Create Storage with a Portable Organizer

Happy Day Remodelaholic readers! I’m happy to be back with another idea for your rental space. My apartment is coming along and becoming more and more “ours”. We’ve hung pictures, given the kitchen personality, and become more organized. I’m pleased with the progress we are making! Today I want to show you one of the little tricks we use throughout the apartment to create organization. 

I’m a big fan of organization walls, message centers, and those clever storage ideas that use vertical space. But, as a renter it fills me with a bit of dread thinking about the endless holes I would have to put in the wall to achieve those great ideas. So, I’ve created smaller, portable, renter-friendly versions of the same idea. We use these organizers for a drop zone in the entry, makeup organizer in the bedroom, small toy storage in Levi’s room, and more. 

 This portable organization is created from a large, sturdy board. Be sure it is nice and heavy so that it will support the weight of the items you will hang from it. 

We painted ours with chalkboard paint in green and blue (yes, they have colored chalkboard paint…isn’t that the coolest!) and sanded it down in places to create a worn look. I adore chalkboard paint and would love nothing more than to cover my walls with it. Since painting the walls isn’t an option as renters, this is the next best thing.

Using a board to create organization allows you to be creative, personal, and inexpensive in the materials you use. Because you are propping this against the wall you won’t need to worry about holes! Be mindful of what items you want to store, where the board will be placed, and the weight each container will hold.

Hang containers that will be heavy towards the bottom, lighter items toward the top. Here are some of the organization ideas we used on this portable organizer…

We drilled a large hole into the board so that we could wrap twine around a pot, pull the twine through the hole and knot it. Flower pots are great for this purpose. They are inexpensive, great for storage, and have a handy little “lip” to wrap twine under!

I’m a big fan of repurposing items and using them for new uses. Napkin holders are great for bills, papers, and more. This napkin holder is hung with a screw and stores some of my scrap papers. I also hung a sweet paper pennant from iit.

Every board we create has a piece of twine or ribbon tacked across it. Used with clothespins, it is perfect for hanging small items like earphones, bills, bags of spices, etc.

Another simple container is a Bell jar. They hang nicely from a screw and store pens, markers, makeup brushes, and kitchen utensils nicely!

If you are a renter looking for another idea for organization or storage…give this a try! Prop it up against a wall and be so pleased with how you gained vertical storage! And, it helps that it looks adorable!

Note: be mindful that this is propped against the wall. Although it is heavy and sturdy, place it in locations where it won’t easily be tipped over and fall (that wouldn’t be cool, at all!)

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Check out more great organizing ideas, like how to organize

your shoes, your bathroom, your kid’s closet

or learn how to build a simple organizer from recycled cans or a pegboard wall cabinet.