I’m trying to cram a lot of living into a small space, so I’m always looking for better ways to store stuff out of the way (instead of in the way). The window and door trim in our house is deep so . . . why not?
I wanted this Real Life Organizing solution to be decorative. Also, the trim is only about 5 inches deep so everything had to be narrow. I just experimented with several styles of storage containers while also playing with color schemes I like. I did this in the hall outside my bedroom (above my bedroom door and above the bathroom door). There’s no color scheme there except neutrals so I could really choose any colors I wanted.
My Above the Door Storage Experiment
I used whatever I could find or make in my chosen color scheme that would hold little things that I don’t need to get to often.
- Quickly sewn fabric bags hold soft things.
- Former pimento jars (with painted lids) hold balls of lace trim.
- A taller jar holds small spools of thread.
- I used coordinating ribbon to tie the bags. Some things I just tied a pretty ribbon around.
I also sewed some fabric envelopes (you can see one on the right in the photo below). I don’t remember exactly how I made those (it’s been years) but it must have been easy. I mean, they exist. That’s all the evidence I need to come to that conclusion!
I enjoyed this project a lot: simple, easy, fast, fun, and pretty. Does it get any better than that? 😉
The other color scheme is bright yellow and green. Not really “me” (I wouldn’t want it in my bedroom) but so bright and cheery. The truth is, I inherited some ribbon from my aunt when she passed away ( 🙁 ) and there were all these coordinating yellow and green ribbons. . . . I couldn’t resist!
I don’t have a picture of this door but it contains the boxes below plus a couple of fabric envelopes with ribbon tied around them for decoration, and a pimento jar (plus a fabric-covered vitamin bottle , which is another post for another day).
These little boxes are adhesive bandage boxes turned wrong-side out. I taped them back together and behold: little white boxes!
This little storage project was a winner. Besides being simple, easy, fast, fun, and pretty, it actually works. These things haven’t been in my way for years (yay!) yet when I need them they’re easy to get to (yay, also!).
A Few Things to Consider
Dust. The stuff obviously gets dusty and it’s harder to dust or vacuum than plain trim.
For me, it’s worth it. It may be for you too.
The dust isn’t that noticeable. I mean, you’re looking at the things from a distance, not close up. It probably helps that these are in a hall where lingering doesn’t really happen. When you’re in a hall, you’re on a mission ~ not sitting around looking up at the door trim.
If you do it and you don’t like it, you can undo it. Just don’t spend a lot of time or money on it and just do one or two windows/doors at first. Test it out. Is it too much trouble to dust? Does it look too cluttered? Alter or undo.
To keep it from looking cluttered, you might want to make it a lot simpler than I did: just one or two styles. Since I was experimenting I tried a lot of different containers. I thinking it would be a little overwhelming and cluttered-looking in my bedroom.
I definitely intend to do this in my bedroom/office . . . when in the window and door trim is actually finished. 🙂
Find out what “Real Life Organizing” is all about here.
