x
  • Home
  • House Tours
  • Homemaking
  • Miniatures
  • About
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Little Victorian

Little Victorian

DIY Interior Design

  • House Tours
    • Little Victorian
    • The Mid Century Modern
    • The Mid Century Cape Cod
    • The Cabin
  • Remodeling
    • Before and after
  • Decor & Furniture
  • How to decorate
Home

Organizing the small things

January 28, 2013by Christina
Our house came with a nice organizer on the back of the basement door.  We used that area as our junk drawer and storage for all those small, miscellaneous items.  It kind of worked.  The door to our basement is in our dining room, which is in the middle of the house.  And in the […]

Our house came with a nice organizer on the back of the basement door.  We used that area as our junk drawer and storage for all those small, miscellaneous items.  It kind of worked. 

The door to our basement is in our dining room, which is in the middle of the house.  And in the winter, it’s better to keep our basement door open.  But it was driving me crazy because we had to look at this ugliness all the time:

Organizing mess  

The shoe organizer was hanging in that small empty spot on the wall.  It had to be easier to look at (and easier to find things). 

I started by removing everything. 

Covering wall with canvas

The lath and plaster will eventually be removed and replaced with drywall, but we just needed a quick fix right now.  So we used roofing nails to hang up a canvas drop cloth and cover the ugly. 

Once we had the drop cloth trimmed, we mounted one-inch strips of oak to the studs. Then we hung mini buckets and baskets from cup hooks on each piece of wood.

Mini buckets as wall organizers

When we turned our attention to the door, we were surprised to find a very large crack that had been “repaired” with caulk, electrical tape and topped off with packing tape.  How does someone even get to the point where they just try to use packing tape to hold their house together?

broken door

All of that fun was removed and replaced with wood filler and then the door and the casing were painted white.  Now the whole area looks like this:

Organized hallway

We have storage space to spare and it’s WAY easier to look at. 

The buckets only cost $1 from Target, and the drop cloth was under $20.  We already had the rest of the supplies on hand, so this was a really inexpensive re-organizing project. 

FacebookTweetPin


A giant, invisible dry erase board

Never buy a klutz a fountain pen

About Christina

I'm a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

Reader Interactions

Join the Conversation Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I have a question
I have a suggestion
I did this!

  1. onshore

    Oh wow, it looks so good, especially the door.
    You have had lots of energy lately. I love your DIY.

    Reply
    • Christina O

      Thank you! It is certainly much easier to find things now too.

      We’re trying hard to get back to proactively working on the house instead of just fixing things once they break. 🙂

  2. Anonymous

    Huge difference! It looks great!

    Reply
  3. Kris

    Wow! Just when I think you can’t come up with any more usable ideas, you come up with solutions that I have been trying to find for our basement. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Christina

      Haha, you’re sweet! We still use those every day.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Christina.

Little Victorian is your place for inspiration, education, and encouragement for how to be your own interior designer and decorator, and how to carry out your big plans yourself too.

It starts with psychology, then artistry, and ends with power tools. None of those are scary, and you really can do it.

Read More

Sign Up

See more from:

Meet the Prairie House

Re-painting the kitchen cabinets

How to strip paint with a heat gun

Kitchen open shelving brackets

Beautiful brackets

  • Email
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Go back in time:


Level-up today!

Please Note

As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Links

Home
About
Contact
Privacy Policy & Disclosure

Copyright © 2023 · Little Victorian · Website by Meyne