The Hanging Organizer Trick That Keeps Excess Paper Towels Neat In Storage

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Taken at face value, the cloth shoe organizer, minus the name, is just a set of open-faced soft cubbies that hang on hooks on a closet rod. There's nothing about this tool that's inherently "shoe-ish," except for its named function. This makes cloth shoe organizers a prime option for repurposing into genius DIY paper towel storage. If nothing else, it's a set-up that most definitely beats using the floor of your pantry as a place to keep your package of excess paper towel rolls. The depth and width of the average slot in a hanging shoe holder, like the Whitmor Hanging Shoe Shelves for instance, fits the measurements of most paper towel rolls, give or take a few inches at the end. 

And, considering a unit like this sets you back less than 10 bucks, it's a pretty economical way to get those towels up off the floor and away from the dirt and ants that hang out down there. The other major advantage of this genius paper towel holder hack, which keeps bathroom clutter at bay too, is its light weight. An 8-cubby shoe storage unit comes in at around 24 pounds. Even those who don't do pull-ups on the regular should have enough upper body strength to hang the organizer in their closet without much effort. It also won't put much strain on the bar, either, which helps wear and tear in the long run.

Most of these units require minimal set-up before they're ready to use. Just pull the cloth shoe organizer out of the package and hang it up. Then, slide one paper towel roll into each cubicle. However, there are some great additions you can make if you're working with more than one kind of paper towel. For example, if your stash includes C- or Z-Fold paper towels, slide a shallow Tribello Plastic Bin Basket into each cubby hole before you put the paper supplies into the slot. Rather than being stored on a roll, these types of towels are folded into a C- or Z-shape and stacked one on top of the other. If the pile gets bumped, the stack falls over and the individual towels fly everywhere. The basket at the bottom of the slot keeps them inside the hanging organizer and off the floor.

Labeling each individual nook can also be helpful if you keep rolls of both regular and reusable paper towels together in your supply storage. They look the same — at first glance, anyway. That is, many of the multiple-use styles, like Ecozoi Bamboo Rayon Reusable Towels, come on a roll, just like your regular Bounty Paper Towels do. To keep them all straight, write the name of the tissue type on a piece of masking tape with a Sharpie. Then, stick the homemade label just inside the opening of the cubby to see what you're grabbing when you're digging around for your next replacement roll. As the above image shows, you can also store toilet paper or hand towels in the cubbies too.