How a Gutter Changed My Life

It always feels awesome to save space in our small condo. It makes me feel like I’m in on a secret. Mwahahaha, I know that there are three shelves in that closet and you only see two!

Last week I came across a photo on Facebook that a friend had posted. It was a gutter as a bookshelf! Gasp! What a superb idea. I tried explaining it to Brian who just wanted a picture. That same day we went to Home Depot to get the gutter ($4 for a 10 foot gutter), and the next day he put it up as two different book shelves. We were insulted by the fact that we would spend a little over $4 due to hardware on the gutter but would have to spend $15 to put end caps on them. Why spend the same amount we would pay for a crappy little shelf at Target when all we’re using is a gutter? So we didn’t get end caps. It would look nicer with them, but it’s the principle of the thing.

It’s not that we lack in bookshelves for the boys’ books. In fact we have enough room for all their books in their room. The problem is that they do not know how to put the books on their shelves with the spines out-- instead they stack them and the stacks inevitably fall over and the books migrate across the floor and under my feet in the dark.

We do a lot of our reading in the living room so books just get left there, and we have no good place to put them. They were on the end tables and under the end tables and spread on the couch and under the couch. So by putting the shelf above the wheeling art table that is behind our living room recliner, we save space, it looks nicer, we can see all of our book choices, and the boys can clean them up themselves! So money.

Brian put the other half of the gutter up in the boys’ room. Same story there. This frees up bookshelf space that we will probably use for more toys and clothes as their toys and clothes get bigger.

Cha-ching! Thanks for the super idea, Kamber. If there are more ideas where those came from, I can’t wait!

Below our counter, above the art table that we wheel out for art projects,
and behind the recliner. Tight squeeze, but better than the floor.

On the boys' bedroom wall below the high shelf and tucked in under
the space posters