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How Do I Choose the Best Bookcase with Drawers?

Misty Amber Brighton
Misty Amber Brighton

A bookcase with drawers can help you get organized. Before you make a purchase, you should gather all the things together that you might want to store in the bookcase. That way, you can know approximately how many shelves you need and if small or large drawers will be required. Measuring the space where you would like to put the bookcase will give you an idea of the size you are looking for. Your home decorating scheme will also affect your purchasing decision.

Before you buy a bookcase with drawers, it can be helpful to know what you plan to store in it. The shelves can be used for books or collectibles, but many different things can be stored in the bookcase drawers. If you want to put small items in the drawers, a unit with very large drawers may not be necessary.

Woman standing behind a stack of books
Woman standing behind a stack of books

When you find a model you like, you should pay special attention to the placement of the bookcase drawers. A bookcase will be more stable if large drawers are placed at the bottom and very small drawers are at or near the top. This is especially true if heavy items will be loaded in bottom compartments.

It can be a good idea to know where you would like to place your bookcase with drawers before making a purchase. That way, you are sure to find one that fits in that location. You should measure the space before you go shopping, and then write these measurements down on a piece of paper and take them with you.

A bookcase with drawers can also have other features. It can be helpful to know what features are available so you can decide whether you would like to make use of them. The bookcase could have sliding doors or ones that lift up. It could also have a door on the front partially made of glass. A model with some of these features may be more expensive than other types, but they may better suit your home decorating plan.

Some wooden bookcases may need to be assembled after they are purchased. If you are buying one of these types, make sure you have all the tools needed to complete the job. It can also be a good idea to ask about the difficulty of building it in order to make sure you do not buy a bookcase with drawers that is too hard for you to put together.

Discussion Comments

bythewell

@Ana1234 - I'd rather just keep my pieces of furniture separate for this reason. They can be expensive if you buy good pieces and they are going to be more flexible if they only have one function. It's a matter of whether you need something that won't take up as much space, or something that will do one thing really well.

Ana1234

@Fa5t3r - It's not that difficult to install tracks for drawers, although it would depend on the bookshelf as to whether it's worth the trouble. Most bookshelves are relatively narrow because they are only designed to hold the width of a book, so I don't think it's really worth putting in drawers.

It's not all that expensive to buy a wooden bookcase with storage space in the bottom either, although going cheap might not be the best option if you are planning on using it a lot. Books can be very heavy, so you should go for something that is going to hold up under a lot of weight.

Fa5t3r

It's possible to just use drawers in an ordinary bookcase if you can find the right kind. I wouldn't use heavy ones unless you are planning to install proper tracks on the bookcase, so that you don't have to worry about them falling out or anything like that.

But you can get fabric boxes that can work as a drawer (and are designed to be a drawer in shelving) and they can work well. It's nice to have an extra space on a bookshelf where you can put smaller items without having to worry about them falling out.

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    • Woman standing behind a stack of books
      Woman standing behind a stack of books