This Organizer Was Meant for Crafts—Here’s How I Use It for Gym Gear Instead
Turns out, a yoga mat fits in the gift-wrap holder.
Published Mar 21, 2024 1:02 AM
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Over the course of the pandemic, the second bedroom in our Brooklyn apartment morphed from a place where someone might sleep every night to our home office, a library, and where my husband plays music. Since then, one corner has been designated the home gym, which, until recently, has housed a supremely unorganized pile of resistance bands, recovery tools, and foam rollers. Another stash of stuff like gels and electrolyte powder resided in the closet that’s partially blocked by our Peloton, not a total impediment but always another step.
A few months ago, I was at the brink: I couldn’t take another morning of rooting around for the proper gear to get me out the door on a run, or trying to magician an uncluttered look when out-of-town friends come to stay. I started searching for a solution—whether that was to be bins, floating shelves, or something else entirely—and landed on the Container Store’s website, as this dilemma often compels someone to do. Scrolling around, I caught a glimpse of an over-the-door product styled with gym equipment. Funny enough, once the page loaded, it showed wrapping paper, ribbons, and all manner of gifting supplies stuffed in baskets and hanging on the utility board. That didn’t deter me: I could see yoga mats fitting where those rolls were. I clicked the “add to cart” button.
Elfa Classic Mesh Gift Wrap Door & Wall Rack
All of the components arrived swiftly within a week. Packaged well without too much plastic, the epoxy-bonded steel racks and pegboard as well as the wire-mesh baskets felt solid yet totally lightweight upon first hold. Installation requires little more than a Phillips screwdriver and an Allen wrench, and you don’t have to drill any holes—a win for renters who want their security deposit back.
Installation, in four steps, took all of 15 minutes: Position the brackets in the center of the door, fit the rack into the bracket so that it will tighten without being too tall, and then screw it in. Attach the different components onto the rack (mine came with a gift-wrap holder, pegboard-style utility board, boxes, hooks, and two medium baskets). The pegboard can be finicky, so make sure it’s properly secured. That’s it. That’s all she wrote. Our interior doors aren’t painted, so we see a small sliver of the brackets on the other side, but if you have white doors, I bet you’d forget they’re there.
Price-wise, there are certainly other organizers from Rubbermaid or Amazon off-brands that are cheaper. But what I love about the Container Store’s version is threefold. It’s part of the larger Elfa system, which means it’s compatible with all kinds of different baskets and bins made for the line, so you can tweak it over time as your needs change. It’s not terribly unattractive, as far as visible organizers go. Lastly, the durable steel construction means it won’t buckle under heavier loads, and very few plastic parts makes it more sustainable.
A true testament to its versatility? I liked the rack so much that I picked up another version for our teeny entry closet. It fits right between a few existing hooks we still use, and where there was once a top shelf loaded with cleaning supplies and toilet paper, there is now room for other things we’d like to hide away, too. How’s that for creating something out of nothing?
