Thursday, May 19, 2011

Hanging a Wire Rack for Cleaning Supplies {Improvisation}

Like most people, we keep a lot of cleaning supplies under our kitchen sink. Needless to say, our under-sink area is a little out of control. I don't know why we have so many different bottles of cleaner, but we do. {And, yes, THAT weeding out project is a task/post for another time}.

In the meantime, I really wanted to figure out a way to corral at least a few of those bottles - the ones I use the most - into a more easily accessible location. My first idea was to install one of those sliding basket thingies on one side. However, due to the configuration of the garbage disposal on one side and some pipes on the other, I am unable to make a sliding basket fit. GRRRRR.

See those low-hanging pipes in the way of a drawer? Sigh.
(and yes, I know... too many supplies - I need to weed)


Then I remembered seeing (somewhere out there in blogland - sorry, can't remember where) that someone installed a hanging rack of sorts on the inside of their pantry door. I think that blogger had placed things like aluminum foil and plastic wrap in theirs, but I figured that sort of rack would be a great idea for my bottle situation. So I ran out to Walmart (where, I admit, I rarely go because the closest one gets so RIDICULOUSLY crowded) and bought a pack of wire organizing wall racks thingies. (Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the package and label - bad blogger, I know). The packet included 3 wire racks of varying heights which could be attached with screws to a wall or door. I think it was less than $5, if memory serves.


When I got home I was so excited to get the rack hung and organize a few bottles of cleaner! Yay! Well, imagine my disappointment when I realized that the screws they provided were way to long for my thin cabinet door.

Yeah, these screws are NOT going to work.

I suppose I could have tried to find some shorter screws, but I really didn't think it would work either because the door itself is actually really thin (even thinner than the edge trim seen above). Not to mention, that the rack was actually a smidgen too wide for the way the trim fell on the inside of the door. (kinda hard to explain that part, but the rack wouldn't lay flush against the door for where the screws wanted to go)

So then I thought... how about HOOKS??? Yes!! I could HANG the rack! So I pulled out this pack of hooks I had bought to hang some calendars in the girls' rooms.

Command hooks originally bought to hang calendars in the kids' rooms.


I placed one hook at the edge of the trim on the inside of the cabinet and repeated on the other side.


The lips of the door trim originally posed a problem for hanging my rack - but not for these hooks!

Then I just hung up my rack! And, voila! If you look closely, you can see where the top outer edges of the rack are overlapping the lips of that trim in a way to prevent it from being able to screw in flush. But now with my hook improvisation, it is perfect!

Perfecto!

I am able to fit my 4 bottles of Shaklee Basic H in the rack (yes, I recently decided to give this stuff a shot after seeing so many bloggers rave about it - so far, so good). I love that the bottles are so convenient to get to now!


Nicely organized and easily accessible!

Hooks... who-da thunk it?

Not a bad improvisation, if I do say so myself! :)

Have you ever come up with some great work-arounds for an organization problem??


Linking up here:


Pin It!

3 comments:

  1. I did't think to use hooks on mine, I just used smaller screws and it was a pain in the you know what! Could it have been my post about under the sink for the 21 day challenge that you saw the racks? If not I'm going to take credit anyway! haha!! I use one for my most used cleaning supplies and the other for ziploc bags.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh, I might be trying this.... I love my shaklee bottles and I am struggling with organization of my cleaning supplies right now, I have most in a bag to carry around which is great, but they are starting to multiply, hmm... this seems like a very good idea indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Kyra,
    I also have experienced the same thing when I recently moved to a new home. I got desperate and want to use the services for organizing stuff in my house. That’s a good idea…
    My wife too confused to put cleaner in the kitchen. Maybe I'll make a wire rack so that all the items in the kitchen organized.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment! I read every single one and enjoy visiting your blogs in return!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...