A Simple Idea to Organize Backpacks and Bags

Do you and your family have many backpacks and bags? Where and how do you organize and store them when they aren't on your backs or shoulders? Do they go on door knobs, dinning tables, study desks, or floor? Do you want to better organize and store them so your house is less cluttered?

For quick grab and go, in my family, just my 4th grader alone has several backpacks and bags-one bag for each activities/extra curriculum classes she attends, besides her school backpack, winter gear bag and lunch bag she drags to and from school everyday. They go on door knobs, study desks and floor. I became sick of them being everywhere in the house. I'd like to better organize things in my house. Whenever I find time to organize certain kind of things or an area of our house, it's so mentally rewarding. It's a great feeling that no numbers or monetary value can be put on. I want to do it more. For the backpacks and bags in our life, I want them to be in one place, easy to grab and go-that is on our exit route. This project should take no time and involve no power tool. Once that's done, next step is to consolidate them and get rid of some of the bags that aren't used any more.

At the end of our laundry room just inside our door to garage, there is an open closet with shelves for books. At the bottom of the shelves, there is a bar for hanging coats I guess. But it's not high enough for long cots which will be on floor. We hang our coats in another tall closet inside the front door of our house. So I decided this is the place all the backpacks and bags would go. The idea is simple: they will hang on the bar with S hooks. I also have a tool box under it so the bottom of the backpacks and bags gently sit on it, so time won't break the straps on the backpacks nor do they pull too much weight on the shelves. Mission is already half accomplished without me doing anything yet. The other half is to find the right S hooks.

My first thought was to try curtain hooks available in any home decor store. Unfortunately they are too narrow for the bar to go though. Then I decided to pay a visit to the hobby store just outside of my front door. It didn't take me long to find something I like. The bad news is they are expensive. The good news is they were 50% off that day. So I took all the hooks on the shelf home and the project is done. (I did have to use a screw driver to adjust the height of the bottom shelf so the S hooks slide easily onto the hanging bar.)

The only tip is to measure the diameter of the bar for the S hooks before go shopping, make sure the large end of the hook is wide enough for the bar to go through, or do a little bit of research online before you go.

Please vote it for the Before & After Contest if you like the idea. Thanks.

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