My kitchen counters tend to be a magnet for clutter.  

Mail that needs to be opened and sorted.  Paperwork coming home from school.  Random odds and ends that are going to some other final destination.  During baseball season, I probably remove at least three baseballs per week from the counter.  (I’m pretty sure that baseballs are breeding and reproducing somewhere nearby – that is the only explanation for their seemingly ever-increasing numbers.)

My boys come home from school and my kitchen island is instantly full of binders, books, reading logs, lunch boxes, water bottles and whatever else they pull out of their clown-car-esque backpacks.

I get it – the kitchen is the center of the house.  We spend a large proportion of our time in the kitchen, so it makes sense that all of the “stuff” ends up there as well.

Some of the “stuff” has a legitimate reason to be on the counter, like the fresh fruit that I’ve left out in the hopes that my boys will grab instead of crackers.  Still, all of that legitimate stuff can add up and lead to an overload of visual clutter.

I’ve been seeing more and more ideas where my fellow DIY-ers hung cute baskets or file folders on the walls, so I’ve been keeping my eyes open for my own DIY solution.  On a recent shopping trip to my local craft store (a trip, I might add, that was for something else entirely!), they were having a sale on baskets, so I peaked down the aisle for a look.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  Read my full Disclosure Policy HERE.

Score!  I found two baskets that were the perfect size (about 12″ wide, 8″ tall and 6″ deep).  Order a similar basket HERE.

I wanted matching hooks, but could only find white, black and silver (the baskets themselves are a matte-brown metal), so I went with medium white hooks and figured I’d have some sort of spray paint at home that would work.

I had some Rust-Oleum in Espresso leftover from another project, and it was a pretty-darned perfect match.

They turned out a little shinier than I would have liked, but considering that I didn’t have to buy more paint – I’ll take it!

I recommend that you follow the instructions when installing the hooks.  I didn’t wait the recommended 1 hour before using, and my heavy little clementines pulled one of the hooks right off of the wall.  I reinstalled the hook (using a new sticky), followed the instructions the second time around and my hooks have been holding nicely.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave