Sterilite 5 Shelf Heavy Duty Plastic Storage Shelving

Very sturdy and does the job.

Lo uso para almacenar productos de limpieza y de lavandería.

I’ve bought a lot of these over the years. I was pleasantly surprised by these. The boxes were not damaged. All the parts were inside. The assembly could not be simpler. They go together without a hammer. They are sturdy. They look good. They sit square on the floor. What’s not to like?

Easy to assemble. Holds allot. Love these Sterlite shelves.

Very easy to assemble… a rubber mallet would come in handy to help ensure the posts are solidly in place in the holes. Once fully assembled, solid… sturdy… Very impressive for something you’d think “plastic??? What’s that going to really hold???”! So far, since assembling it in the summer, for my garage storage, it’s now winter and colder… and my shelves are not the slightest bit affected! Bought 2 of these units during Amazon Prime Day… I wish I had bought more units than 2! They hold very well and, best of all, I was able to build these shelves “in other ways” than just one unit of 5 shelves! Great length and depth of each shelf that, once I stocked them up, my garage never looked more spacious and less cluttered. If ever the price drops again, I’ll be sure to purchase more!

These are great, perfect for my after-beach storage needs since they will dry my damp gear. They are sturdy and easy to assemble. Might get a few more.

I’ve been ordering Sterilite shelves for about 15 years (and about a dozen units total by now), so I obviously like the product.

I usually don’t think of “plastic” and “sturdy” at the same time, but these are both — think of plastic milk or beer crates, but even more rugged. Never had any defective parts, and never had any breakage or “lean” in use, despite some kids old enough to know better (11-12) climbing up onto them. I currently have one of the smaller 4-shelf units to each side of my bed — one that I assembled only three shelves tall (freestanding), with the extra parts letting me make the other unit five shelves tall (against a wall, so harder to topple). Both are surprisingly stable, even without securing to the wall using screws through the pre-drilled holes (or you could drill new screw holes wherever the studs are located in your wall).

I wish I could buy some shorter legs so that I could reduce the vertical space between some shelves (or just extra standard-length ones that I could saw to whatever length I wanted). But I suspect that even if Sterilite sold them direct, it would probably be cheaper to just order an extra full set from Amazon at Amazon pricing.

Because of the higher price now (though still cheaper than Lowes and Home Depot, the last time I checked), I’m planning to try out a different type that is currently discounted more. I was initially interested in the similar plastic ones from Gracious Living, Plano and Officesaleman, but despite looking the same in the pics (and being in the $20-30 range), they’re all smaller than this one. Right now I don’t need the size or higher strength of the Sterilite 5-shelf, so I’m probably going to give Furinno a try — very different structure (beech-laminate particleboard shelves and round PVC tubes) and maybe sorta classier-looking, but smaller and with lower shelf strength. I’ll review them if I decide to order a set.

The very similar 4-shelf Sterilite shelves are also very good, but slightly smaller in shelf width and length (so you can’t mix-and-match the two types). They’re also currently about $15-20 less expensive. Those shelves also differ in having a continuous pebble-texture top surface instead of being being “honeycombed” (like plastic crates) like these are. This honeycomb design gives a better strength-to-weight ratio, but one downside is that small items like coins will fall through the holes.

There is also a same-size plastic unit by Sandusky that’s about $10 cheaper than the 5-shelf Sterilite, but the structure is different (round tubes instead of square, among other things).

All of the units mentioned in this review were rated a minimum of 4 stars, so you’ll probably be satisfied with whatever you pick. Better than the similarly-priced metal ones that I’ve tried (IF adjustability isn’t a priority, at least).

Last note: Sterilite has offered shelves in multiple colors over the years and all that I’ve tried of the same size (4- or 5-shelf type) have been identical except for color (though sometimes wildly different in price). I just bought whichever color was cheapest at the time. Also note that right now, the price per unit for 1-pack is actually cheaper than the 2-pack and 3-pack, so don’t assume that higher-quantity = better-price.