Everything Falls in the Toilet: a Weekend Project & Solution

I have a bathroom problem.
There is terrible little space.
The area between sink, toilet, medicine cabinet, and radiator is minimal.  Inches.
And my habits in getting ready in the morning render opening the medicine cabinet difficult.
See?

On multiple occasions I have dropped important things in the toilet.
My toothbrush, for instance.
The replacement toothbrush, for another.

Understandably, I dislike fishing things out, which means I needed to come up with a way to contain makeup and toiletries that isn't on a very narrow ledge.

And here my solution has been staring at me for months.

Enter tea canisters.  

I love these tins, and in fact I love all boxes, so I greatly increased my tea intake to warrant purchasing more.

Bravo tea company, you got me.

Now I thought on my problem this morning and realized have many many empty tins (about 8).

I imagined a few different ways to suspend, elevate, the tins this morning.  One thought involved tension rods (it didn't go well on the test run) another 3M hooks.  

Apartment living, and trying to do no harm to keep your security deposit sure does help 3M doesn't it? Remind me to get their prospectus this summer to check stock options. 

I decided some discrete tea cup hooks would work best.  The holes (if properly placed) won't show up in an inspection. 

One of the good things about me being me is, I had everything I needed already:
An imagination.
A surplus of tins.
Hooks.
Nails.
A Hammer.

Do you have those?  Good... let's get started.

First I drove a nail through each tin.  I poked about 3 holes per tin and you will need the metal to be up against a hard surface, if it isn't the sides will dent.  I decided to nail it on the back porch to utilize the crack in the boards.

The hole (if you are poking out) will make the metal around the hole sharp.  File it down if you have kids or are prone to accidents. 

Then I drove a nail in the medicine cabinet shelf to make twisting the hook relatively simple.  Depending on the wood, you may need to use pliers.  

Make sure that the hook will clear the wall when twisting before starting the hole.  It may seem like I am talking down to you, but even if your spacial skills are keen pretend to rotate the hook first, then start the hole.  Trust me. 

If you've made the hole in the tin 1.) large enough and 2.) close enough to the top to accommodate the hook, you're in business.  Everything is smooth sailing from here on.

Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.


And 25 minutes later, if you got distracted by texts, making coffee, or misplacing your hammer multiple times (it happens) you should be done.

I gave this a vote of confidence and then stood on the toilet to show you how logistically this is a difficult bathroom setup.

I can open my cabinet now!

Harney & Sons, you have been instrumental in helping me get organized and stay sanitary.
I salute you.

Hot Cool Yours: Simple DIY for Saving Money

It seems all to fitting that they Olympics and my heating situation could both have the same slogan.
Hot Cool Yours
Though, I think it more apt written this way:  Hot?  (No.) Cool = Your[s] (home)
This explains how my apartment feels.
At night it is downright cold.  But there are certain pockets of the space that feel hot.
Such is the condition of a place built in 1913.

One aspect of the apartment that I found appealing aesthetically were the radiators.
Beautiful to look at, and functional, but I haven't utilized these as well as I might have.

After TGBD'13 (the gas bill of December 2013), I found a tip that could help my heated pockets spread the wealth.  The radiators can get quite hot to the touch, so I wanted to increase its thermodynamic radius*.

*I made that term up.

The tip suggested using aluminum foil.  The foil, when placed dull side to the wall has the shiny side facing the radiator.  The logic goes like this, since the heat source is next to a reflective surface the heat should bounce off instead of straight into the wall.
I decided to fix the foil to each wall using Washi tape.
Washi tape is growing to be a popular way to decorate apartments, and I've been looking for a reason to use it.  Since it is adhesive but doesn't leave lasting marks that could jeopardize my security deposit it's great for apartment livers like myself.  I found my tape at Target.

It's difficult to capture, since the behind the wall space is so small, but I pre-folded the edges of the foil, measuring and tearing sheets of about 2 feet each.  I found managing tinfoil longer than that was difficult.
I don't like wrestling with tinfoil, it just crumples under pressure.
Be ready for the foil to fly up towards the radiator.  I put the Washi tape on the tinfoil to troubleshoot this.

Then I fixed Washi tape at the top and bottom.  I wanted to ensure I had enough tape to place foil behind every radiator.  But now that I have them up, I will be framing the sheets along all edges to help it look a little more polished.

Essentially the foil serves the same function as it would in an oven.  The shiny side reflects heat off in a more useful direction than the wall.  Because who needs a warm wall?  I need warm toes!

Nerd alert: The science behind this intrigues me.  I hope to place thermometers around my apartment and take readings with the foil in place and without to see if there is a difference, or if this project was just had a placebo effect on me.