I’m a big fan of shelves. What’s not to like? They’re immensely practical. Beyond holding items of importance off the floor and tables, they’re great parenting tools. Putting a misbehaving child’s toy on an out-of-reach shelf is a basic disciplinary tactic. The child can see the toy but cannot reach it…clear incentive to improve his or her behavior.

Can you imagine a house without shelves? What would we do with all of our stuff? It would be chaos, pandemonium, anarchy! We’d never find anything, and the dog would have unfettered access to un-canine materials. Beyond such tangible matters, we’d lose all kinds of great idioms like, “You’ve got to put the cookies on a lower shelf.” And, “It’s ready off the shelf.”

I could go on indefinitely about the blessings of…