Hook Envy

So Mrs Furious has been raving about the 3M Command hooks as of late. As you know, I've been trying to keep this compact (reference it here and here) and part of that means only buying necessities (and trying to only buy consumable items for the rest of 2008) and getting the clutter out of my home (in an attempt to finally have a place for everything and everything in its place). Mrs F has come up with some great uses for the Command hooks and I was thinking that they could ultimately help me in my quest to be more organized. But before I went out to purchase some (I figured I could possibly justify them as a need) I wanted to explore my options at home and see if I had something similar already on hand. My searching uncovered these babies:I apologize for the sideways image. I don't know why Blogger won't let me rotate the image. I've tried multiple times. I was thrilled to know Bert had already purchased them a year or so ago. I thought I'd use them to hang up Una's and Duet's backpacks, but unfortunately the weight limit on these micro hooks is only 1/2 lb. Not acceptable. I'm certain I will find a good use for these micro hooks sometime soon. Back to the drawing board with the backpack hook. After rummaging around some more in Una's closet I found this:

It was one of those purchases we made while I was pregnant with Una. At the time it seemed useful, but we've never had a great practical application for it, until now. It's like it was meant to solve this backpack hanging problem of mine. That's not all folks. Leaning against the wall in our basement was this darling number:My artistic good friend/former neighbor K painted it and had these hooks hanging in her home. She passed it on to us when she moved 2 1/2 years ago. That's right. I'm embarrassed to say it's just been sitting in my basement for 2 1/2 years. Sorry K, we've always liked it but we were just too lazy to install it. Bert did so this weekend just in time for the cold weather. Now things look much tidier since Una can now put away her coat and Duet's without parental assistance.

Again and again this compact thing keeps working out in my favor. Anytime I want something I first look for a way to solve the problem with things I already have. First the pumpkin bags and now the hooks. I was able to find the supplies to make the pumpkin bags and this weekend I was able to find 14 unused hooks that were perfectly suited to my needs. It's quite satisfying to discover a solution that relies on my own ingenuity instead of some lazy trip to the store to purchase something that I already own somewhere in my house. I'm realistic and I know that one of these days I won't be able to find the solution in my basement. But at that point I'll head to the store knowing that the money I'm about to spend won't be wasted.

If you couldn't tell by now, I'm loving this compact challenge.