An organized home is very important. It helps you to take control of your stuff. And, it doesn't allow your stuff to take control of you. However, in smaller homes or apartments, you need to be creative in your organizing. I suggest to my clients to use back of wooden entry doors to hang and store small items. It gives the homeowner additional space to store my smaller items.
Here are 6 items I like for over the door hanging organizers in my clients' homes:
Spices or Cans in my kitchen pantry or kitchen cabinet.
Attaching items to the inside of the door works nicely for lightweight items like spices. Magnet strips can be used for holding loose tea and spices in little stainless steel containers with screwtop lids.
Cork boards and Contact Paper strips to write notes as reminders.
Adding cork squares to the back of the doors work too. Be sure to add at least ½ inch around the perimeter of the door to ensure that the door closes properly.
Setting up a wrapping paper station.
The above image is what I created in my home to store my wrapping paper. Feel free to visit this Wrapping Paper Station post.
Hats and bags in hallway closets for a quick place to put your bags and hats.
Larger hooks work best for closets. Make sure you purchase sturdy hooks that can hold over 25 lbs to make sure they don't break off. If you are worried about the weight, purchase hooks that screw into wood doors.
Shoes stored in a hallway closet or bedroom closet.
There are many over the door organizers that can hold a lot more than shoes. There are ones that can hold purses and bottles too. Check out these that I found on Amazon (affiliate).
Books, CDs and DVD storage
If you need a lot of extra storage, consider buying wider over the door organizers to help store these heavier items. Books can be particularly heavy so getting an actual over the door organizer would be better than screwing holes into the door. No one wants to replace a door because it has holes in it.
Please note click on the images above and you can purchase the item through Amazon, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn affiliate fees if you decide to make a purchase.
***AD*** from Released Repurpose Reorganize: My List Simplified journal is a wonderful organizing tool for planning a move or a renovation. Use it to corral all the to-dos.
I personally, like the over the door hooks that attach to the top and bottom of the door like in the wrapping paper station above (found at The Container Store) instead of making holes in the door. However, if you want to hang items directly on the door, I recommend, large 3M Command Strips hooks (as mentioned above). They peel off nicely and you can find various sizes and styles.
Using over the door hanging organizers will organize your home and apartment and free up space on the floor in your rooms. Plus, it will keep your smaller items more organized. I hope I have shown you creative ways to use over the door hanging organizers.
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What do you use for your small space? Do you use over the door hanging organizers? I would love to hear from you.
Please note the link above is affiliate links through Amazon and at no additional cost to you, I will receive affiliate fees if you click through and decide to make a purchase.
Liana George
Over the door organizers are my absolute favorite! Vertical space is the most underutilized storage space. Thanks for sharing some great ideas on how to maximize the backs of our doors! Love it!
Janet Barclay
Our closet doors are mostly the folding type, but you've got me thinking about all the other doors and the amount of space I could take advantage of there!
Sarah Soboleski
Great info as always, Sabrina! Pinned it! I did something similar with my wrapping station by utilizing behind the door storage. Great minds think alike. 😉
Seana Turner
This is one of those places that often gets overlooked and yet can be the perfect place to pick up some serious storage. One back of the door solutions that I love is for baseball caps. This solution worked so well for me I now tell all my clients about it! https://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Storage-Excellent-Organizer-Sports/dp/B06X42JYFD/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1509976189&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=baseball+cap+storage&psc=1
Linda Samuels
Especially when you live in small spaces, it's important to maximize ALL available space...under beds, behind doors, in cabinets and closets. I love the variety of suggestions you gave for that back and insides from the door or cabinet space. I've definitely used that space for myself and clients to organize everything from shoes to toys to medical supplies, shopping receipts, cord management, art supplies and to do lists. The over the door hangers can be good, especially if they don't get in the way of actually closing the door. Sometimes that's an issue and sometimes it's not. One of my favorite back of door products are the clear shoe bags. That way you can see what's being stored in the pockets.