DIY work bench, YES!

Hey there everyone! Are you ready for Thanksgiving? I’m excited to sleep in, stay in my pajama pants all day and eat with family. :) I hope yours is wonderful!

So remember last week when I showed you the massive clean out in the garage? I’m SO happy with it. There was one last project I wanted to complete in there and it was actually fairly quick and easy AND inexpensive. The trifecta!

This is the area I was planning on addressing:

I’ve had my saw on that storage cabinet for years now and it worked OK but not great. I wanted to have a lot more room to spread out. My dream has always been to have a work bench in the garage and that dream was much easier to realize than I thought. :)

I put a plan together (in my head) and gathered my supplies at True Value. Originally I thought it would be a lot more elaborate than it ended up being. I am quite sure you could do this, even if you’ve never built anything! And if you’ve never built anything I don’t know if you need a work bench, but whatever. Let’s pretend.

I got two 1 by 4’s and one 4 by 4 – all eight feet long. (I already had most of another 4 by 4 leftover from another project too.) I measured out how long I wanted the bench to be and it turned out to be right at eight feet, which was a bonus because I didn’t have to have to make nearly as many cuts.

The first step was to figure out how high I wanted the table to be – I knew I wanted it taller than the storage containers because I wanted to keep them underneath. Then I attached the board (making sure it was level) to the studs along the wall with three inch screws:

Next I held the 4 by 4 post up to that to see how tall I wanted them to be. I marked it at the top of the 1 by 4 on the wall, because I wanted it the same height, since my plywood would sit on both the board along the wall and the 4 by 4’s in front. Does that make sense? It will in a minute. ;)

I cut three posts down to use as supports along the front, then placed the plywood (I used a 4 by 8 piece cut right down the middle, so two feet wide) on them and started screwing them together:

I did make sure the posts were level before securing them to the top. I put four screws in through the top of the plywood into each of the posts. I used drywall screws for this part – I use those for a lot of woodworking projects since they are so easy to get into the wood.

I secured all three posts and then did the same at the back of the plywood, up against the wall:

You could easily do that part first and then the posts, it doesn't matter what order you do it in.

Here’s where I opened my mouth, stuck in my foot and said, “Wow, this is going so well!”

WHY? Do I EVER learn?

Cause then I messed up.

I used the second 1 by 4 as an “apron” across the front – I just thought it finished it off nicely and looked a little better. Then we (my sis actually) realized the storage containers wouldn’t fit underneath with it on there. So we took that off, put them under there, then started putting it back on, but realized the container doors to the right wouldn’t open with the wood along the front:

So instead I used a scrap 1 by 2 I had – losing those two inches made it so I could open everything just fine. (As you can see above.)

I secured that to the posts with drywall screws too:

You can see in that photo how simple this whole thing was – it’s just a brace along the back wall with plywood on top and 4 by 4’s as supports in the front.

Super simple design:

I didn’t secure the posts into the cement floor – there’s no need to. The weight of the wood keeps them where they are.

Since the table is so close to the door I knocked down the edges and corners just a bit for safety:

Can I just say how much I love this?? I LOVE IT!! Why did it take me so long to do this?

I finally have space to spread out – there’s plenty of room for me to work and in my old workshop area it was impossible:

Plenty of room for a table saw too. ;) I got one a few weeks ago but it was messed up so I took it back. I’m going to try again soon.

Even with our slight mess up this project was much easier and quicker than I thought it would be. And that NEVER happens. The total cost was less than $50 – the main expense was the piece of plywood that was $25. (The thickness is more than half an inch for extra strength.)

It’s silly but it makes me feel like a real DIYer:

And it looks so much cleaner and nice compared to how this spot used to look! Love.

The garage is like night and day from before – I can’t believe how much better it looks and functions now. It’s stayed clean for three weeks now – that’s how I know it finally works for us! Isn’t that a great feeling?

 

I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own I would have done this project anyway and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

For more project ideas visit True Value here or their Facebook page here.

Most epic clean out ever

Hey there! How was your weekend? Ours was great, even though we spent the day in the basement yesterday, ready for storms and tornados going through the area. Last I heard there were about 20 tornados that touched down in Indiana, but they expect that number to drop a bit. There is so much damage – my prayers to my fellow Hoosier and those in surrounding states who were affected.

Last week I finished up a truly HUGE organizing project. After going through the entire house (except for our closet), I had one final frontier that was the garage. It was BAD people. It was even worse a couple months ago, but over the past four or five weeks I worked on things here and there. I didn’t even take photos of that before because it was really that bad. ;)

BUT. We are always able to park in the garage – we pride ourselves on that! We may risk life and limb to get to the door but we. will. park. inside.

This decrapification (really, truest sense of the word this time) took me FOREVER. I worked on it all afternoon Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday a week or so ago. I figured I spent about 20 hours on it total. And my sis came and helped cause hubby was out of town – she was a huge help!

OK, so keep in mind this is a garage. It’s not pretty. This is one of those posts that doesn’t have pretty pics, but man, I worked my butt off so I figured I’d share it.

We have had three tall plastic storage containers in there for awhile but I was determined to get rid of one because I was moving them to another spot. We took everything out and moved them, and ended up with this pile:

That’s actually the “nice” view of it. :) I work better by just making a big pile (even though it can be overwhelming) first and then tackling it all at once. I can’t do little bits at a time.

Yet again, I realized how much MONEY I lose when I’m not organized. It drives me crazy! This was just the extra screwdrivers – not the ones I kept:

I mean, I’m a DIYer, so I have a good amount of tools. But seriously? Argh.

Once I was done with that pile I started on this side of the room:

GoodNESS. Too much CRAP. I have a problem hoarding tools but my husband hoards sprinklers. We all have our problems. ;)

I wanted to completely change how we have the garage set up because over the years I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. One thing that didn’t work was where I had our lawn tools in this corner:

That’s where my husband parks so it was a pain to get to them when we were doing yard work.

The area where I wanted to move it to was a disaster, of course:

So I took every bit out of each of those areas and moved stuff around. Now that area above looks like this: 

Hello! Much better! We can get to it now! Whoot! You may notice I drywalled that area too – I had extra insulation and drywall and used scraps to close up that spot. (See here to see how to do both!)

And the other corner I showed you now holds the trash bins – again, they will be so much easier to get to here! We still have to move a car out but it works out so much better than where they were before:

You can see how much I try to use the height in here – for stuff that’s seasonal this works great. I only need to get the sleds a few times a year so they go up high. The baseball bag lives in my car during baseball season, so the rest of the year it goes up high. It works for us and gets stuff off the floor.

And that whole side that was a disaster before:

Now looks like this:

Ahhhhh…so much better!!

Now…the other side. This is the main reason I wanted to change up where everything was. We have a bump out that I had made into my work shop. But it wasn’t working:

It was always, ALWAYS, a mess. There just wasn’t enough room, with the trash bins off to the left and the piles of crap on the floor in front of it. And I couldn’t get eight foot pieces of wood in that area to cut them down.

So we moved the two plastic storage jobbies over there instead:

If you’re super observant you’ll notice we also finished up the insulation and drywalling:

I’m glad you can’t see detail in these pics cause that top piece…not so good. ;) But it’s up! And warmer!

Here’s a view of some of the storage we added back in there last year, more on that in a bit:

That rug peeking out is going in hubby’s basement office soon – a winter project. :)

The trash bins used to sit over in this area and now it’s where we keep the outside toys for the kiddo:

I got that rolling storage thing from the Container Store last year and it’s GREAT for that kind of stuff!

I moved my “work shop” over to the long spot at the back of the garage:

It doesn’t look like much but I have a plan for that area that I’m working on now – SO stinking excited about it! It will be even more organized and functional when I’m done with it.

We have plenty of room to walk around there, even with our cars pulled in, so this will work much better as a work area. I have tons of space to stretch out in! And yes, I have my pretty rug that was in the mud room in there because it’s dirty beyond cleaning now. I didn’t realize when I bought it that the light areas are raised and therefore are impossible to keep clean. So instead of getting rid of it I’m using it in here till it’s total toast. :)

Who doesn’t want some pretty in their garage anyway? Maybe it’s just me? Could be.

Last year I had an epiphany of sorts – I realized our garage, with it’s 12 foot+ ceilings, was a gold mine of storage that we weren’t taking advantage of. And since the basement was finished, we didn’t have room for big faux Christmas trees and all that stuff down there. So we had a few storage shelves built, up to the ceiling. We started with a couple earlier last year and then a couple more in the fall. They are AWESOME:

They were mostly filled with junk up till a few weeks ago when I moved most of the Christmas bins out here. I decluttered big time and was able to put all but a couple bins up here. So for those of you who were curious, here’s where all that went! ;)

I label my bins with Frogtape – it’s easy to read, easy to change out and actually stays stuck on there:

I just put the tape on, write and then to clean them up a bit I use a razor to trim up the sides. Totally not necessary to trim them up but it makes them look nice. ;)

And after all work, finding a spot for everything, moving it all around -- I realized we didn’t have room for something important that we kept on those shelves all last winter – all the outdoor cushions from the patio. Wha whaaaa. Smart.

Sooo…we have a little bit of room on one of the shelves above the garage:

And I think we’ll have another one installed over on the other side, hopefully before it snows. That should hold everything.

I’m on a mission to create/find a spot for everything in my house. I’m getting closer all, getting closer. It feels GOOD. And I said it years ago when I last cleaned out the garage, (to the day, how weird!!) but this time I mean it – NEVER again will I let it get this bad. Ever. You can declutter all you want, but unless the storage is functional and works for your family, it’s just going to pile up again. These changes will work so much better for us!

Next year I’d like to work on painting the floors in here – I love the look but our cars are OLD and occasionally leak. I haven’t wanted to go through all the work just to have stains on the floor.

So, there you go – my most epic clean out EVER! Numerous Goodwill trips and Craigslist sales later, and I’m done!! It feels so good! This is a great fall project because the temps are perfect for being inside/kinda outside. Do you have an organized garage? Do you always park in it? :)

How my house lost weight

Hello there! How was your weekend? Ours was great – how about those Colts?! There’s a lot of folks in Indiana dragging today, we had to stay up and watch a the whole thing. What a great game!

Anyway, I didn’t get any DIY done this weekend because I had one. sole. focus…get the rest of the house DECRAPIFIED.

By the way, I can’t take credit for that term. A very lovely reader used it years ago and I was instantly hooked on it. I asked her if I could use it cause it was so awesome. And I do. It’s a good word.

I’ve mentioned once or 75 times that I’ve been working on cleaning out the house for the past few months. I didn’t realize how long it’s been till I looked back at some posts. It’s been a LONG time.

I don’t mind the process but doing as intensely as I did got to be a little much at times. I would stall out for a week or two and then go back to it. And I was easily sidetracked and would have to finish up DIY projects as I went along.

I got ‘er done. A lot.

I think the biggest difference is in the kitchen. The drawers open easily (nothing “sticking” as I open or close them):

A functioning drawer is highly underrated. I like not fighting with my drawers. :)

I showed you how I cleared out the utensils and organized them here:

And the clean and organized pantry last week:

I use a lot of dressers around the house, including this one in our foyer. The handle on that top drawer (my tool drawer) has broken twice because it was so heavy. Now it’s decluttered and light as a feather:

As light as tools can get anyway.

And no, I don’t organize every bit of stuff in the drawers – when there’s less in there I can see to find what I need easily so I don’t think it’s needed.

There are even a few completely, gloriously empty drawers in the house!:

The other room that I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in is our mud room – the floors and shelf were covered with, well…CRAP.

Even the utility closet was a mess – now we just open the door and select the cleaning tool of our choice:

I had been hoarding floor cleaning stuff. It was a bit ridiculous. I need one broom and a couple floor cleaning jobbies – not 12.

While I was at it I gave the whole a room a nice coat of clean white paint:

I’m SO glad to be done with the yellow in there and I’m still in love with the white!

The bathroom linen closets were purged and organized as well:

Complete with LABELS on the bins so they stay that way!

While I was at it in the downstairs powder room I added some fun to the laundry chute:

Want to smile when you open your closet? Add polka dots.

One of the rooms that lost the most weight was our guest room. The closet was a dumping ground for sure. I cleaned it out and used some scrap wood to make better use of all the space in there:

While I was at it I painted the room (it had been waiting years for its turn):

Still loving that light green color too!

I can’t even tell you how many trips to the recycling bins and Goodwill I made – I lost count. I actually have a load in the back of my SUV right now. I just had to get that last pile out of the house. :)

I do have a few more spots to tackle that I knew I’d have to wait on – the master closet is one. Lots of laundry happening this week and then we can really start going through all the clothes. That room just by itself will take at least a month. It’s bad. Very bad.

But the garage is up next on my list. I’m completely reorganizing and moving things around in there. My plan is to create a workshop where there wasn’t one so I’m super excited about that.

And finally…the BAG. While going through the house there were always little things that hung me up. You know, those little jobbies you are pretty sure you need but you can’t think of a good spot and wait, maybe you don’t need them but you need more time to decide?

Yeah. I put all of those in a bag:

Those annoying things trip me up suck out my decluttering mojo. So they must be bagged till I can deal with them. It helps. Cause I’m a bagger.

I already found the rug I’m planning to use as my inspiration in the mud room inside. I knew it was in the house but couldn’t find it anywhere. I wonder what other treasures are in there?? I’ll go through that today, take the final trip to Goodwill and I’m calling it done till next year!

Usually I tackle this earlier in the new year, but I started later this year. Oh who am I kidding – it went all year. But it is nice to hit the holidays with a house that weighs about 200 pounds less, figuratively and literally.

Ahhhhh…it is a GREAT feeling!! Virtual high five y’all!!

An organized pantry

Good Friday to ya! Whoo-te-hoo.

I’m back today with an update on a big redo I did a couple years back – the pantry. And I hope you still like me after you read cause I have a big revelation to make.

When I decluttered the kitchen a couple weeks back this space was on the list. I joked that it was scary but honestly…it wasn’t bad. That’s when I knew I had really, finally come up with a system for this space that works.

See, years ago this is what it looked like most of the time:

Actually, that wasn’t too bad. :)

Over the years I realized something BIG about myself that kind of changed my pantry-world. I always felt like we needed to have a TON of food, just in case. That just in case ranged from a natural disaster (which I do still think you should have a stash for) to financial insecurity to Armageddon. Take your pick.

I knew exactly why I did it too – it stemmed from my childhood. The desire to never have to worry about having food in the pantry ever again. So I hoarded food. And it was a bit ridiculous, as you can see. Ridiculous because: 1. three people can’t possibly eat that much 2. we eat out a lot 3. Armageddon is not coming. Probably. At least not in my lifetime. I hope. 

So early last year I completely made over this space (took out the wire shelves, painted, installed melamine shelves), took a hard look at how we eat and changed how I bought food. Now when I cook I either plan ahead and make sure to have what we need, or I go out that day and get what I’m missing. I don’t keep food in here that I might need for that one recipe that I make every six months. I just go buy it. Because I can make the time – again this is what works for me.

When I cleaned out the pantry this time I still felt like a horrible, no good person (because of the wasted food) – but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. Because we can see what we’re eating now:

Last time I wrote about our pantry many were like, no, seriously, where’s the food? There’s a good foot of space on each side that you can’t see straight on. I do still have SOME food.

Sooooo, here’s the thing. Don’t hate me. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to blog after confessing this. Last year I loved the whole idea of the plastic containers for things like crackers, baking supplies, etc. It was kind of the thing. I liked that I could see the food and I thought we’d eat it if we could see it. Something like that?

Anyway…the thing is…I don’t use them anymore. I KNOW. Will I be banished from blogland?

Over time I realized that we were wasting food when it was in clear containers. I would try to mark the expiration on the bottom but then when you’re almost out of, say, crackers, and you go to get more, what do you do? Dump the ones that are left but still good? Put the new ones on top and mix up expiration dates? Keep the new ones in the box until the old ones in the container were gone?

See. THESE are what you call first world problems.

I mean, it wasn’t all that dramatic, but you get what I’m laying down here. It just didn’t work. And I used quite a few of them for dry cereal but my boy doesn’t like cereal (I KNOW!) and I don’t eat it like I used to so we don’t really buy much anymore.

SO. I got rid of most of the containers (in here, I’m using most of them elsewhere). The flour and sugar and all is now out on the counters where I can easily access them (in these glass containers) and the rest (for the most part) stays in the boxes.

Did I just rock your world? I have BOXES. :)

I do still use a few plastic containers for a few baking things like candy chocolate, brown sugar and my beloved popcorn:

And you can barely see it here but I use them for pasta (because I use it a lot and it doesn’t go bad as fast):

I do still use baskets in the pantry – I find them helpful to corral the smaller items like packets and mixes and such:

Last year I was able to clear out so much that I had one free shelf. I love having some mixing and serving bowls in here – they’re easy to grab when I need them:

That’s the popcorn bowls up front. Where they belong.

So there you go. The cleaned out pantry – and there’s no horrible before photo because it actually stayed pretty darn cleaned out. It’s a MIRACLE. Because we have the glass door that’s a good thing:

      

For years I felt like the pantry was SO tiny and just not big enough for our needs, but now I think it’s just fine. Keep in mind it’s usually just three of us in this house though, so what works for us may not work for a larger family. But it does feel good to let go of that need to have it packed full of food constantly.

Do you use the plastic containers for your food? Love them or no? Any tricks for keeping your pantry organized?

To see more about the door that I used for the pantry go here.
To see how I made the windows private and make the inside glow at night, go here.

Have a LOVELY weekend! Anyone planning on cleaning out their pantry now? You’re welcome.

That space under the stairs

Hey all! How was your weekend? We played quite a bit on Saturday and then yesterday I worked my tail off. I’m still nursing a sore back from all the hard labor. :)

You may have noticed that I stalled out on the house purge I started a few months ago. I was on a roll for a while and then I just couldn’t go through one. more. drawer. There’s only so much of it I enjoy and then I need do other stuff for awhile.

But I’m BACK! I finished the kitchen (including the pantry, scary!) and then moved on to the basement. This space is going to be cake compared to years past when it was unfinished. Shudder. But so far I’ve only worked on spaces you can’t even see – closet and storage spaces.

I’m SO EXCITED about a change I made to the area behind this door:

So. This is the storage space under the stairs. When we started finishing the basement early last year one of the first steps was to move all of the Christmas stuff into this spot. Early this year I majorly purged my holiday decor and made it so we had even more floor space for vacuums and such.

I have a LOT of Christmas decor. I love it but sometimes just want to get rid of half of it. But I do write this thing called a blog, and my son is still young and very much into holiday decorating. I figure in just a few years I’ll be begging him to help with decor so for now I deal with the bins and don’t sweat it. In no time at all we won’t use half of it and I’ll be wanting these days back. :)

Well, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like till about March I’ll find little bits of Christmas around the house. And because I’m lazy busy I just throw them on top of the bins instead of putting them away. So the Christmas closet became this:

Earlier this year I took some advice from my friend Carmen and took some of the items out of the bins and hung them instead. (Check out her awesome holiday closet here!) It did help – I hung some of the bulky greenery up on hooks and ended up getting rid of a ton of bins between this and purging.

But it wasn’t enough. It still became a mess because of my laziness being busy and all:

So fast forward to some progress in the basement that happened last week – we had the cabinets for the kitchenette installed:

More glorious storage! Whoot! I’m still not sure if we’ll do small uppers or not. Next up I need to buy and install the countertop and sink and then trim out and paint the cabinets. Even with all that still left to do I’ve already started filling them. ;)

And not even two minutes after they were installed I stood there and realized I had completely spaced it – my plan for years (YEARS!) has been very specific for this space – I had planned on a regular cabinet (for the sink) and then an under cabinet fridge with a smaller cabinet on the side.

Well I totally, completely, just plain forgot, about the fridge. I’m getting old remember? Argh. There wasn’t much we could do about it either – we couldn’t return the cabinet that had already been installed.

So, I had to come up with a new solution. Our dream has always been to have a fridge down here, for snacks and drinks during movies, or for hubs to grab while he’s working (his office is down there). So I got to thinking about that messy closet – and came up with a new idea for the space.

And after hours of cleaning out the garage and moving stuff around and dragging a LOT of bins up and cleaning of the storage area, I ended up with this:

There’s a bonus to my mix up – to install a fridge under a counter you need to get a a specific one that vents out the front, and those are not cheap. The least expensive one I’ve found is $400-something at Home Depot. And the more I thought about it, I knew we’d want a fridge for more than just drinks (the version at HD was just for beverages). This one is just a standard mini fridge ($100-something instead) with space for food too. And a freezer!

For PIZZA ROLLS.

Awwww yeah.

This closet is actually nearly 50 square feet of storage space – and I LOATHE wasted space, so I wanted to make it even more functional. I picked up a couple super cheap bookcases ($17 each) and put them inside as well:

Our built ins in the family room down there are awesome but not wide enough for games, so this is a perfect solution. Now all the games are in one spot and easier to find (I had them in a dresser before).

There’s still a few things I’d like to do – I still need to get an outlet installed in here (I have the fridge plugged into a heavy duty extension cord now but hope to have the outlet installed this week).

And I still feel like the vertical space is wasted – so my plan is to stack the bookcases (securing them to the wall of course) where the fridge is now, then placing that off to the left. I’ll have room for a little cart or something next to it to hold plates and such. I won’t be able to move stuff around till I get the outlet installed.

That way the fridge will have even more room to breathe in there – it’s got more than enough clearance around it now but it will have more moved over (with the open space behind it).

I did my research before moving the fridge in this space – make sure you do the same before doing something similar. It’s a large closet and we don’t keep clothes in here obviously (not a good idea near a fridge). You want to make sure there’s enough breathing room around it. (I asked numerous electrician friends/my dad and all said it was fine.)

Eventually the microwave will go out the kitchenette, but for now it will stay in here. This is like a new room in our house! The Bub and I were SO excited about it last night, we may have made some pizza rolls to celebrate. :)

Check out the before and after:

See why my back hurts now? I think I moved about 12 bins up. We don’t have quite enough room for one more big one in the garage so it’s still back there in the closet. (We have a door in hubby’s office to access that side.)

I’ll show you the garage organization soon – that space is still a pit and next on my list after the house is decluttered. One step at a time.

Do you have a little storage space like this under your stairs? I always think of all the possibilities – a wine cellar, a hide out for the kids, bookcases – all of it sounds awesome to me. Now ours is a bit of Christmas/storage/game/kitchenette room. Love. What do you do with yours?