For sure you should be able to get rid of that space. When you are customizing the interface a extra space is taken in that area that disappear when the customization menu is closed.
Apart of that if there are items outside of the screen they could create that extra space. You could double check that extending the interface between two monitors to ensure that you are not missing an interface item. Other than that this should not be happening, and as you can see swapping between different interfaces with top right menu near to the lock symbol, there are interfaces with nothing there and I have customized it with nothing there before.