Each day we’re making trips to the Airstream, trying to build, buy, and rig storage devices so we can add organization to the oddly shaped cabinets.
Tracy is inventive, but there’s only so much he can get done when he has to haul the exact right tools for each project to the storage lot and have the exact right parts. We don’t have electricity for tools there or a workbench, so each step takes several trips.
He’s making progress, though. Here are a few of his ingenious hacks.
Sliding Drawers
In the bedroom, you can easily lift up the mattress, and there’s tons of storage space under there. But it’s oddly shaped (like everything) and hard to access super easy if, for instance, you’re just looking for another pair of socks.
This hack is based on the fact that we had a full Elfa closet system (which we sold, but we kept two drawers and bits of hardware). Tracy installed them under my side of the bed so I could have two slide-out drawers for clothes.
(Okay, I saw this idea on an Airstream Facebook group, but Tracy made it happen!)
To me having actual sliding drawers for clothes feels like a real home, as opposed to having all my clothes in plastic bins with lids and having to find the right bin each time and dig through it.
Tracy’s my hero for mounting these.
Closet Shelves
This is one of the two closet spaces on each side of the bed. They’re designed for hanging clothes only (you know, for those weekend campers with lots of Hawaiian shirts). We need to be more efficient.
We tried those hanging sweater shelves made of cloth (thumbs down). Then we tried wire baskets that stack (double thumbs down).
Then Tracy fell back to his original idea to build shelves—using cardboard to create a template of the exact weird shape these things are inside (they’re deep and curved in on the outside and the back).
Pictured are just the horizontal shelf parts; he needs to build struts to hold them up and in place. But, if he succeeds on his side, I’ll ask for them in reverse on mine and return the metal stacking baskets I bought that I think will be a fail. If we have time before Leave Day!
Bedside Table Replacement
This one’s my idea. Those closets on each side of the bed have finished sides to them that are by our heads, with little cubbies built in (what’s on the left in the photo here). These are great for your phone (there are two USB ports), a box of tissues, and a bottle of water, but that’s about it.
(That wire running from the tissues is string lights I attached because lights above the bed are strong, IMO.)
So, I found this peg board at Ikea and am hoping I can use it more like a bedside table where I can set my glasses, book, watch, earbuds, facemask, and the bazillion other things I seem to need at various stages of the night.
Ikea sells others little buckets and straps that fit on this, but they didn’t have them in stock when I vwas there and I couldn’t stand to wander that damned maze of a place any longer to find them, so maybe we’ll stop at another one on the road soon to get a more practical setup.
More and More and More
Tracy’s still working on the closet in the hallway that I’m calling the pantry (we have plastic bins/shelves he’s mounting to the walls so they’ll stay put), and we’ll try to get all our non-fridge food in there.
And I’m working on bins that go in the cabinets above the kitchen, sofa, and bed. They’re just bins though so nothing to write home about.
Still, it’s all going to help us carry more stuff, as if we need more stuff!
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