Easy DIY Landing Strip

I have a chronic disorganization problem, but to most people apparently I appear to be organized.  At school, I misplace my keys regularly, but at home, thanks to my handy landing strip by the front door, I always know where they are.  This trick is relatively simple, functional, and looks good!

To achieve this, you'll need:

1. An antique furnace grate (I found mine at an antique store for about $20)

2. Toggle bolts, or a suitable wall anchor of your choice.  There's a great tutorial at Natural Handyman.

3. A good power drill.  

4. Measuring tape.
5. Pencil.
6. Carpenter's level.
7. Round craft magnets* (the strong ones) from a craft store.
8. Giant clothespin or other fastener from the craft store (optional).
9. Spray paint (optional).
10. Stud finder (optional).

To install:

1. Decide where you want your furnace grate to go and measure it. 

2. Mark the midpoint of the wall where you'd like to hang it along with the midpoint of the grate.

3. Using the carpenter's level, draw a line level with the mark you just made on the wall.

4. Look at where the holes are for mounting the grate.  You can use the stud finder to determine whether one of them will line up with a stud in your wall, which is handy because then you can anchor it to that on the one side and not have to mess with a toggle bolt on that side.

5. How heavy is the grate?  Determine which type of wall anchor you'll use.  My grate is cast iron, so toggle bolts were really the only option.  Measure the distance from the holes in the grate to the wall.  Your anchors are probably going to have to be pretty long.  Also check to see how big the hole is; you don't want the anchor to slip right through the grate.

6.  Line up your grate on the wall with the marks you just made and mark the location where you will drill the holes for the anchors.

7. Drill the holes for the anchors.

8. Place the bolts through the holes on the grate and thread the toggle onto the end.  Make sure you do it correctly! 

9.  It's handy to have a friend for this step: line everything up, fold in the toggles, and push them into the wall.  Using your drill, tighten the bolts.  You'll want to try to work evenly on each side, so tighten a little on the right and then a little on the left and so on until everything looks good.  Trust me on this!  It's hard to do otherwise.  Hence the friend. 

10.  Place the magnets along the bottom edge of the grate and toss your keys up there.  They'll stick and you'll never lose them again!

11.  Glue a magnet to the back of your chosen fastener (spray painted in the color of your choice) and stick it to the side.  Perfect place for outgoing mail!

12.  Add some coat hangers underneath the grate for even more places to put things you need at the door.

As you can see, this is a great place to drop incoming and outgoing mail, hang your keys and ID badges, place your glasses (seriously, I'd lose mine if they weren't here!), bluetooth headset, etc.

*Important note about magnets: if you have kids or pets, you need to be extra careful to keep these rare earth magnets completely out of their reach.  If they swallow them, they can attach to one another in the digestive tract and cause severe damage and death.  My cats haven't swallowed any, but I'm pretty careful!