Shower storage should be considered in the planning stages of your bathroom renovation to avoid the need for a shower caddy. The best storage you can have in your shower is a recessed shower shelf, followed by a moulded liner, liner mounted shelves and then a shower caddy.
Recessed Shower Shelf
Recessed shower shelves are the ultimate in shower storage. If you have a tiled shower these can come in pretty much any size you want as they are custom made.
Acrylic showers have less of an option but there are shower niches that are designed to fit in between the existing framework. The main option is the 400 x 300 niche and can be installed in either orientation.
A great benefit of these units is that they can be retro fit into existing shower liners which make them a better long term choice than hanging a shower caddy on the wall. As houses are constructed using standard stud and dwang spacings, the installation is a straightforward process.
Moulded Shower Liners
Shower liners that have moulded shelves can be an excellent option to install if you are fitting a new shower. They can come in a variety of styles with the shelves moulded into one of the sides or into the corners. Englefield has recently come out with a new shower liner that has side recessed wall shelves, but this needs specific additional framework to support each of the shelves.
Liner Mounted shelves
These shelves are mounted into the corners of the shower after the shower has been installed and can be put into an existing shower. They tend to be quite small so there is a limited amount that you can store on them.
Shower Caddy
The shower caddy is the easiest solution for your storage problems, as it requires no additional work or holes inserted into the liner.
While they are convenient they do come with a few issues:
- If hung on a shower rose the weight can cause leaking issues
- Depending on the caddy, they do have a tendency to corrode overtime or lose their protective covering
- If the caddy is held up by suction cups, when loaded with too much weight they will slip off the wall
- They intrude into the shower area potentially diminishing an already restricted space
- Difficult to clean with all the individual wires
Our advice if you are trying to install storage into an existing shower, is to look at a retro fit shower shelf.
