Lately our cabin has been super cluttered.
The only built-in storage in the entire house are some cupboards in the kitchen, and a tiny clothes closet upstairs. With the lack of storage, things get tossed anywhere there is a horizontal surface to put it. So in our entry way, we have a table that acts as a catch all for gloves, keys, bags, work gear, tools, you name it. It lands there or the floor, or migrates it’s way into the kitchen. Problem is, when you don’t have a designated place for your things, they are NEVER where you think they are. Things get “lost”, even though they are right under your nose, underneath that clutter.
So the way I see it, we have three options –
- Live with it. Which we do already and it’s…, well, cluttered.
- Get rid of stuff. Which greatly helps. And depending on your amount of storage space this might be sufficient. But at my house, with a dire lack of storage there will always be clutter unless we…
- Make or buy some storage solutions. Which is what we will attempt to do now.
Please, just tackle one area at first. You’ll thank yourself later. Don’t try to resolve all your clutter at once. Just do one area, and make progress on that. After you’ve finished that project, decide on your next area and plan that out. If you try to tackle everything at once, start multiple projects, you’ll likely get overwhelmed, never finish any projects, and end up worse off then before! Start small, accomplish that, gain momentum from that success, and move on to the next goal.
What area will you tackle first?
I want to organize our gloves, hats, beanies that get tossed around in our entryway. How many gloves and hats could one house have, you ask? We have gloves for gardening, for chopping wood/stacking wood, for being out in the snow, lightweight ones for being active, soft knit mittens, etc! So, needless to say we have a lot of gloves. There isn’t room to install an actual coat closet or piece of furniture in our entry, but I do have a tiny piece of wall to work with. It’s about 3 feet wide, floor to ceiling.
First I think about what I’ll organize and how I want it to function. That helps me design it’s form.
- Design the storage to fit the items stored there.
- What will you put in the new storage space? size, quantity, different kinds/categories
- Place it in a convenient location.
- Will you access it frequently? Put things that are accessed frequently in a easy-to-see and easy-to-grab place. That usually means at a height between waist and eye level.
- Are there any safety issues for children or otherwise?
- Think about whether kids will try to climb, hang on, knock down, tip over your new storage solution. The same goes for pets!
- Think about fire hazards and the safe distance it should be from heat sources.
I’d like my entryway organizer to…
- not stick out too far from the wall since it’s a small space and gets a lot of traffic.
- be easy to access and easy to see what you’re looking for.
- be fast and easy to install.
- be not too expensive. The cheaper the better.
- be rustic to fit in with our mountain cabin style.
Buy your wire baskets.
or search for “Antique Black Wire Band Wall Basket on their website to find it. Don’t just wait for the 50% off sale, though, make sure you have enabled your Ebates 2% back if shopping online.
Think about how to hang them securely.
We have wood paneling on our walls, which I think can hold wood screws a little better than drywall can. If you are putting anything heavy in your baskets or if they’ll get knocked around much then you’ll need to find the studs behind your wall and screw your coat hooks into the studs. That will be much stronger than what I’ve done here.
Supplies
Total Cost my method about $100. But could be as little as $20 by being more thrifty.
- 6 baskets. I chose these baskets from Hobby Lobby. I used 6 baskets, but you can do however many you want/need.
- 12 coat hooks. I used 2 coat hooks per basket, so I needed 12. I used these hooks. You can find them at Home Depot and Lowes, too.
- 24 screws. The screws came with my coat hooks, so you may not need to buy these separately. If you’re going to make this stronger by screwing into studs, then I’d recommend a 2″ to 3″ screw for going through your drywall and far enough into the studs.
- power drill
- level
- pencil
Instructions
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- Plan out your wall and the spacing of the baskets. I wanted mine below eye level so I can easily look into them and easily pull things out. You don’t want to be reaching up and into them from above. That gets awkward and hard to find what you’re looking for. Also, by putting them below eye level, there is room above the baskets to install a mirror with shelf for keys and odds and ends.
- With a pencil, mark your coat hook holes, using a level. You’ll want them to be level so
the basket doesn’t hang crooked. However, when I was doing this, I noticed that my coat hooks were not all created equal, and neither were the baskets. What I mean is, for the coat hooks, the holes were not all identically placed on the coat hook. And the baskets had some shape differences, too. So I ended up eyeing everything more than I did using the actual level. - Pre-drill the holes with a drill bit smaller than your screws.
- Screw your coat hooks in.
- Hang your baskets on the hooks! Test it out to make sure the screws feels secure.
- Fill your baskets with some lightweight items and de-clutter you’re space!
Doesn’t it feel good to have less clutter, and one project under your belt?!
Additional ways to use these wire baskets for organizing your clutter:
- Craft supplies, like bottles of acrylic paint or cans of spraypaint
- Scarves & gloves
- Baseball caps! beanies
- magazines or books
- mail sorter
- laundry room items – detergent etc
- towels in the bathroom
- toiletries
- In the kitchen for rolls of tin foil, plastic wrap, ziploc bags, garbage bags, etc
- Gardening supplies in your potting shed
What will you organize with your baskets?
Do you have any ideas on how to alter or improve the system? Leave a comment or question below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
If you want to make this organizing system cheaper-
Use baskets from the dollar store, or a thrift store. Or use cheaper hooks (although they will probably be less decorative) like heavy duty cup hooks or screw hooks. By being more thrifty you could make this for as little as $20.
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