So some of you might remember that last year I did something a little wild and crazy….I banished my old photo albums to the garage! Yep, crazy I know but you see at the time I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. My photo albums were taking up valuable office closet space that I needed for other things and I just didn’t have anywhere else to put them. So into bins they went and the garage became their new home. Our garage is heated so they’ve done just fine out there but I do think they were a tad bit lonely and sad missing all of us. However what’s a girl to do, our home is only so big and I just didn’t have anywhere to put a bookcase to store them all. Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions about our stuff based on the amount of space we have available to us.
Then one day, a couple of weeks ago, I was playing a game on the floor with my son in our rec room in the basement when I happened to look up and see this.
Do you see what I see?
A corner, a tiny little corner that I’d not really paid much attention to before. I sat and stared at it for awhile wondering if possibly, maybe a bookcase might fit in there so I could bring in my photo albums from the garage. It was only about 25 inches wide with a depth of about 11 inches. Not very big at all.
Off I went to Canadian Tire and was so excited to find a bookshelf that would fit perfectly, whoot! Don’t you just love it when that happens? For $50.00 my photo albums were going to become a part of the family again. How about that!
There was enough room for every single photo album we own to fit on this bookshelf in the corner. Happy dance!
Take a look:
How perfect is that? It makes me so happy to “find” space I didn’t even realize I had. It does stick out a bit from the wall but not too noticeably. Here’s a shot from the other direction to give you an idea.
Over the last couple of days the kids have enjoyed looking at the albums and making fun of their parents after seeing pictures of us in the 90’s. Ha!
I’ve got every album labeled with the dates of the pictures inside. Super easy to grab the one we want. I’m also happy to have a bit of extra room to add new albums. However, I no longer print pictures out and put them in traditional photo albums though, instead I make photobooks which take up SO much less space thankfully.
If you are in need of a little space in your home, take a look around and think about organizing in the nooks and crannies. Sometimes a little space goes a long way.
Does this give you any ideas for the nooks and crannies in your own home?
Linking up: Home Stories A to Z, Skip to My Lou
Wendy, A Day in the LIfe on the Farm says
Great job.
Mridu Parikh says
Hey Laura, I love this!
I find I’m often telling clients to “think vertical!” It’s usually the most underutilized space in the house. And how fun that you can bring your albums back to where your family can see them. What a treasure!
xo, Mridu
Joie says
I think this is a great idea! I do this kind of stuff where I can! I’d love to see MORE of these ideas!
Rachel says
Gives me organizing goose bumps. 🙂 Such a perfect fit! Looks great.
Donna Wiegert says
I’m inspired…Thank you
Erica says
This looks great – but I do have a small safety concern for you – is that bookcase secured to the wall in any way? The way everything is loaded in there, there is much more weight on the higher shelves than on the bottom and if that bookcase isn’t secured to the wall, it stands an excellent chance of falling over and potentially injuring anyone who might be in the line of fire. Of course, if it’s attached to the wall, then it doesn’t matter at all, but if not, I’d consider securing it to the wall (L-brackets are your friend) or re-loading the bookcase with heavier things on the lower shelves and lighter things higher up.
Still love this idea though. I’m off to look for that lost nook or cranny in my own home now.
Laura says
Hi Erica, thanks so much for thinking about that, yes I should have put that in my post that we had secured it to the wall. Even though my kids are all older we do have friends with young kids visit from time to time.
Blessings,
Laura
Jenn (Student Mom) says
Oh what a clever idea. I have something similar in mind for a home office, but no where to put it once I’ve made it.
Susanne says
I need to label my albums. Why didn’t I think of that?