Tack Shed Renovation: Organizational Plans

A post every day this week? WHO AM I?!?!?! OK moving on, haha. Don't get used to that. I just have actual things to write about this week and more time than usual, and I'm trying to snap myself out of this pandemic-funk, and writing seems to be helping. So I'll keep it up as long as I can!

Even if I feel like this most mornings

With the state still closed, not much progress being made on the physical renovations, but I have ordered a lot of the stuff I think I need to help get things organized once we get to that step! So let's dive right in. First, massive shout-out to everyone who has blogged about their own tack room organization -- Jen (parts one and two), Austen, Liz, and more that I'm probably not remembering. Drop a link in the comments if you have a post you think I should read! Another round of thanks to the friends who let me bounce ideas off them -- there are too many of you to name! Below is a LOT of me geeking out about boring organizational stuff for my ridiculous amounts of tack, so if that's not your jam too, you've been warned. I included links for most of the products in case you're in the market, but they're not affiliate links, I don't make any money off sharing them. 

For saddle pads, I have two of the Schneiders 10-arm racks. Sometime last year a blogger (or maybe a Facebook friend?), I cannot for the life of me remember who, posted about these being on sale, so I snagged myself some for a birthday gift. They've been sitting in the shed every since, lol.

I'm not actually sure that 20 will hold all the saddle pads I own (OK I actually already KNOW that, shut up), so here are some other great ideas people shared with me.

A friend DIYed this herself to make the best use of her available space at a boarding barn. I believe these were Ikea swivel towel hooks (possibly these or these)? Love it!

Clover Ledge Farm shared this great idea with me, and I actually had a bunch of those style hangers saved just in case!

This is a SUPER OLD picture (and there's a zero percent chance I'm getting a new one until construction is over haha) but my previous organization was just stacking them to the ceiling on this shelf. Actually after re-reading Liz's post about her tack shed I'm thinking a shelf over the door would be good for the ones that don't get used much (like the 8+ still in the packaging LOL) and I can use the Schneiders rack for the daily rotation and drying. 

The next big hurdle was bridle hooks - I'm sure you already know this, but I own A LOT of bridles. Some might even call it an excessive amount. Go back to Monday's post and you can see pics, lol. My only requirement was that they actually be rounded, to help a bridle hold its shape, because I had a bridle ruined in college by hanging on a wire hook and getting a crease in the leather I never could get out. Black was preferred, but worst case scenario I figured I could paint them if necessary (I did toy with the idea of painting them teal).

Bye old hooks! They'll be off to their new home soon. 

This is where Jen's posts came in handy, because she had already done pretty much all of the legwork in finding the best value for a lot of the organizational things I was looking for. Unfortunately for me, when I was ready to order, Schneiders was out of the hooks she used in black, and I didn't want any of the colors they offered. I poked around on State Line's website and located these guys.

My old barn used these on each stall for halter hooks, and the lower hook worked well for fly masks. They met my criteria for being rounded, and best of all, when ordered in the quantities I needed, they were even cheaper than the original brackets I looked at. Let's not talk about how many I ordered ;) safe to say, I was on the receiving end of some good-natured teasing from Jen when she found out I needed more than her entire barn full of eventers used in their tack room... haha.

Again from Jen's post, I also really loved how they used the hooks above to hang girths, as that was always tricky for me. I have more girths than saddles, and I didn't love laying them across my saddles/covers, so previously I just slung them up over the center brace, but then they were annoying to get back down (or alternatively fell on my head). This will help keep them tidy and accessible! I did pay a tiny bit more for these from State Line instead of Jeffers, but since I met the order minimum to get 30% off all my items, I think the slightly higher initial cost probably came out in the wash.

In a previous order trying to meet a minimum threshold back in 2018 or 2019 I think, I picked up two of these helmet hangers. I'll probably grab more in a future order, but State Line was oversold on them when I was shopping and I didn't want to buy something so piddly and then pay as much as they cost in shipping from somewhere else. Two will suffice to start for my teal Ovation and my old IRH schooler, which are the ones that get the most use anyway.

Obviously with my matchy matchy tendencies, I do own some fun colored polos. But full disclosure, I find polo wraps kind of fiddly to use, mostly because I am OCD and I can never get all four to come out exactly the same. But I do OWN some, so one of these racks was also tossed in the cart. And then in a fun twist, a friend gave me another she had sitting around, so now I'll have two! Currently I use more boots than polos, and those are in one of those over the door shoe organizers, so I'm not sure if I'll reuse that again or maybe borrow from Austen's boot organization genius if I can get Ikea to ship me some Trones :) 

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with this, but it seemed like it could be useful so I grabbed one of these too. 

And speaking of boot organizers -- for my own boots, I have DH on record as saying he will make me a few of these :) no link to these anywhere that I could find for sale, sorry, but the image came off Pinterest and I'm sure someone, somewhere makes them!

I already have enough saddle racks -- I own two nice wheel-mounted double racks that the prison used to have prisoners make (but they don't offer them anymore, so sad!), as well as a very nice triple rack that DH got me as an anniversary gift a few years back, then one saddle is on a solo rack, with a spare foldable rack to make a tack cleaning station if necessary. I guess in a perfect world I would have two 4-tier racks, but those are $$$$ so I think I'll just stick with what I have for now. I can always upgrade that down the line if I feel the need. 

Next up, bits! My old system was just to have them hung across the center brace, but again, sometimes that bit me in the ass (or rather the head) if I bumped something and they fell on me. 

Old photo. 

I browsed the internet and saw a lot of options, many of them pegboard type deals. I really liked that, but I was worried about the amount of wall real estate that would take up, so I started brainstorming... and here's what I came up with. 

These are the curtain rods I used on all the windows in my house. They're unobtrusive, inexpensive, and vaguely industrial looking, which fits the general theme I have going on. I paid about $10-12 each for the smaller ones, and I actually bought one of the larger ones to hang over the French doors on the front of the shed so I can put up some thermal curtains there too. I figured a curtain rod combined with the hooks below could be a good bit storage solution. We'll see if it can handle the weight ;) if not, I'll hang fly bonnets on it or something!

Voila! These S-hooks are usually marketed more for pots and pans, so I figured they could hold a little weight. If not, I'll use them somewhere!

I also pondered if there was a good way to display my browbands. I've actually seen some REALLY cool repurposed medicine-style cabinets (with glass fronts and lighting) for browbands, but I decided to start a little simpler for now. 

A 50-pack of these hooks was cheap, and I think if I screw them into a board with the opening facing up, I should be able to drop a browband on them? It makes sense in my head, I'll let you know how the reality plays out ;) 

Whew! That's a lot of organizational stuff -- hopefully we can get the rest of the insulation and the walls up soon so I can start transferring everything from my brain (which feels oddly like a Pinterest board right now) into the actual space to see how it works! Did I miss anything important? Seriously, drop me links. I'm not married to any of these ideas so if you have a better one, I WANNA HEAR IT! :)