Well, it might not be the prettiest thing, but it sure makes me happy every time I see it sitting there in the corner of my mud room, all ready to help whenever needed.
We’ve had a bit of a problem since moving into this house almost two years ago. Our garage is a disaster zone unlike you’ve ever seen. I promise you. The tools and hardware and junk are all piled together in giant heaps on top of the various work benches. So finding anything is nearly impossible, if you can even get to the work benches past the bikes, several ride-on lawn mowers, stacks of flooring waiting to be installed and power tools all over the floor. It’s bad.
There’s a little skinny hard-to-get-to cupboard in the house that I was using, but it wasn’t working out so well, and my “house tools” kept mysteriously ending up back in the garage.
I found this old shoe rack in the basement, and you might have one just like it lurking around somewhere. I put it by the door to the mudroom and now everything I need is right there waiting for me on my way outside. The little angled shelves are perfect for grabbing whatever I need quickly and easily.
Terra cotta pots make it even easier to fill er’ up with all my gardening and quick home repair necessities.
So what do we have here? Just the basics. Stuff I use everyday-ish. A hammer, tape measure, screw drivers, and wrenches, gardening gloves, a little shovel and some pruners, seeds and fertilizer, and some tie-downs for when we’re taking yard waste to the recycling center.
As I recover more and more useful tools from the garage, I have room for them on my little stand! It’s a silly little thing, but it makes me happy.
Well, yes, it probably would make me even happier if I just cleaned out the garage. I’m hoping to get started on that one too a bit this month. I should be all done sometime around July of 2017. Stay tuned for that exciting update!
Until then, I’m happy with my little shoe rack.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.