TIPS How To Light a Closet Without Wiring

Looking for a way to light up a closet or other space, but you can’t wire a light there? Here’s how to light a closet without wiring.

If we are keeping it real around here?

My children are much less impressed with me than I think they should be.

Much of what I do is greeted with a smile and a shrug of the shoulder and the occasional dismissive sniff and eye roll.

Sigh.

No ticker tape parade around here.

But yesterday?

Yesterday was one for the record books.

I finished a fun project and showed the twins.

I couldn’t believe it. They cheered and high-fived me and exclaimed with excitement that it was the best solution to a problem we have had for a long time. I felt like I had won the project lottery.

Here’s a challenge the house has had for over 100 years.

And how we solved it.

Have you ever noticed that little door right there on the left?

Ever wondered what was behind there?

It’s a tiny closet that runs the length of the staircase. When I was little my mother would store coats and Christmas decorations and umbrellas and a conglomeration of things that showed up when no one was looking. It was relatively organized and useful and a great place for storage.

And then?

We bought the house and it became the landing place for everything under the sun.

If you looked behind the door you’d see this.

Just between us? I’m not still not really sure how it ended up like this. I had such high hopes. But somewhere along the way, life and a lot of random stuff happened. We found an old cabinet and tried to build it in, but it didn’t really work and then we needed a trash can and I found this old one out in the shed and random pieces of this and broken pieces of that showed up.

And on and on and disorganizing on.

This space wasn’t really maximized at all.

So we started with a little paint. I knew I wanted a dark color.

It just looked cleaner to me. Sometimes white walls are so hard to keep clean and I wanted the space to feel fresh and clean.

We painted the walls Naval SW 6244.

It needed two coats because we went from light to dark.

Then I found this organizer at Walmart.

It is about 31″ wide.
It is deep enough and has enough width to maximize the space.
It’s under $50.
It comes in tons of different colors.
I could use the cubbies or order cubes to fit inside.

I found these cubes in a black and white stripe that actually looks like navy in the space.

They were super inexpensive ($6.00) and looked so pretty in the space.

You can see the cube storage here.

But here’s the thing.

The space under the stairs was organized and clean and navy and painted and cute.

And.

DARK.

It was so dark under the stairs. There wasn’t any light. You’d open the door and when you walked to the back of the closet it felt like you were walking into Narnia.

But how do you light a closet when you don’t have the ability to wire a light and your house was built in 1908?

How To Light a Closet Without Wiring

// battery operated motion sensor light //

I did a little wireless light research and found this.

The solution to end all solutions.

This set of motion sensor ceiling lights.

You can see the light here.

// battery operated motion sensor light //

Yep.

That’s it.

All you need are batteries and to peel the covering off the light fixture. Hang up the light and it’s ready to go.

Now when you open the door, the light comes on automatically and you can see exactly where everything is in the closet.

It’s seriously the BEST solution ever.

// battery operated motion sensor light //

Here’s what the light looks like in the closet.

There are two lights in the package I ordered and originally I was going to use both of them in the closet, but the light was so bright we only needed one.

So we are using the other one in the workshop.

You can see the light here.

I didn’t tell the twins what we were doing.

And after the light was installed, I called them downstairs and told them to open the door.

The look on their face was PRICELESS.

They couldn’t believe it and they told me it was amazing.

Finally.

They decided I’m amazing.

I’m so happy they noticed.

PS My wonderful friend just gave me another option for lights like this except they are rechargeable instead of using batteries. They look like a great option, too.

You can see the rechargeable lights here.

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