So someone needs to explain to me how something meant to be helpful can become such a PITA?
Let me take a step back and just say, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our Thule.
Seriously. We love it! This isn’t even some advertisement for them. They have no clue who I am, other than some weirdo adoring fan who can now haul around twice as much crap as we probably need for each trip.
Somewhere in my head, I had the delusion that it would get better once we weren’t hauling around pack-n-plays and other baby stuff. That’s one dream that’s been smacked down.
It’s not that there are fewer things, it’s just different things. And bigger clothes. And other pre-teen/teen necessities. Basically, still loads ‘O crap.
Like I said, I love it when we’re using it — storing it on the other hand is a beast.
Look at this thing. Pretty sure I could fit in it laying down. (Looks like it would make a good coffin. Note to self….put something weird like being buried in the Thule in my will. It will make people wonder even more about me. )
And that ginormous beast just eats up precious garage space. Space I could be filling with glorious projects.
There are people out there that have used solutions like canoe hangers to hoist it above their car like these (affiliate link – Kayak Hoist) It’s around $30 and if that works for you, that is super awesome! The storage hoists from Thule run from $100-$200, so that’s still a bargain.
I really wanted it to work for us. We toyed with the idea of hanging it from the ceiling near the wall, but this is a 1970’s house with awesome 8′ ceilings. It just doesn’t work if you need to walk under that thing.
So enter the brilliant idea of hanging it on the wall. The only thing was, our garage walls were already covered with stuff! If you have less junk than us, even better. I applaud your ability not to hoard. I do not have that gene. My issues run deep. I like to keep all the things, because someday I will have a use for them. Every. single. one. of. them.
Rob thought I was slightly crazy (only slightly more so than usual), but I thought hanging it in the shed might work. It was a tight fit, but gosh-darn-it we did it. Crammed it right between the boards and rafters. And on the cheap, too! Complete win!
We bought 2 things from the big box store here in town.
- Wall hooks similar to these at Home Depot, which were less than $2 each.
- Large wooden dowel (wide enough to span the width of the carrier…I think ours was 48″) which ran around $5
Measure the width of your luggage carrier and install the hooks where they will rest several inches outside of where your carrier will hang. Otherwise the hooks get in the way. We could visibly see the studs in our shed, but you could always install a horizontal board screwed into the studs so you could choose the exact placement you need and not be dependent on stud location if your space is covered in drywall, which is what we would have done if we were hanging it in our garage, or say a living room. Hey, I don’t know what floats your boat…I won’t judge.
You can put your dowel in the hooks to make sure you’re fairly level. You know, if that’s your thing.
Clamp the dowel into the claws of the luggage carrier. Those little claws don’t look like they would hold this thing speeding down the highway doing, well let’s just say the speed limit, but amazingly it does.
Now grunt and groan and hang on the wall. It’s actually not that bad, but we were working in a confined space, so we probably sounded like a couple of body builders lifting their max weight. I know, you wish you had my glamorous life.
Plus, we picked a day this fall here in Noth Texas that was almost 90. So there may have also been crazy amounts of sweat involved. (Of course the next day was like 50. It’s about life choices. And if we were grown ups, we might have checked the weather…I digress.)
See how the hooks are on the outside of the luggage carrier.
Wahoo! All done. Stand back and admire your brilliance. And wonder if you’ve wedged it too high into the rafter to easily remove.
Meh. A battle for another day.
