Stumbled on doing this – someone else probably already is using shelves like this, but wanted to share! Was originally just using the shelves for decoration.
This is my first, rudimentary copper golem item sorter. Because each golem can only remember the last 10 chests (and because they work so slowly), had to make a bunch of sections and remembering where each batch of items go was an issue. Using shelves to "list" items is my solution to remembering which items go in which copper chests for now.
I also am just using the items in the shelves as a guide, because each chest contains all the possible permutations of each type of wood (including items such as doors and fencing, etc).
by jeraldjuice