Hobbies can often take up a fair amount of room in our homes and garages. Keeping everything organized I've found to be a challenge. I'm always on the look out for ways to make our spaces work better for us. 

About 1 1/2 years ago we moved to Arizona and our life long love of hiking moved to a whole new level. Our weeks revolve around the next hike. With our bucket list hike of rim 2 rim at the Grand Canyon officially on the calendar our gear expanded. Hiking every week and often more than once a week we needed easy access to our gear. We wanted to easily be able to stock or restock our packs, and store everything in one place. 

Our laundry room had a set of shelves that we couldn't quite figure out what to do with it. We'd thrown equipment on the shelves but it never organzied properly. We finally decided the area was perfect for a gear 'closet'. The location was prefect with being in the laundry room right off the pantry and kitchen.

We wanted a system that would allow us to easily move things around as well as add or delted as things change. We quickly tore out the old shelfing, fixing the walls and adding support for a large butcher block counter. The counter is an important feature for us, allowing bags to be loaded/unloaded here instead of on the kitchen counter. 

After looking at several options we ended up with the Gladiator wall system for garages. The slats were the perfect size for our wall. We added wood trim around the 3 sizes to finish it off as well as keep everything in the tracks. 

The project was easily completed over two weeks then we had the fun part of getting all our gear loaded and organized. A bit more has been added since the closet was initially completed but the layout has remained the same. We've been actively using this area for the last 6 months and it's been a huge improvement! 

This refill basket is a key feature for reloading packs and seeing when things are running low. We also keep the dogs bowl and pouch here so we can easily throw them in when he's coming along in the cooler months. 

Knives - I store these here so I can easily grab what I need to take for the day. We do not have children in the house so this works for us. My go to for each hike is the Utility Camp Knife. It easily slids into one of my side pockets of my hiking pants. The lightweight and compactness makes it ideal. 

Battery power - we don't need on shorter hikes but we take for longer ones. 

Nutrition and sunglasses are key for hiking in sun and heat!

You may be wondering what we did with all the great space under the counter. This area belongs to Scout, our 80 lb hiking buddy in the cooler months. 

Scout is always ready to go when he sees the packs being loaded!