelf that fell.
My husband assessing the closet tornado damage
We’ve lived in our Sanibel Island, Florida home for almost 4 years. It sustained a high category 4 hurricane, Hurricane Ian, all the years we lived in this house and the Florida humidity (even with central A/C, the humidity can be an issue). Those wire shelves held up through the rigorous shaking that happens to homes during tornadoes, hurricanes (post Ian, we found many things had fallen off wall shelves and more….see more of what happened to our property during Ian in this article I wrote), earthquakes and more, but on this day, it was simply done.
It looks a lot worse than it was
Perhaps one would say we had to many things on the shelves, but we actually did not have any more than an average person. After one side fell in early 2024, we soon discovered that the person that installed the wire shelving system did not do it correctly. When hanging any kind of shelf that will need to hold weight, you have to make sure you screw it into the wall studs.
We quickly learned that most of our wire closet system was not installed on the studs and when it fell, it also bent all the brackets and almost pulled out A LOT of drywall. This was a recipe for disaster and could have been much worse of a clean-up. Thankfully it was a minor thing that we knew how to fix and wanted to help others with a great solution, as we know many others have experienced a similar closet issue.
After cleaning up the clothes
Even our new neighbor said she was concerned that all her clothes would not hold on their wire shelving and we told her we could help since we have been on the other side of a closet tornado! When closet shelving falls, it looks a lot worse than it is, and it can be easily fixed in one afternoon. If you are going to fix it, you may as well fix it correctly or else it will happen again.
The ClosetMaid Shelf Track system
If you are having issues with your current wire wall shelving, whether it’s in a pantry (we loved our “stairway pantry” in which we hung all kinds of wire shelves in a stairwell that we didn’t need….see it here in this article on my website), or a closet or just on any wall, it may be time to rethink its installation or replace your system.
My husband has a lot of great DIY house tips, like how he uses caulk for a clean trim look. Check out his process in this 1-minute or less video below or via our YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
Here’s what we did to fix our fallen closet wire system.
After the shelves fell on what was a quiet and calm Sunday afternoon, we picked up all the clothes and laid them out onto a folding table (I keep this one on hand and love it), a rolling hanging rack (I use it for planning outfits) and our bed. During this time, we were able to go through some clothes and created a donation pile. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade!
The tracks have room for more shelves
Next, my husband went to Lowe’s and picked up the ClosetMaid Shelf Track system. We’ve already replaced one side of the closet that fell and wanted to match the other side to it. If we were starting from scratch, we would have just ordered the entire system on Amazon. See it here, which comes in different sizes and configurations.
The closet all put back together
He used a drill and a stud finder and matched up the new tracks with the studs. We were able to hide almost all the holes that were created by the old shelves and brackets. The shelves were still useable and in great shape, so after we added the tracks, we were able to install brackets (we used these in a 12” size) on them to hold the old shelves. One of the reasons why we like this system is due to the fact that you don’t have to start from scratch. You can just buy what you need. We also like the tracks because you can install more brackets and shelves if you want to.
We’re happy with our closet tornado fix!
While we look forward to installing an even nicer closet system like the ClosetMaid Suite Symphony in our next home (or perhaps our next closet will already have something like it!), the ClosetMaid Shelf Track wire system works well. Due to our house being for sale, we decided to simply fix this wire system instead of replacing it all. This new track-based wire-rack system will hold up for a long while for the new owners of the house as we got it into the studs, which means we hung it correctly.
Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.