About School Locker Shelves

School locker shelves are dividers that fit inside a locker that utilize the traditionally unusable space above the floor of the locker. Shelves either stack horizontally on top of one another, leaving space for student items, or they hang from hooks or a rod at the top of the locker.

A school locker shelf increases the usable space in a locker. Most shelving is constructed from heavy-duty materials, which withstand normal use for many years. They hold the heavy books and notebooks that are the staples of every student's locker. With shelving in place, most lockers are less crowded and more organized.

Locker shelves are made of materials such as plastic, wood or metal and are often decorated to suit the taste of the student using the shelves. Traditional shelves utilize a stacking system in which one shelf has "legs" that hold it up from the floor of the locker and are either braced by the locker walls or are fixed to the shelf itself (they are unmovable). Other shelves are then stacked on top of the base shelf if needed. Another type of shelving system is hung from the top of the locker, utilizing all available space. These typically consist of cloth or plastic shelves suspended between two or three cloth sides--similar in style to a hanging shoe rack. Hanging shelves are adjustable and allow the student to still use some of the vertical space in the locker for longer items such as coats.

Locker shelving, regardless of what it is made of, has benefits and drawbacks. For example, plastic stacking shelves are colorful and relatively durable. However, they have a fixed, four-sided construction that students cannot adjust to make room for larger books. Metal shelves are often inexpensive and easy to find, and can be either heavy or lightweight. Heavy metal shelves with fixed construction have the same benefits and drawbacks as the plastic stacking shelves. Lightweight metal options such as wire mesh or aluminum shelving typically have movable legs that must be braced on the sides of the locker. These are adjustable but not very durable. They bend and sometimes even break under heavier loads. Similarly, cloth-covered shelving, while versatile, can weaken and tear from normal use.

Students use their lockers virtually every day, and their lockers should be organized. Those who utilize only the bottom shelf of their locker have a difficult time accessing materials because the space is too crowded. A shelf or a shelf system helps students become more organized by enabling them to quickly and easily locate textbooks and other materials.