What's under your sink? Is it organized chaos? Maybe you have dish soap, cleaning products, the drying rack or even a trash container?

With the assortment of pipes, possible garbage disposal and other hoopla under there, it can be difficult to utilize the space effectively. Thankfully, we have a number of manufacturers who have come to our rescue by designing and selling containers for all various types of our needs. What's AMAZING, are people who are constantly thinking outside of the box and coming up with cleaver ideas on how to use other household products in a way they were probably not intended for. For example, using a magazine rack as a hanging self on your wall? Using a wooden pallet to build a wine holder? What? Or in this case we tested out today; trying to use a tension curtain rod to hang all the spray bottle supplies! How BRILLIANT!

So here we have what may be your typical under the sink cabinet needing a little bit of decluttering and organization...

The last time I was in Walmart, I grabbed two different 28-48" diameter tension rods, in two different colors and price points; $3.00 (white) and $5.00 (silver). Also, because there was some water damage, I grabbed some contact paper to make it look more "pretty" (as the youngest said). (Suggestion to cabinet makers: offer a water proof shelf for under the sink, so when there's a leak, there'll be minimal to no damage ;)

Once we pulled everything out of the cabinet, we were ready to experiment. First up was the white colored $3.00 tension rod. Unfortunately, it would not hold more than 1 cleaning bottle without sliding down the cabinet. After extending the silver $5.00 rod, which is 5/8" in diameter, it held instantly with all the cleaning bottles dangling from it (so this is one we'd recommend for you)!

One suggestion to note; When placing the rod, you will want to be sure there is enough clearance room between the sink and the rod. Ours is spaced 3 inches from the bottom of the sink inside the cabinet. This provides room to take the bottles off the rod and place them back out without interference of the sink. You'll figure this out right away, when you try to put a bottle on :)

LEAVE CLEARANCE ROOM BELOW THE BASE OF THE SINK FOR BOTTLES TO HANG.

Next, you'll want to determine what other products you frequently use. These you'll want to keep within easy reach when opening the door AND that they are easily accessible. In this situation, we wanted to ensure the dishwasher detergent's top could open without any bottles obstructing it. Therefore, the rod was placed 6 1/2" inside the cabinet from the door.

The end result? Well, we were quiet please with this "out of the box" tension rod thinking! We were able to easily utilize space below the sink we were unable to previously. Additionally, while going through the items we found product that didn't make sense keeping in this cabinet. For example, there was shoe polish stored in this kitchen cabinet that no longer "made sense". Those shoe products are now where the shoes are located.

THE "AFTER" RESULT BELOW THE SINK CABINET

And, as always, I like to show you the progress photos. Here you go...

I would love to hear from you and see what your under the sink cabinet looks like, so I can help you! Please share or contact me directly at simplifywithyou@gmail.com.

Here for you,
Trish

SIMPLIFY YOUR KITCHEN

Under The Kitchen Sink