Basement Door Command Center

I'm really proud of this post today, y'all. It's a really simple but stylish problem-solver that I came up with for our household, and it's already proven to be a complete lifesaver.

The backstory is that we used to have a desk in our family room and I NEVER liked it there. Since it was just a writing desk with one drawer, I couldn't hide away all the paperwork, mail, catalogs and receipts that got dumped there. And that single drawer was totally crammed with office supplies and was totally a pain to get into because the drawer rails were loose. Just not a good set-up. So...I cleared the whole thing out and moved the desk upstairs next to our bed, where it looks really great. All of the office-y stuff lived there for awhile, but that was obviously not a good solution because it was upstairs. While I pondered the problem, our dining room table became command-central. Not practical, either.

FINALLY, I discovered an old shoe organizer in the back of my closet that I figured I would hang on the back of our basement door for all of our office necessities. Eureka! That was a total godsend. Since the basement door is in our kitchen and that seems to be the room we're in the most, everything was totally handy there.

But of course, I had to make it prettier. So I cut the shoe organizer in half, applied spray-adhesive to the back of it, and smoothed some wrapping paper onto it. One pocket has scissors, a small hole-punch, and a box cutter; one pocket has rubber bands and paper clips; one pocket has envelopes and stamps; one pocket has a calculator and our checkbook; one pocket has a comb and some hair bands...you get the idea.

Then I went shopping for a file box that could be hung up. I found this turquoise one at Target for about $10, the file folders were $5.99, and those little cardboard bins were from Target's dollar-spot. I labeled one of those bins "Receipts" so my husband and I have a place to keep 'em until we're ready to balance the checkbook. The other one is empty for now, but I'm sure I'll think of something to fill it. (Important: Now, the thing about hanging stuff on hollow-core doors is that...well, it doesn't work unless you buy special hollow-core door anchors. We found some at Lowe's in the section for wall-anchors. Each anchor holds 40 pounds which is ample for my file box.)

The last thing to go up was my little clipboard, which incidentally, was the FIRST thing that inspired me because I love the colors in it. It helped me choose the scheme for the rest of the door. I just hung this from a little screw hook so I could take it off as needed. I didn't anchor this; it's not very heavy.

So here's the before of our basement door...

And here's the after! Definitely one of my favorite projects, because it's so useful and fun to look at. The whole thing cost about $25, which isn't my cheapest project to date, but still well-worth it.