I’ll bet you have at least one of these in your house, maybe even a few of them. They come in lots of different colors – natural, blue, pink; lots of different materials – canvas, nylon, mesh, vinyl; and several different sizes – 16 pockets, 20 pockets, there’s even a smaller version with little pockets that’s meant to be hung over a shower door. They’re all, with the exception of that last example, shoe organizers. Or at least that’s how they’re labeled! The fact is, you can use these shoe organizers for LOTS of other storage and organization tasks, anywhere you have a door with free real estate on one side. In fact, I don’t really like them for holding shoes (I prefer solid cubbies), but they work great for lots of other storage purposes:
- In the hall closet, it can hold mittens, gloves, hats, and rolled-up scarves. All those small, loose items that seem to get jumbled up on the one pathetic shelf that sits above the rod. Imagine never having to search for your gloves again! This is probably my favorite use for over-the-door shoe organizers.
- On the back of your home office door, it can hold office supplies, items that you sometimes need in your purse but don’t carry all the time (for me, these are things like tape measures and small flashlights), extra keys, and even cleaning supplies like paper towels or a microfiber duster.
- In the linen closet, you can use it to store small linens such as wash cloths or hand towels; or all those extra soap dishes/toothbrush holders/lotion dispensers that you’re not using, but are unsure where to stash. I bet you can free up a lot of under-the-sink space this way!
- On the back of your water closet or bathroom door, the pockets are unfortunately too small to store toilet paper. However, you can stash just about everything else you might need in the bathroom: soap, feminine hygeine products, extra bottles of shampoo and body wash. This is also another place where you might store your extra soap dishes or other vanity accessories that aren’t currently in use.
- In a kid’s room or baby’s room, use them to store toys, socks, diapers, wipes, etc. Hint: put items you want the little angel to be able to get herself, like her socks and toys, in the bottom few rows. Save the top rows for stuff that you want to keep out of a small child’s reach – such as diaper ointment or other potential messes and hazards.
I’ll try to update this post with some photos of my own over-door organizers in action this weekend.
