Pallets, the Gift That Keeps on Giving

I'm a creature of habit about some things. For example, before I walk out the door, I ALWAYS do a simple checklist in my head and conduct a subsequent pat-down of all pant pockets to make sure I have the following:

1) Keys
2) Wallet
3) iPhone
4) Chapstick

That's the whole list. If it's a work day, add "laptop bag," "Blackberry" and "ID badge" to it. It rarely happens, but occasionally I will forget one of those items, and my whole day is ruined. Not-so-much if it's the chapstick, but whatever. When I get home, they all go back to their designated places. All in one place - the same place - every. single. time.

As a result, I always know where those things are. My wife? Not-so-much.

Me: "Hey Courtney, where are your keys?"
Court: "In my purse."

But they never, ever are. They are: in the fridge, on a shelf in the pantry, in the front door or on a random window sill...but never in her purse. Likewise (and I'm relatively certain this happens to 97% of all husbands, everywhere), without fail, whenever we leave a place, we will get no-less-than halfway to our destination when I hear the dreaded words "I can't find my phone."

In summation, you will NEVER beat me in a scavenger hunt - I've just had more practice.

Home base for all of my daily staples is the laundry room (just off the kitchen), and until recently, my homemade shelf with hooks has been the resting place for our various bags, purses, coats, etc. Needless to say, it got crowded quick.

I'll miss you, old friend

It's worth mentioning that Courtney came up with the idea for the something bigger (which I'm getting to - I promise) to replace the old shelf. She also said the existing shelf looked like it was "straight out of the '80s," which I immediately added to my mental list of "Things that would've been helpful to know before I made that."

So, the pallet wall closet was born. Starting with a pallet skeleton that fit the dimensions of the space, I took boards from another pallet, and cut and measured them to fill in the holes.

Can you tell which photo was taken with a camera phone? Next, I sanded, primed and painted the whole thing to match our trim. If you notice above, I left the top and bottom boards off. Those would go on in the absolute last step, to make it easier to fit my drill in when attaching the whole thing to the wall studs. No anchors used - I just measured for my studs, made sure it was level, and drilled straight through the back boards into the studs. Finally I attached the missing boards.

The hooks are of the "over-the-cabinet" variety (smaller top depth than "over-the-door") and were surprisingly hard to find in Target or Lowe's, but Home Depot had them.

The cool thing about using these as opposed to the ones you attach with screws, is that you can easily rearrange them in just seconds (without leaving screw holes). Just pick it up and move it to another spot.