Getting organized: Make the most of small spaces

Don't throw the cabinet out with the curios...if you have grown weary of looking at your collection of shot glasses or figurines, think twice about how you can re-use the display cabinet before you pack everything up.

Narrow-depth shelves and cabinets are really handy for organizing lots of small items from office supplies to seasonings to cosmetics. Whether it's wall-mounted or freestanding, a shelf unit that's less than 8" deep fits just about anywhere. A friend gave me this 5-feet tall narrow black cabinet from Ikea that originally had a glass door, designed to hang on the wall. It's only 1-foot wide and 6" deep, which meant I could put it right next to the doorway of my studio without blocking the entrance into the room.

I took off the glass door, set the unit on the floor, and secured it to the wall. It holds all my paints and other art supplies and now it's so easy to see every color and type of paint I have on hand. And by the way, the glass door has a really nice black wood frame, giving it tons of potential for being altered and turned into an art piece.

There are so many skinny spaces in the home - near a door, in a hallway, between two windows, over the commode - where you can create a little extra storage and make things much more convenient to access.

Think outside the box a bit, and you can find the perfect shelving for any space. In addition to curio cabinets, the shelf units at the office supply store are among the narrowest I've seen. The wall-mounted display shelves in the bathroom aisle of the home improvement store are great, too. Who says they have to be used only in the bathroom?