April came and went like a passing sun shower. Here’s the download on what rocked my month, in a tidy bundle just for you.

1. Bag hangers

These are the most brilliant solution for hanging up your handbags.

Often times, people lack shelf space and/or wall space, and all they have to work with is a closet hanging rod. (Such was the case with one of my clients this past month.) The question of where and how to store handbags then becomes confounding.

The only possible course of action is to hang handbags on the rod, and for that you need a hook of some sort. Technically, your standard S-hook will get the job done, except when you do that, the bags inevitably want to hang with their widest side facing out, which eats up all the already scant room you have to work with.

These are not your standard S-hook. They are so, so much better than that. If anything, they’re like a number-5-with-the-hat-cut-off hook. In traditional english, that means their bottom half is twisted, ensuring that your bags hang perfectly perpendicular to the closet rod. They’re fabulous I tell you.

2. Smart locks storage

Trust me when I tell you that it’s not an easy task to find small-ish bins with lids that secure, but whose lids clips are bright purple. Or blue. Or green. It isn’t that brightly colored lid clips are any less effective than unobtrusive clips, only they’re not the most beautiful, and, over time, can make maintaining uniformity amongst your storage elements tricky. And we should all know by now (ahem) that when it comes to storage, uniformity is key.

These bins have all the versatility and understatement of a clear shoe box, but with much more secure lids.

3. Regaular shoe drawer // Men’s and athletic shoe drawer // Shirt & accessory drawer // Sweater drawer

In general, I hate fake drawers. That is: a box that’s posing as a drawer. See also: shitty sterlite, every dorm room, et al. I tend to avoid them completely.

However, this month I had a shoe & accessory storage situation that necessitated drawers: a tall cupboard space without a single shelf in it, perfect for storing a christmas tree, miserable for storing a wardrobe’s worth of high heels.

I couldn’t feel okay about giving my client teeter-totteringly high stacks of shoe boxes. Two shoe boxes stacked is one thing, seven-high is another. I pictured her trying to get out and replace a box on the bottom of a shoe-tower, the whole thing crashing down on top of her, her cursing me to high heavens. I was going to have to find the best fake drawers I could.

So I got these involved, and damn that cupboard looks hot!

They stack precisely and securely together, giving me peace of mind about how high up I was stacking, they’re crystal clear, so seeing through to the shoes inside is like having x-ray vision, and their various sizes can be integrated together, ensuring no shoe is left behind.

Best fake drawers ever.

(P.S. For anyone wondering, I used the regular shoe and men’s shoe drawers for shoes, the shirt & accessory drawer for clutches, and the sweater drawer for small handbags.)

(P.P.S. My current favorite non-see-through fake drawers are these.)

4. Gold & linen bracelet & ring organizer

Umbra makes great products, and this one is no exception. I snagged it and the matching tray for a client this past month. The bracelet holder may have a form similar to most, but that’s about all it has in common with them. I was completely delighted by how versatile this jewelry organizer is.

The bracelet/watch roll at the top features padded ring rolls, meaning that it can be used to store bracelets, rings, or earrings, the middle branch is an earring rack that could also ostensibly be used for rings, and the bottom base is an open fairground. For one tool, it packs a punch–in style, to boot.

 5. Weathertight trunk

I first wrote about my love for the weathertight (used to be “watertight”) totes back in 2013. I included them in a favorites in 2014. They’ve featured in several other posts that I’m too lazy currently to track down. 2017, and they are still held in as high a regard as ever. I might go so far as to say they’re the best quality storage bins, full stop.

This month was my first ever foray into the world of the weathertight trunk, the granddaddy of the weathertight family. Longer, deeper, wider, this trunk has capacity. (Please use responsibly.)

And you want to know what it’s so perfectly sized to store?? The bane of my storage area existence since forever: hiking backpacks. The ones with the massive waist straps that won’t let you stack or hang them nicely, the ones that, in my experience, have accumulated the potent smell of every adventure they’ve ever been carried on–away in the trunk two real spicy ones went this month to two rounds of my applause.

6. John Derian Picture Book

From the moment this book popped up on my radar, I coveted it. Technically, I coveted the cover, because, well, come on! The entire book could have been filled with blank pages and I would have been sold.

When asked what I wanted for my birthday, this book got top billing, and I was positively verklempt when I opened the paper and saw that eyeball staring back at me. Mostly I wonder if anyone ever actually cracks a coffee table book’s spine?

This beauty has been sitting on my dining room table all month, and I swear I’ve been savoring the flipping of every page (carefully, don’t spill the cauliflower soup Annie) as I eat. THANKS FAMILY.