I know I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger in the last newsletter. Did you guess my favorite piece of home hardware?
I don't recall manically hanging hooks in prior homes (ok, maybe some light hook-hanging). But in the house we just moved into, the early days were primarily spent online shopping for hooks, ordering hooks, refreshing tracking pages anticipating the arrival of hooks, installing hooks, realizing we need more hooks, rinse and repeat.
My husband: “You seem to never be satisfied with the quantity of hooks in this house.”
Also my husband: “It’d be nice to have a hook in this spot…”
If you were in my shoes, you’d understand. The power of hanging things up is undeniable.
Pile of jackets on the back of the sofa? Horrid.
Pile of jackets hanging on a coat rack? Charming!
Little wet towel on the floor to wipe the dog’s feet? Disgusting.
But hanging? Clever and wise!
As we settled into the new house, my feelings of peace surged with the arrival of each new hook. A place to put things, at last.
I noticed I’ve been able to get rid of a lot of organizing gear from our old house in favor of hooks. You see, each living space requires a bespoke solution to daily life. A Victorian with few closets, as our old house was, requires different systems than a Craftsman with closets and built-ins. This was a big lesson of the move, as manifested in my hook-mania.
If you’d like to follow me into my obsession, here’s a sampling of the hooks that now pepper our home throughout.
Hooks are a nicely low-effort way to keep clothes off the floor. I asked our painters to paint a bunch of cheap wooden Shaker peg racks (non-affiliate link) when they did our walls. I placed one long rack behind each kid’s bedroom door.
This house required a closet build-out so I swallowed my complicated feelings and headed down to the Container Store. I begrudgingly admit the Elfa system truly is impressive in its endless versatility. They have these little hooks you can add to the shelves which are perfect for bathrobes, PJs and hoodies:
The kitchen utility closet is fairly big, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need hooks:
I already knew that both men and women can love organizing, but there is a charmingly uber-macho organizing department at most hardware stores. That’s where I found this garage wall hook system (so manly):
Our primary bathroom doesn’t have much logical space for towel racks. Enter: hooks! We have one on each doorway, outside the shower, and—because why not—three near the bath tub. No one has ever complained about having too many hooks:
If you’re going to fill the inside of your house with hooks, it’s a good idea to put a bunch outside as well so visitors know what to expect.
For a little extra pizzaz I threw some random hooks inside my kids’ closets. When you’re in the mood to install things, it’s best to lean into it:
That concludes my hook tour…for now! I still have ideas about future installations but I’m taking a moment to pause and contemplate. If you have especially clever locations or uses for hooks, do share in the comments:
I have also loved hooks since living in a tiny apt in NYC years ago where most of my stuff was hanging on the walls in some way or another. My favorite hook solution is how I hang cardigan sweaters: I bought some ~5-6" rigid styrofoam balls from Michaels, covered them in fabric (just pinned it on there) and then kind of impaled each ball onto a hook on the wall. So now I can hang things like cardigans there without them getting damaged or indented!
100% agree - hooks are essential! Have always loved them, but (similar to you) we even surprised ourselves when we recently set up our new home and found ourselves putting up hooks here, there, and everywhere! Not surprisingly, it's one of our biggest complaints when we travel: there are NO HOOKS in this room, where do you put your things??