Martha Stewart's Clever Indoor Storage Hack Uses An Unexpected Backyard Find

For decades now, Martha Stewart has been sharing tips and tricks to help people keep their homes organized and clean. In an old episode of her first weekly television show, "Martha Stewart Living," she shared a unique, natural way to create hanging peg storage with her guest, Conan O'Brien. A section of a tree branch is all you need for Stewart's hack — the smaller limbs on the branch act as pegs or hooks. She explained that by drilling through the wood and attaching it to your wall, you can make a rack that's perfect for hanging hats, jackets, or even dog leashes.

Stewart's DIY works perfectly as a wall-mounted coat rack that instantly saves you square footage if your entryway is rather small. This is an easy, inexpensive way to add vertical, hanging storage to any space while incorporating a bit of natural decor. For this project, Stewart gathered her own wood. "Well what really goes on with this is finding a nice birch branch, something that's maybe blown down in a storm," she said in the episode (via YouTube), adding jokingly, "We did not cut down our neighbor's tree." With a drill, a small saw, some screws, and a simple tree branch, Stewart shows that you can transform yard waste into beautiful hook storage. Martha Stewart's simple tip makes keeping an organized home a breeze and helps you add valuable storage without taking up any floor space.

In the episode of her TV show, Martha Stewart showed that something as simple as a portable folding saw is all you need to cut a branch to the length you want. She also used her little saw to trim off a couple of the small branches from the thicker limb. Stewart explained that one side of the branch needs to be flat so you can mount the rack onto the wall. While she chose a small birch limb with several branches for her rack, other types of wood could also make for a fun, nature-themed rack. Depending on what types of trees grow in your area (and your style), you can customize this project by utilizing unique branches.

If the peg branches of your wood are too long, Stewart suggested trimming them with a pair of pruning shears. Finally, to mount the rack, she held the branch up to the wall and pre-drilled straight through the wood at the top and bottom. Then, she drilled screws into the holes to attach the branch to the wall. To cover the screws' openings, Stewart plugged them with tiny pieces of scrap wood. Besides hanging jackets and hats by the door, this fun hook storage could come in handy in other areas of your home; for example, mounting your branch in the kitchen could be the clever space-saving secret for storing kitchen towels.