{diy: magnetic bathroom rack}

After having dinner at IKEA the other day (yes, we tend to eat there like it's a real restaurant. Don't judge... the $1 ice cream is like crack.) I found myself wandering amongst the kitchen accessories, as I tend to do. I have a difficult time ever leaving IKEA empty handed, and with a store a mere 15 minutes away, Tanner and I have bought all kinds of useless and wonderful things even when we probably shouldn't.

This particular trip I had an idea bouncing around in my head, and I was tempted to test it out. After snatching myself up a $9 magnetic knife rack from upstairs, I took it home and promptly installed it in my bathroom. (Edit: actually, Tanner installed it, because I couldn't find anchors for the screws and it kept pulling out of the wall, much to my annoyance.)

Why a metal knife rack in my bathroom, you might ask? Well, I have a terrible habit of leaving bobby pins all over the house, because you just never know when you're going to need a bobby pin. The trouble is, they're quite small and difficult to keep track of, so even when I round them up, I have no clever place to store them.
Are you seeing where I'm going with this? Enter: the FINTORP knife rack. I originally wanted it to keep tabs on my bobby pins, but it has actually turned out to be far more useful. Now it keeps track of my nail clippers, scissors, file, tweezers, and metal manicure set. Everything is within arm's reach but most importantly, it is off the counter top, which tends to get cluttered so quickly with bathroom paraphanalia.

Tanner loved the idea so much that he ran right out and bought himself another metal rack to install in his own bathroom. I laughed at his enthusiasm, because he doesn't own any bobby pins, but he did manage to rustle up some clippers and files and such to attach to his rack. And he came up with another clever idea: he added a magnet to the back of his weekly pill case, so his medicine is always at hand. I'm considering picking up some of those magnetic spice jars to add to the racks to keep track of other medicines and small beauty products in the bathroom.

What do you think? Has anyone else tried any clever IKEA hacks lately?