Shelves and Things

Heather, this post is for YOU!  

First of all, I have to say that these shelves were born out of not having much room in base housing closets.  As a matter of fact, they were purchased at the Makeman Stores (Monkey Store) over there in Okinawa.  I waited for sales and would buy one or two to sprinkle inside our closets.

They have moved internationally, three times, and locally once.  Normally, the Okinawan packers will just wrap each shelf in paper and off they go!  Once, they actually took them apart, which I did not like, but they came back together fine and are still standing!

I bought them originally because I needed something to put our things on when we walked in the house.  I situated them in our laundry room at Foster.  We had one of those single homes there.  I've stood them up as you see here, I've laid them on their sides and stacked two together, you name it!

As time went by, I found more and more uses for them.  But the most useful is this.  These shelves serve as my t-shirt and shorts holder.  You see here, I have 4 side by side.  They just so happen to fit nicely underneath the existing shelving.  From right to left:  shorts, short-sleeved t-shirts, long-sleeved t-shirts, and at the end are miscellaneous tees and short lightweight sweaters.  These even fit inside our teeny weeny walk-in closet in our bungalow in Stearley Heights!

Then!  Check this out!  I told you I have a ton of these!  On the other side of the closet, I use them to house my bags!  I could use another shelf, but decided to just store my other bags I don't use often in a big Rubbermaid.

Lastly, I always have one shelf in our hall closet to catch and organize whatevers--well, mostly small electronics and stuff.  On the top shelf are little mesh bags that I got also there in Okinawa.  Most of them I got at the 100 yen stores, but buy extra, because some of them are not sewn well.  My favorite place to get these are at MUJI.  If you can understand this map, it's just right inside downtown Naha, or Google it.  Love that store for more than just mesh bags!

Anyways, each bag is for a camera.  It has all it's cords, manuals, batteries, chargers, everything that came with each camera--all in one place.  If Brian goes on a trip and needs a camera, he just grabs the whole bag.  Yes, we do have a lot of little cameras.  But keep in mind, these mesh bags are great for anything!  I also use them when I travel.  I put all the little cords I need for my phone, camera, etc.--again, all in one place.  If you wanna go a step even further...  The plastic containers on the bottom shelf (purchased at 100 Yen Stores) are home to other different things--one for swim stuff like goggles, replacement bands, etc.  You know how hard it is to find those.  Another one is for sunglasses/accesories, and misc wallet/bag items.  Yeah, that shelf is a reach.  I need to re-asses the use of those boxes!

Okay, to sum up...  Buy shelves at Monkey Store and mesh bags at 100 Yen Store/MUJI.