OPTIMIZING THE CLOSET DOOR OF AN AIRSTREAM INTERSTATE

Our 2007 Airstream Interstate came with a closet door the inside of which held nothing but a small mirror.

Nice but unremarkable at best, horrendously inefficient at worst.

My husband tied a piece of monofilament (fishing line) between two wooden dowels and used that to "saw" through the adhesive on the back of the mirror so that it could be removed without breaking.

I then cut down an IKEA Stuk shoe organizer to fit the available back-of-door space, which made a 3 x 3 pocket grid.  I re-hemmed the edges that had to be cut.

#vansizedsewing

I mounted the grid using this hardware:

I dismounted the door to do this work.  First I had to scrape off the old mirror adhesive and determine my desired pocket position.

In order to prevent the screws from pulling on the nylon fabric as they were being inserted, I first tapped holes in the fabric of the Stuk using a nail.

Then very carefully, I used a soldering iron to melt the edges of the holes, so that the fibers would not get tangled up in the screws.

Don't get over-zealous with the soldering iron.  You'll melt the whole kit and caboodle. 

I did a few test screwings (so to speak) before piloting shallow holes in the back of the closet door.  I used an electric drill for that.  If you do the same, make sure you don't penetrate through to the front side of the door.  That would be bad.

Test scrap of the Stuk, so this lower edge is not sewn.

This device did not require sixteen anchoring points, but I sort of wanted a riveted style of look, so sixteen it was.

This design works because the two shelves that I added to the closet are recessed.  The closet as built by Airstream only had one shelf up high.  That one was flush with the back of the closet door, but it could avoid it by setting the pockets below it.

Obviously not a lot of weight or bulk can be added to the door, but these pockets still hold a heck of a lot of stuff, including the following in this example photo:

1. Two large dish towels
2. Four wash cloths
3. Six cotton napkins
4. Sprinter owners manual and pens
5. Half a dozen plastic laminated National Forest and National Park maps
6. Trip log book and misc. computer supplies
7. Luminoodle rope light
8. Disposable barf bags (never had to use any yet, knock wood)
9. Nylon grocery tote bags
10. About 50 feet of paracord
11. Aluminum foil
12. Beer can coozies

That's a lot of stuff that was previously occupying other precious space!

And here's the hell of it - I actually prefer that original mirror being on the front of the closet, not the back.  It bounces light around and breaks up the long narrow aisle of the van.

Why didn't I think of this project sooner?!

I'm amazed that, after more than four years, I'm still discovering substantial new space wins like this.   Wowser.