I am constantly on some kind of organizational overhaul, whether it involves investing in storage furniture or redoing my makeup shelf. My current passion is creating what I'm calling an "organizational wall," an idea that came to me after I started seeing the surprisingly wide variety of adhesive hooks and holders on the market. Here's what I'm doing and how you can use this trick, too.
What is a storage wall?
It all started when I was shopping online and was recommended some adhesive sunglasses holders. They looked like the displays you see at a store, each specially designed to hold one pair of glasses and one pair only.
I'm a big proponent of storing accessories or anything I wear in a visible place, so I always know what I have and can better visualize how it will look with my outfit, but when it came to sunglasses, I was not following my own rules. Each of my shades were in their original case, then stacked in my windowsill, which meant I almost always ended up wearing my black ones, since I didn't want to go through the hassle of digging through and opening all the cases.
As I was thinking on a solution, I looked around and realized there was plenty of open space next to the mirror I use to get ready, so sticking the sunglasses up there would be an efficient, useful, and safe way to store them. Here are the kinds of individual sunglasses holders that sparked this whole thing:
I got 10 of them from Shein, but you can also get sets of three for $12.99 on Amazon. After I hung up all my sunglasses and sold their cases on Poshmark, it got me thinking about where else I could use specialty adhesive holders to stick up on the wall.
I live in a small apartment where storage space is hard to come by, but I adhere to the Organizational Triangle rules that every item must have a designated spot and be stored with similar items. There are only so many tiny baskets you can stack up before even that starts to get cluttered, so storage-as-decoration has become my go-to. (I've started hanging all my bags on hooks and chains around the place, for instance.)
An organizational wall doesn't have to be for clothing; it can go anywhere. For instance, in a pantry or storage room, you can make use of empty wall space with adhesive hooks designed to hold spray bottles. A wall in the foyer is a great place to install heavy-duty hooks that hold keys, umbrellas, jackets, and scarves. (These hold 44 pounds each and come in a set of 10 for $9.49.) In my kitchen, I use adhesive holders for all of my rags, towels, and oven mitts. (I have these from Shein, $1.10 each.)
My storage wall
In addition to the sunglasses holders, here's what I've ordered to turn the wall around the mirrors where I get ready into an all-in-one storage space that allows me to see my accessories and tools.
I got this hot tool holder to hold my Dyson AirWrap, which is currently stored in its original box, sitting on the floor under the mirror—not ideal. This sleek, adhesive-backed rack holds it upright and keeps it accessible while drying and curling hair.
To hold all the Dyson attachments, I got an adhesive box to go right above that:
To hold the hair sprays, gels, creams, and other gunk I plop into my hair, I got these bottle holsters. I really like them because you can either keep them together in a row or cut between them, creating five smaller adhesive-backed shelves you can arrange however you want.
Next, I got some adhesive hat holders. These are just upright, L-shaped rods on an adhesive back, meant to slip through the hole of a baseball cap. This struck me as a great idea before I even realized they'd be perfect for storing belts, too, using the new belt-folding method I picked up two weeks ago. When I started folding my belts like that, I recommended getting a paper towel rack to store them, but this is even better for me. Naturally, I got the four pack.
Finally, I got a bunch of small hooks (four for $9.98), which I am using to hang ribbons on which I can clip my various barrettes, bows, and hair accessories. Again, at least for me, if something is out of sight, it's out of mind, so I routinely run into an issue where I realize I had the perfect accessory to wear with an outfit, but totally forget because I simply didn't see it.