My husband and I are just in the final stages of a whole-house renovation, which included a brand new kitchen. Coming from our fairly small, badly-laid out previous kitchen, I was insistent on trying to make better use of the space. One of the items on my wish list? A broom closet where I could store tall brooms and mops and cleaning supplies. In our pre-renovation house, they were stored down in the basement, making it super inconvenient to do a quick sweep or clean-up.
After being inspired by the latest W Network television show, Game of Homes (airing Tuesday nights at 10pm EST), I decided to make this my next project. Game of Homes challenges competitors to completely renovate, room-by-room, one of four derelict houses. The catch: these homes have been transported from different areas in British Columbia, to one major public venue in Vancouver. The grand prize winner will receive their own plot of land in the surrounding Vancouver area, where the newly renovated house will be picked up and delivered to. Needless to say, after watching, I was feeling pretty inspired.
Sadly though, that broom closet has been looking like this for the past 3 months as we focused on other elements of our reno. Not pretty. And definitely not functional.
We built the shelf up at the top for cleaning supplies, but the space was really wasted with our broom and mop sitting on the ground, with plastic bags and other random things shoved on top. You would open the door, and things would fall out. Not good.
First step in fixing things up was to take everything out, and paint the interior of the closet (it had only been primed up until this point). I chose a really pretty shade of blue-green (“Deep Discount” by PARA Paints) and painted the whole inside—shelf and all. Oh and my secret to make painting a little less dull? Have your laptop nearby and stream some reality shows—like Game of Homes.
Once everything had dried, I got to work on making better use of the space. Having our bottles of cleaning supplies on that top shelf made sense, so I put those back where they were.
I definitely wanted to hang our broom and smaller scrubber and dustbin to get them off the ground. I used some Command™ Medium Clear Hooks which are incredibly easy to apply. You just apply the adhesive mounting strip that comes with the hook to the back, and then stick onto the wall. The great thing about using these versus regular hooks that you have to drill in is that these come off the wall easily leaving no damage. So if down the road I decided to change my mind about the placement of these hooks, no big deal.
Once I got those hung up, I was feeling like the other side of the closet would be good for some kind of basket. The regular wire baskets I had around the house weren’t really working, so I grabbed some of these bathroom caddies from the dollar store. They are the kind that come with suction cups to affix in the shower. After removing the suction cups, I just hung two more Command™ Medium Clear Hooks and slotted the baskets on. They are perfect for storing our extra dish scrubbers and sponges!
I also threw up three of these little blue bins, again from the dollar store. One hook for each was all it took. I have sponges in there for now (we had a lot of sponges apparently?!), but these could also be great for pens and pencils, smaller bottles of stuff, etc. I used the smaller clear hooks for these as I knew that the items would not weigh much, but the nice thing about the Command™ Hooks is that you can get them in a variety of sizes to hold heavier items.
For all of those plastic bags that had been shoved into a reusable bag before, I grabbed our old plastic bag carrier (from IKEA) and attached it to the wall with the Command™ Poster Strips. I put a piece on each corner, and it seems to be holding up well so far!
Another fun product that I came across were these Command™ Slate Spring Clips that go up on the wall in the same way the hooks do (with the adhesive strip). We have yet to paint this door, but I put the clips up now and it has become such a useful spot to clip up coupons and papers that we had just been leaving on our kitchen counter.
All in all, this narrow little closet has become the super functional spot I had hoped it would be. Making use of all of the space on the walls was really the trick in fitting as much in as we did. Everything has a place, and it’s easy to get things in and out. I would say no more crashing brooms on the floor when you open the door is a win, wouldn’t you?
If you want to help find your organization inspiration, check out Game of Homes on the W Network or catch up on past episodes here. We will be live tweeting tonight’s episode at 10pm EST so join us @UrbanMomsCa!
This post was brought to you by 3M Command, but the opinion and images are my own. For more information, please visit here.
You can usually find Gemma either with a paint brush in her hand, blogging over at www.thesweetestdigs.com, or trying to keep up with her toddler.
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