Hook Me Up

I love Crest Avenue.  There can be no doubt of that.  I fell in love with her from the first time I stepped inside.  I knew it was the property I had been searching for immediately.  The floorplan.  The yard.  Everything was exactly what I wanted.  As I have told here before, she had been neglected but I could see her beauty and knew I could bring her back to life.  That being said, there were/are structural anomalies which exist in a house that was built in 1947.  One of those is closet space.  Or rather, the lack of such.  The closets are few and tiny.  I refer to them as "broom closets" which is what we called the closet in the kitchen of the house I grew up in that was there for just that purpose - to hold brooms and other cleaning supplies.  The only difference was that all of the rooms in the house I grew up in had large, expansive closets with sliding doors.  Crest Avenue, on the other hand, has broom closets throughout.  So I have had to be creative and utilize every available space for storage.  And that includes adding shelving where possible and utilizing the backs of doors where appropriate.

Below are some ideas I have implemented to help with the storage space.



In the bath, I installed a shelving unit over the door which adds a handy space to hold things that you don't have room for anywhere else.  At present, I am using this shelf to store paper towels and bath tissue.  I buy both items in bulk and store the majority of the purchase on shelving in the basement.  But I keep a few rolls at the ready on this shelf which prevents me from constantly running to the basement to retrieve these items.  You could use the shelf to store extra bath towels or place fanciful glass jars with bath fizzies and soaps and such.  Whatever works best for your situation.  I gathered the items for this shelf from Lowe's.  Since the door is so close to the corner of the room, I had to use small shelf brackets so that the one on the left would fit between the door jamb and the wall.  The shelf is particle board with a slightly rounded front which makes it a little more pleasing to look at and gives a nice finished look.  There are two screws in the wall on either side of the door and the brackets slip over the screw heads and slide down to lock in place.  The shelf is adhered to the brackets utilizing a hot glue gun.  For added support, the shelf should rest not only on the brackets, but on the top of the door jamb also.




Recently, I added this hook to the back of the bath door.  I found these at IKEA.  They are called Blecka.

 

I like the design of this hook.  But they have many different styles to choose from.  Just to let you know, the screws needed to install these hooks do not come in the package.  You can find the appropriate sized screws at your local hardware store.





Here is another closet door.  You can see the plastic insert in the center of the door from a previous hanger I had on this door to hold my baseball caps.  I found storage for those someplace else, so all I had to do was install the new Blecka hook in the existing spot.





And, voila!  A little extra storage space in the front entry closet.



I will be using this hook to store my winter scarf.  We have had some very cold and blustery weather recently and I was continually searching for my scarf.  Sometimes I would fold it and put it away.  Other times I would place it inside one of the arms of my coat and hang that in the closet.  Now it is right where it needs to be.  Every time I open the door it will be conveniently at my hand.

So, just a few ideas of how to add extra storage space to your home if you find yourself searching for places to store all of your trinkets.