Ep. 06: A Storage Update

We realized after recording our last episode about storage that there were a few changes we’d like to make, especially to the kitchen. The Keurig takes up a ton of space, especially because it’s professional-size. We plan to replace it with something we can store in the cabinet when it inevitably dies.

However, if you like your Keurig and plan to keep it, these are the reusable K cups we use. I don’t think they work with newer models—ours is probably five years old.

All of these smaller drying racks look like good options for anyone who doesn’t do that many dishes. However, as you can tell from this picture, we need all the space we can get on the drying rack, so we’ll be holding on to ours for the foreseeable future.

Why do we even own this? We’ll definitely be looking to replace this with a wall-mounted version soon. Here’s one that attaches magnetically to the side of the fridge. We’ll likely go with something super simple that screws into the drywall, like this.

Clearly our microwave is a beast, which we should have considered before buying it. This is what Shavonda Gardner’s tiny microwave looks like in her kitchen, and here’s the link to purchase. It would save us about three inches in every direction, but to avoid waste, we’re going to hold on to ours for now.

Now that we’ve consolidated all our shower products and moved them to the ledge, the shower caddy looks like this. Once we get a soap dish, we’ll be able to get rid of it altogether.

Is this the greatest DIY ever? Not really. Is it better than turning around to use the toilet paper? Definitely. Here’s how we did it:

1. Hang your hook. The one we used just screws into the drywall. We measured where we wanted the toilet paper roll to hang and centered the hook over that, which happened to also be centered over the light switch. Hopefully yours can hang a little lower; ours had to be above the tile, which goes pretty high up the wall.
2. Measure your string by tying one end to the hook, threading on the toilet paper roll, and holding up the other end until it hangs where you want it to. If you’re braiding like we did, add some extra length to account for shrinkage.
3. Handle your decorative string however you’d like. We braided five pieces together for interest, but you can basically do anything you’d do with a middle school friendship bracelet. Or leave plain if you prefer.
4. Tie the free end into a loop that can be removed from the hook when it’s time to change out the toilet paper roll and hang it up.

After looking into drying racks again, we’re not sure how sold we are on the idea. But we’d likely go with something like this that attaches to the wall or maybe even an indoor clothesline like this. Though we’d probably want to hide either option in a closet, which really isn’t an option for us currently.