How to Hide the Junk Closet

It's Storage & Organization Week here at Food52! We're sharing our best tips for keeping your home in tip-top shape.

Today: How to make the inevitable junk section of the apartment a little less junky.

   Before (left): The sad, dark junk closet; after (right): the less sad, still dark, who-knows-what's-in-there closet.

Our editor Ali tried out this trick at home. Here's what she said:

"There’s a closet in the hallway of my new apartment that is probably for coats—but, for me, I knew that’s where all the stuff was going: the cleaning supplies, the bulky toilet paper, the like. Thing is, no matter how organized you are, or how many cute jars you buy to put all the little things in, this stuff is never going to look good.

I tried covering the shelving unit with fabric, but it didn’t hide the stuff up top. I thought about buying a shower curtain to hang from the rod, only to find that the hooks were too small for the rod. But, realizing the height of a closet rod is the same (or just about the same) as many curtains, I found a good solution for hiding the stuff: Find a curtain you like (or one you sort of like—it’s going to look better than your pile of necessities regardless) and feed into onto the rod. Swing the curtain to the side whenever you need to get something that's hiding, and until then, pride yourself on the fact that your junk closet is no longer junky—to the outsider’s eye."

And we were so impressed that we tried it right here in the office. Now we can hide away our, um, butter churn (and router stuff) behind a simple curtain. When positioned casually in front of the curtain, a stepstool playing plant stand gives off a "nothing to see here!" vibe, and the curtain fades into the wall.