Decor & Organization

How to Build Ramps, Steps, and Custom Doors for a DIY Shed

March 22, 2018 by Ash 24 Comments

Almost any shed can benefit from a ramp and steps.

Such is the case with my shed.

If you’ve been following along with me as I built my shed from scratch, my storage shed plans included a spot for both steps and a ramp.

If you missed my previous posts, check out my Shed Project Phase 1 (how to build a shed foundation and framing) and my Shed Project Phase 2 (how to build paneling and roofing for a shed).

So back to my shed plans. My plans included having two entrances – a double door entrance for the riding mower and a single door entrance to access backyard storage and garden supplies.

For the riding mower entrance, my plan was to build a ramp, and then the steps were a necessity for the second entrance, due to how high above the ground the door was.

I built the ramp, steps, and doors from scratch. Keep reading for the details.

I originally wanted to put the ramp on the right side of the shed, but due to the slope of the ground, it wasn’t very practical anymore. So I adapted my plans to put the shed ramp on the left side and put steps on the right side.

How to Build Steps for a Shed

The shed steps for the single door were pretty easy to build. I bought 3 pre-cut step stringers from Home Depot.

Step stringers are the support pieces at the sides of the structure that hold up the steps you walk on.

I did have to measure the maximum height from the shed floor to the ground to buy the right length step stringer though.

It turned out that 3 step stringers were adequate.

As for the actual steps, I trimmed some 2 x 4s lengthwise with my table saw, and assembled them like a boardwalk.

I used 3 pieces of wood per step, with a little spacing in between.

To connect the stringers to the shed, I used a joist hanger. It’s just a U-shaped metal bracket that’s screwed into the floor joists on the shed, and each stringer rests inside.

As for where the stringers met the ground, there needed to be a solid foundation.

To achieve this, I buried some concrete blocks slightly below ground level and rested the stringers on them.

I also attached some 2 x 4 spacers in between the stringers and fastened them to the concrete using special Tapcon screws.

After I covered up the concrete blocks with dirt, you couldn’t tell they were there.

The concrete blocks gave the shed steps a really solid feel when you walked on them.

Here’s a picture of the completed shed steps:

The boardwalk style steps added a nice touch to the plywood shed.

Later on, I covered up the fronts of the steps with a thin piece of plywood, and then applied a good deck stain to protect the wood.

How to Build a Ramp for a Shed

The ramp construction was similar to the steps in that it used stringers and hidden concrete block supports. To learn how to build a ramp for a shed, read the step-by-step instructions below.

Determining the Ramp Angle

For the shed ramp, I first had to determine the angle of the slope.

If I made the shed ramp length too short, the slope would be too steep and cause me problems when driving the mower up. Either the bottom of the mower would hit the top of the ramp, or the mower would not have enough power to climb the slope.

Too long of a shed ramp would not look that great, and it would take up valuable yard space.

After some research, I decided to go with a 4-foot shed ramp. It was going to make a slightly steeper than normal ramp, but I was okay with this.

Five foot ramps seemed to be the most common length for a shed ramp. Yet, I wanted to compromise between functionality and aesthetics (be sure to keep reading this section to see how this turned out).

Once I determined my shed ramp length and angle, I cut 5 stringers out of 2 x 6 wood.

Leveling the Ramp Foundation

The next step was to set and level the concrete blocks for the lower foundation. The leveling took a little bit of time because I had to get each stringer to sit perfectly flat on the blocks while maintaining an even ramp surface.

Attaching Stringers for the Shed Ramp

Once leveled, I worked on attaching the stringers to the shed.

Instead of using joist hangers like I did with the steps, I needed something much stronger to hold the weight of the riding mower.

Based on my research on shed ramp design, I went with a ledger mount. This was just a piece of wood attached to the shed that the stringers rested on for primary support.

To make the ledger, I just bolted a giant 2 x 10 piece of wood to the floor joists.

Near the bottom of the 2 x 10, I bolted on a 2 x 4 for the ramp stringers to rest on.

While the ledger handled the vertical load on the ramp, I didn’t want any lateral movement, so I used two types of fasteners to secure the stringers to the ledger.

The first were some L brackets to keep the stringers in place (just one L bracket per stringer).

The second fasteners used were the 6-inch TimberLok screws I had secured the roof joists with.

Before I used them on the stringers, I wanted to secure the lower portion of the stringers to the concrete blocks first.

The TimberLok screws would really lock the stringers in place, preventing me from adjusting them on concrete blocks.

Building the Ramp Foundation On the Shed

Onto the foundation for the shed ramp now – just like the steps, I used some wooden 2 x 4 spacers between the stringers.

I attached them to the stringers with L brackets and used some more Tapcon screws to secure the spacers to the concrete blocks.

With the shed ramp foundation set, I ran one TimberLok screw per stringer at an angle through the top middle of the stringer, straight through the 2 x 10 into the shed floor joists.

This made a very tight connection between the stringers and the shed.

There was going to be no lateral movement here. The whole ramp for the shed was extremely solid at this point.

Here’s a picture of what the shed ramp looked like so far:

Here’s a close-up of the stringer foundation where I used a Tapcon screw to secure the spacers to the concrete blocks:

And, here’s a close-up of the stringer/ledger connection where I used an L bracket and a 6-inch TimberLok screw:

Completing and Testing the Shed Ramp

To finish the ramp, I screwed on some sheets of ¾” thick pressure treated plywood, as seen in the picture below (I would also later apply a coat of deck paint to protect it from the weather):

At this point, I was very excited. I could finally drive the mower into the shed using the ramp.

So I wasted no time and retrieved the mower from the garage. I positioned it carefully at the bottom of the shed ramp, put it into gear and slowly drove up.

Everything was looking great….until I made it halfway up the ramp.

The mower did not have the power to drive up the shed ramp at my current speed. I should have gone with the 5-foot ramp design with a more gentle slope.

So I tried a different approach to getting up the shed ramp. I reversed down the ramp, put the throttle on max, and let go of the brake.

The mower shot up the shed ramp and successfully made its way into the shed.

This is how I park my mower today.

It took a little bit to get used to, but I have to drive up the shed ramp at near full speed, with care not to drive into the shed wall at the back.

Installing Windows and Building Doors for the Shed

At this point, I was almost finished building the shed.

I just had to attach some more trim to the shed exterior, and install the windows and doors on the shed.

How to Install Windows on a Shed

The shed windows went on easily. I first used window flashing tape to seal the window frame and the siding.

Then I ran caulk along the shed window perimeter (on the flashing) and placed the window in the opening.

The caulk held the window in place long enough for me to drive some nails through the window nailing strips.

Then I covered the flashing and nailing strips with trim.

Here’s a picture of one of the completed windows that I installed on the shed:

How to Build Doors for a Shed

For the shed door, I custom built the doors following the steps in the shed design plans.

I needed 3 doors for the shed – a single door by the steps, and double doors by the ramp.

They were constructed with a rectangular frame of 2 x 4s sandwiched between two sheets of T1-11 siding.

For the trim design, I did some research online and found several patterns to show Eileen.

She has an eye when it comes to design and picked a pattern she liked. It looked fancy but was very easy to cut with my miter saw.

Eileen primed and painted the doors for me to match the shed.

To install the shed doors, I put them in place and spaced them properly in the door frame with some wooden shims.

These were some seriously heavy doors, and as such, needed some heavy duty hinges (3 per door).

I screwed the hinges onto the shed door frame and the shed door (making sure to hit the wooden frame inside the door).

Once all the door hinges were installed, I removed the shims, and voila – the shed doors swung open nicely.

To wrap up, I screwed on a door handle and a bolt lock.

Here’s a picture of the double doors installed with my fancy trim work:

Adding Lattice Under the Shed

Almost done with the shed now! Time for some final touches.

Since the shed foundation rested on concrete blocks, there were large gaps under the shed where animals could enter and reside.

Because I did not have any future plans to open my shed up for tenants, I wanted to seal up the underneath area.

We have groundhog problems, and they live under the sheds of our neighbors.

I came up with the cheap and easy solution of using plastic lattice fence.

These came in 2’ x 8’ strips which I cut to fit using my table saw. The lattice was already white and matched the shed trim.

Installing Lighting on the Shed

I also wanted some lighting for the shed when it was dark. I opted to use a solar panel motion LED light.

So I mounted the lights in between the shed door entrances. Then, I positioned the solar panel on the right side of the shed where the most sunlight was available.

Here is a picture of the completed DIY plywood shed. You can see both doors and windows, with the solar panel on the side:

Time and Cost of Building a Shed from Scratch

Finally, I completed the shed!

It took about 2 months for me to single-handedly build the shed, and it cost about $3000.

I did my research online and estimated that a pre-built shed this size and quality would have been more than $7000. Building it myself netted huge savings.

The shed freed up a lot of space in the garage too. The riding lawn mower, push mower, wheelbarrow, gardening tools, and other large items fit in there with lots of room to spare. It definitely provides a lot of storage space.

We even put all of our summer patio furniture in there during the winter – with space left over.

It was definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

With no construction background, and never having built anything close in capacity to a shed, I impressed my wife, my neighbors, and myself by building a shed.

Future Shed Plans

My work on the shed isn’t over yet though. I still have some interior plans for it.

Down the road, I plan to install shelves and other organizational units. I also want to install another solar motion light inside the shed too.

Additionally, I envision a partial interior wall to provide more wall space for hanging tools (in case the four shed walls weren’t enough), and possibly utilizing the roof rafters for some storage.

The sky’s the limit, and you can bet there will be a blog post to tell you all about it!

If you missed Building a Shed Phase 1 (Foundation and Framing) or Building a Shed Phase 2 (Paneling and Roofing), be sure to check them out.

How to Build a Hexagon DIY Planter Box

March 13, 2018 by Eileen 40 Comments

One of Ash’s favorite meals is a simple pot of rice and beans – but he gives it a little kick with a hot pepper called a wiri wiri pepper. It’s a Caribbean hot pepper, so it’s hard to find around here.

Luckily, Ash’s mom had a plant to give him. She was happy to pass it on because they were having trouble growing it in their soil.

That’s how the wiri wiri pepper plant on our fireplace came to be.

But here’s the ridiculous part – Ash didn’t have a planter around, so he looked around the garage and ended up planting it in a fish bowl. It’s even more ridiculous that the fish bowl wasn’t meant for fish – it was originally going to be a helmet for a robot scarecrow.

So, it was only a matter of time until I suggested a proper planter with some drainage, rather than the silly fish bowl. I was thinking we could make a collection of planters too, so I could plant some herbs. The wiri wiri pepper was growing really well on the fireplace, so why not try my hand at a little indoor garden.

How to Build a Hexagon DIY Planter Box

While thinking about a creative DIY planter box to make, I remembered how much our toddler loves (and I mean LOVES) shapes. Rather than asking people their favorite color or favorite food, he asks them what their favorite shape is.

And, he can rattle off everyone’s favorite shape: “Grandma loves triangles and daddy loves triangles and I love hexagons and mommy, she loves hearts.”

So, rather than making a couple ole rectangular planters, we decided to be a little creative with shapes for our DIY planter boxes.

With DIY planter boxes, you can either fill the box up with dirt or just conceal a pot inside. Putting dirt directly inside the box requires the use of certain types of wood (like cedar) or protective stain treatment (I highly recommend a non-toxic stain if growing herbs). Without this, the wood may start to rot quickly. Since we had a lot of scrap pine board cutoffs in the garage, we went the simplier route and decided to just hide a terracotta pot inside our hexagon planter box.

Materials

1×8 board, 6′
1/4″ plywood sheet (2’x2′)
wood glue
finishing nails

Instructions for Building a Hexagon DIY Planter

To build a hexagon DIY planter box, we needed six identical wooden segments to make the six sides of the hexagon.

Then for each segment, we needed to bevel the edges at a 30 degree angle so that they could fit together seamlessly to form the hexagon. Bevelling the edges was a breeze with our table saw.

Once we had 6 segments, it was time to connect them together with wood glue and finishing nails.

We used a clamp (our handy JawHorse) to hold the segments in place to help with this process.

Here is Ash applying some wood glue to a segment:

Next, we pressed another segment against the glue, and used two finishing nails to hold the pieces in place while the glue dried.

Then, Ash used his finishing nail gun to speed up this task.

Here is a finished segment:

Segment by segment, the DIY hexagon planter started to take shape. When all the sides were connected, it was time to cut out a base for the wooden planter box.

To make the base, I traced the outline of the hexagon against a plywood sheet.

With the assistance of a clamp and a jigsaw, I cut the hexagon out of the plywood. I had to hold the plywood very firmly as I ran the jigsaw through the wood.

To attach the base to the planter box, we used more wood glue and finishing nails.

The hexagon planter box was mostly done at this point.

How to Build a Triangular DIY Planter Box

The triangular planter box was very similar in design to its hexagonal planter box cousin.

The main difference was the number of segments – I just needed three. The segments still needed 30 degree bevelled edges to make a seamless triangular shape.

I repeated the steps I did for the hexagon planter box, producing this nice triangle planter box.

Finishing the Planter Boxes

As with most woodworking projects, you’re not done until you give everything a good sanding.

So I used my random orbital sander to smooth all the edges, making the planter boxes easy on the hands to handle.

I haven’t decided if I am going to paint or stain these DIY planter boxes. Check back next week for an update – along with an updated picture of the wiri wiri pepper’s new home.

And as a bonus, here’s a picture of the wiri wiri pepper in the fish bowl 🙂

How to Make a Simple DIY Hook Rack

February 14, 2018 by Eileen 45 Comments

There’s one room in my house that just drives me nuts.

No organization, nothing pretty about it, and it’s not functional for our family.

This room – our mudroom – needs a complete overhaul. I mean knocking down a few walls, fresh flooring, wall paint, and a complete rearrangement.

It seems like such a big project, so we’ve been consistently putting it off until summer…summer of 2016, then summer of 2017…. and here we are in 2018. So this year is the year. Mark my words!

I decided to get started on the mudroom makeover with little tasks to make the room more functional. Plus, knocking out some of the little things always makes a large task seem smaller.

First things first, there’s nowhere for coats or bags – except a hat stand in the corner, which just makes the room look messier.

So, I decided to make a simple wall-mounted hook rack for coats, scarves, and bags.

How to Build a Wall-Mounted Hook Rack

One of the things that drives me crazy about our mudroom is that it’s so disorganized. Since my project list for this year revolves around keeping an organized home, this is the perfect place to start.

So, I killed two birds with one stone by grabbing a piece of scrap wood from the garage and using that to make this simple DIY hook rack. One less piece of wood laying around the garage, and hopefully less coats and bags around the mudroom.

Materials for the DIY Hook Rack

Piece of wood – I grabbed scrap wood from the garage that measured roughly 5″ x 24″.
Paint or stain – I stained this piece with homemade stain!
Four hooks – I picked them up at Home Depot – but these hooks are similar.
Sander – I used my random orbital sander to restore the scrap wood to its former beautiful self. I used my saw horse clamp in conjunction with this.
D-Rings – You can pick these up for a couple of bucks from the hardware store
Screwdriver, Ruler, Pencil, and Sharpie

Instructions for Making the DIY Hook Rack

Now for the instructions on how to build a wall-mounted hook rack – and I’m sure you’ll find it quite simple. First, I grabbed a piece of scrap wood that looked like it would nicely fit four hooks. It was roughly a 5″ x 24″ piece.

Sanding the Scrap Wood

I put it into my saw horse clamp, so I could easily sand it down. It was a little beat up from laying around the garage.

Next, I used the random orbital sander to smooth the wood. This is one of my favorite tools because it does a very even and consistent sanding job. I used 80 grit sanding paper for this task.

Not only did I sand both sides of the DIY hook rack to-be, but I also rounded the corners with the orbital sander. Rounded edges add a nice touch of professionalism to any piece.

They are also easier on the fingers because they remove any splinters or coarse edges. If you have a router, you can take it a step further and bevel the edges to really impress your friends.

Staining the Hook Rack

Next, I stained the hook rack. I used a homemade wood stain made from pantry items – which I am loving! I stained it right on my kitchen table with no gloves.

What a treat to use a completely chemical-free wood stain! 🙂 Check out how I made this homemade wood stain.

Marking the Hook Rack

After the stain dried, I lined up my hooks evenly and marked where they would go with a pencil. I measured about 3 1/2 inches in from each side and place hooks there. Then, I evenly spread the remaining two hooks in the middle.

I used a ruler to line the bottom of the hooks up. Then, I put a dot with a sharpie in the center of each screw hole.

I got perfectly even hooks – without using a calculator 🙂

Applying a Finish

Next, I sealed the hook rack with Annie Sloan clear wax. One day I will make my own from beeswax 🙂 Once that dried, the DIY hook rack was ready to have the hooks attached.

Attaching the Hooks

To attach the hooks, I simply used a screwdriver. The wood was soft, so there was no need to pre-drill. I used an electric screwdriver to get most of the screw in. Then, I just tightened them with a regular screwdriver.

This was partially because of the awkward angle caused by the hooks. However when working with soft wood, it’s always a good idea to use tighten up your screws manually with a screwdriver. With a power tool, you can too easily overdrive a screw in soft wood resulting in no grip at all.

In attaching the hooks, I realized that the screws that came with the hooks were too long. They would have gone right through the wood. We had smaller screws in the garage, but they didn’t match the hooks. (See mis-matched pic below)

So, I had two options.

Screw Option 1

Use the screws that came with the hooks and then use the dremel or oscillating multi-tool, to clip off the ends.

Screw Option 2

Use smaller screws of a different color and then paint the screw head to match the hook.

I went with the latter option and painted the screw head with acrylic paint. I mixed black with a little blue and then dabbed it on with a very thin brush.

Mounting the DIY Hook Rack to the Wall

In mounting the DIY hook rack to the wall, we had two options.

Mounting Option 1

The first was to use D-rings at the back (these come with most mirror/frame hanging kits). This option didn’t alter the front of the hook rack at all.

Mounting Option 2

The second option was to drill a hole on both ends of the hook rack for wall screws, and plug the heads with caps.

I opted to use the D-rings because I wanted an unblemished surface without any caps. If you end up using caps, consider getting wooden ones and stain them to match the rest of the hook rack.

Time & Cost

This project took me about an hour, if you don’t include dry time. The scrap wood was free, as well as the staining materials. I did have to purchase some D rings from the store for $4 and the hooks for about $10.

It’s already adding so much organization to our mudroom, and it is just the beginning of the mudroom makeover project. 2018 will definitely be the year. 🙂

8 Ways to Find Time for DIY Projects (Even When You Have a Hectic Schedule)

January 6, 2018 by Eileen 60 Comments

If you ask my husband, he knows it makes me crazy when he says he didn’t have time to do something.

You didn’t put the trash out? (as it’s overflowing and the dog is licking the sides of the can…)

Sorry, didn’t have time.

Can you change the batteries in the smoke detector? (after it’s been beeping for a few days…)

Yeah, I’ll have time later.

Even though I know how busy we are, the time excuse makes me crazy.

Why?

Because the way we keep our schedules, if you want more time, you have to make it.

And you can, if you manage your time well.

I first learned to manage time when I was waitressing in college. For the first few weeks, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Then, I eased into a routine.

While one table was waiting for their food, I would head off to take another’s order, stopping by the beverage station to grab a refill for a third table, and extra sugar packets for a fourth.

I definitely put those skills to use when I started teaching classes of 35+ kids in the inner city.

After all this, I thought I was awesome at managing time… until I had my own kids.

Nursing a newborn while potty training a toddler had me feeling the same way I did when I was a new waitress in the weeds.

However, I have learned if you manage your time well, there are so many ways to find extra time in a hectic schedule.

And, extra time means more time for all those DIY projects you keep pinning. 🙂

How to Find Time for DIY Projects

With the follow eight tips, you’ll be making extra time in your crazy schedule – in no time 🙂 You’ll be amazed at just how much more time you will have.

1. Get up an hour earlier

I know what you’re thinking.

You already set snooze as many times as you possibly can, so how can you get up earlier?!

I felt the same way… until I did it.

Getting up an hour earlier gives you time to work on your projects.

The chance to work on your project first thing is a great motivator to get you out of bed.

Or, start your day (throw dinner in the crockpot, get the day’s chores done), to free up that hour later for your diy projects.

It’s so peaceful in the mornings. The house is so quiet that you’ll never sleep in again.

2. Cut some things out

You know when you are throwing a party and the day of the party, you still have a long list of things to do?

Then some guests show up early. And, the rest of the list goes out the window.

And you know what?

No one noticed anyway.

Think about your day, your week, your schedule. What things can you cut out – that wouldn’t be noticed?

Maybe you start vacuuming once a week instead of every other day.

Maybe you really don’t need to do laundry every day?

If you can cut a couple things out of your busy days, you’ll dust off some much needed diy time.

3. Let kids work with you

Have little ones and a project you’re dying to work on?

You can actually manage both at the same time. Simply set up a little station for your kids to work too.

If you’re painting a piece of wood, give them something to paint too.

If you’re sewing a craft, give them some fabric to play with or color.

My toddler LOVES our craft time. He usually picks up all of my scraps and makes things with them. He put together a bunch of foam scraps into the shape of a train the other day.

While my husband wondered what I was teaching him, I got a solid hour of craft time in while spending time with my toddler. 🙂

Working alongside your child inspires creativity and gives you quality time together.

4. Delegate what you can

I LOVE to delegate.

Why?

Because the job still gets done – but not by you. 😉

Maybe your husband can take over dinner or packing lunches a few times a week.

Kids can start making their beds or doing their laundry.

Maybe your mom or a mommy’s helper can come watch your little ones while you get some DIY time.

Think about your schedule. And find a few ways that you can delegate some of your tasks.

Delegation is definitely a win-win that you can benefit from.

5. Organize your project ahead of time

There’s nothing like FINALLY having time for your diy project, and then you can’t find the painters tape, or the ribbon you wanted to use, or the tools you need.

Or, maybe your workspace is covered in junk.

Or, maybe you can’t find the website with the instructions (or the pin you thought you pinned).

Take a few minutes during the day and get your project, your workspace, and your instructions organized.

Read through the instructions to familiarize yourself with the steps (it’s like pre-reading – can you tell I was a literacy teacher?!)

When you finally have the time, you can jump right in.

6. Multi-task, multi-task, multi-task

Talking on the phone?

Get the dishes washed. Delete your emails. Steam the floor.

Have a slow eater in your family?

Clean up the kitchen while they’re finishing up. Make the kids lunches for the next day. Write down your shopping list.

As much as you want to relax, using this time wisely lets you cross TWO things off your list, instead of one. How’s that for productivity?!

6. Put the devices down

Even though I manage my time well, my cell phone is my downfall.

I check Facebook, then I see what’s trending on twitter.

I look at the news, my instagram feed, and of course, reply to all my text messages.

Yet, once I started realizing all of the time I was wasting, my mind was blown.

All those minutes add up into hours a day. Those hours across a whole week – the number was insane.

Even though I love to relax by checking my phone, I would much rather be spending this time on my DIY projects.

7. Use wait time to the max

During my college orientation, one of the deans gave amazing advice that I still follow today.

He said that in the next four years, you will find yourself waiting a lot.

Waiting for that awkward amount of time in between classes – where you have more than a few minutes but not enough time to go back to the dorm.

Waiting for professor’s office hours to start, waiting for your study group to show up, waiting for class to start.

He said that all that time adds up – so use it wisely.

His advice undoubtedly applies to more than just college.

Waiting is a big part of life, especially with kids.

So use those few minutes you are waiting in the school parking lot to answer emails or make a hair appointment.

It will make your to do list shorter later – giving you more time for your projects.

How do I start?

Pick just one or two of the above tasks to work on.

You’ll soon start to see that you’ve freed up some time for your DIY projects.

With your hectic schedule and the constant running, you will finally have time for yourself and the projects that you’ve been dying to start.

8 Organization Mistakes You’re Making (and How to Fix Them Now)

October 20, 2017 by Eileen 105 Comments

With my eyes half open, I sluggishly got out of bed. Making my way across the room, I lost my balance on a toy car that wasn’t put away.

After a loud sigh, I scooped it up along with a few other toys and dumped them in the corner. I head to the closet to grab a towel, where I am greeted by a completely disheveled mountain of linens.

Room after room, the story was the same. The closets were overflowing, toys were strewn, nothing seemed to have a place.

Truth is, if I didn’t start using my space wisely, my home “organization” would remain a mess. In order to keep my sanity, I had to figure out what I was doing wrong.

The following home organization tips will help you add some DIY organization to your home. From using closet space wisely to utilizing wall space, these simple home organization ideas will help you bring more order and less chaos into your home.

Mistake #1 – Not Using Closet Space Wisely

Closet space is gold. I mean, it’s storage space hidden behind closed doors. Because it’s out of sight, it usually becomes embarrassingly sloppy.

In our current home, all of our closets contained only a clothes rod and a top shelf. So as you can imagine, each of these closets became a disaster in a matter of weeks.

In our previous home, we had wall-mounted wire shelving configurations in each closet, so everything was much more organized.

However, custom shelving configurations can be really expensive.

So to save money, we simply installed a few standalone wire racks in our closets.

Rather than have piles of items shoved into the closet (I had so many of those huge storage bins stacked up), you can neatly slide storage bins, laundry baskets, or other containers on and off the shelves.

This was especially helpful in coat closets and kids rooms, where that single clothes rod isn’t always the best use of space.

The space gained was incredible, and I can easily find everything. This is definitely one of the best DIY organization ideas for your home.

How to Organize Your Closets with Simple Wire Racks

Save money buying a few wire closet racks rather than a whole closet system

Another home organization idea is to install double top shelves in your closets. Rather than have one shelf running across the top, add another one above it. This is an easy change that doubles your shelving instantly, using more of that high space wisely.

Speaking of wasted space, I then took a look at our closets to see where else I could utilize otherwise wasted space.

To add more home organization, I hung small racks on side walls and hooks on standalone doors.

These diy home organization ideas for your closet space will have you using every inch wisely, making more space for all of your things.

How to Efficiently Organize Your Home - Use Double Top Shelves in Closets

Install an extra top shelf in your closet and double your space.

Where to Buy:

Closet organizer sets can be really expensive, so rather than buy a hundred dollar kit, just buy a few wire closet racks that are right size for your closet and attach them to the wall.

I found a few wire rack closet organizers at a flea market for a couple bucks (you could also check out your local Habitat for Humanity Restore).

If you can’t find some cheap wire racks, home improvement stores have the racks for about $10-$15 plus the hardware, which isn’t too bad for quick, cheap organization.

How to Make:

If you don’t want to spend but have extra wood laying around, you can install a few wooden shelves instead of the wire racks. Paint them white and they’ll blend right in, creating a more uniform and organized look in your home.

Also, look around for anything you can repurpose into closet shelving.

Every time I’m ready to kick something to the curb, the wheels in my husband’s head start turning. His most recent trash-night-intercept was a CD tower that he installed in our pantry as extra side shelving.

By making great use of closet space, you can really up your home organization game. You’ll get more into your closets, which means less laying around the house. With these DIY organization tips, everything in your closet will have a space.

Mistake #2 – Disregarding Empty Wall Space

Closets overstuffed? Attic full? Start using the walls!

Wall space is one of the best space-saving secrets and my absolute favorite of the DIY home organization ideas.

My husband recently mounted a huge shelf to the wall behind my desk. What once was an empty wall is now housing all of my desk and craft supplies!

Corner wall space is the perfect spot to put up some floating shelves or even cubby shelves. You can fill the shelves with baskets and bins of anything – craft supplies, shoes, extra towels, toiletries, accessories, bows, kids clothes, etc.

Putting up a few extra shelves and utilizing empty wall space can easily thin out your otherwise packed closets, making your closets and yourself more organized. 🙂

Using Your Wall Space More Wisely - DIY Home Organization Ideas

Use otherwise overlooked wall space to add tons and tons of wall storage

If you have a little extra floor space – maybe in a basement or garage, you could use it for a vertical storage tower. We did this in our garage with a space about 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and gained tons of storage space. The storage tower holds all of our Christmas decorations (and I have 3 trees!), Ash’s oversized tools, and more.

Ash and I are little storage-obsessed… I mean, half of our DIY projects are about storage organization. Ash goes around tapping on walls looking for hollow space, and I am always oogling at empty wall space 🙂

So, take it from us – look for areas that you could turn into a little extra wall storage and you will be thrilled with the DIY organization that space provides.

Where to Buy:

There are tons of great shelves that can easily be mounted to your walls for vertical storage. This iron pipe shelf holds a ton of items and looks amazing. I also just adore farmhouse floating shelves. Aren’t they charming?! I love the finish on these shelves, and farmhouse style shelving looks amazing in any home.

How to Make:

If you make your own shelves, you can choose your exact measurements, which is beneficial because then you can customize them to fit exactly what you need.

We built two basic shelves for my office and made the measurements to fit four fabric storage bins on each shelf. With two shelves, that’s 8 storage bins that are organized and filled. And instead of taking of space elsewhere, they are on the wall!

The shelves were simple to make and mount, and we have free plans available.

Using wall space is definitely one of the best DIY organization tips I can give you. It has created so much space, where we thought we had none. When thinking about ideas for organization, don’t forget to look on your walls.

Mistake #3 – Not Using Cubby Shelving

Cubby shelves are an organizational gem. The individual cubbies keep items super organized and in plain sight. You don’t have to dig through drawers, toy bins, or storage bins to find what you are looking for. Everything is compartmentalized in neat little spaces.

Cubby shelves also make for for the perfect bookshelf (no more books sliding around). They are an excellent use of corner or closet space and are perfect for organizing toys, crafts, or office supplies.

8 Organization Mistakes You're Making and How to Fix Them Now

Cubby shelves are inexpensive and make for the perfect bookshelf.

Yet one of the best parts about cubby shelving is that you can stack your items in the cubbies, or you can also use storage bins in some or all of the cubbies.

Cubby shelves are also very versatile, as you can arrange them in many ways – vertically, horizontally, stacked, or even hang them on your wall.

Where to Buy:

We love these cubby shelves from Amazon – they have quite a few finishes and are really nice. We have them in our kids’ rooms for bookshelves along with the playroom for toy storage and organization.

As far as storage bins, the dollar store is carrying storage bins now as well as lots of other useful containers. You can’t beat that for storage.

You can also get some good deals on storage during back-to-school sales. If you don’t feel like running to the store, Amazon has lots of cute storage bins too.

How to Make:

Although buying cubby shelves is probably cheaper than making them, Ash made me a customized cubby shelf for organizing all my craft supplies.

But here’s the best part – he mounted it to the wall, which frees up ground space AND uses otherwise lost wall space.

I was able to empty my entire desk out!

No more digging through my desk or my filing cabinet or those huge storage containers that were in my closet.

Each little cubby holds something different, and I just need to spin my desk chair around to find what I’m looking for.

As far as storage bins, you can also make your own. I made several DIY storage bins for our changing table and coat closets (holding mittens, hats, scarves, etc) from cardboard boxes, contact paper, and knobs.

Using Cubby Shelves to Organize Your Home

Attach cubby shelves to the wall – and gain space and organization

When thinking about how to have more home organization, think about where you could add a cubby shelf or two. They don’t take up too much, aren’t too expensive, and they add a lot of DIY organization.

Mistake #4 – Leaving out items that could be hidden

You know that feeling you get at the end of the day when your house is nice and organized – there aren’t toys everywhere, the pillows are back where they belong, and everything is in its place. It just looks so perfect.

Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case.

However, if you create a spot for everything, you can hide some of those eyesores, keeping your home always looking organized.

My favorite trick is to use pretty boxes to hide otherwise ugly things.

Our toddler has toys in every single room (literally every room except the master bathroom). The biggest problem area was our family room. I mean, blocks everywhere, tools scattered across the room, puzzle pieces wedged between couch cushions.

I was attempting to organize the mess with those clear storage bins – the ones that are a little bigger than a shoe box. However, I just didn’t like the way these tacky storage bins looked in our family room. They certainly didn’t complement the Pottery Barn pillows that I spent way too much on. 😉

So, I started buying cute baskets and boxes that were on sale at craft stores. Rather than have tacky storage boxes, I have trendy bins and baskets all around the house.

DIY Home Organization - Hidden Toy Storage Ideas

Decorative boxes make for great hidden toy storage

The great thing is that you can’t see the contents of what’s in the bins. So, you would never know what’s hidden in there.

Even if your home isn’t filled with toys, take a look around and see what you can hide. Cleaning up some of these things and creating a space for them definitely makes for a more organized home.

DIY Home Organization Tips #5 Use Pretty Boxes to Hide Things

You’d never know this box houses the entire Mr. Potato Family 🙂

Where to Buy:

You can get baskets and boxes super cheap at Michael’s when they have end of season sales. I have purchased many of these boxes for just a few dollars at 70% off.

I would definitely recommend checking there periodically because I have gotten so many bargains on end-of-season bins and boxes.

As far as baskets, AC Moore and Michaels have a great selection and you can either use one of their coupons or catch one of their frequent 40% off sales. These craft stores offer so much as far as diy home organization ideas.

How to Make:

To make boxes, you could reuse any box and cover it with contact paper to make it look nice. I have a tutorial on how I DIYed these storage bins. You can usually find decent contact paper at the dollar stores too 🙂

As far as home organizing ideas go, finding a space for everything definitely works wonders. And using pretty boxes to store some of the things that need to be organized is a great home organizing technique.

Mistake #5 – Ignoring Messy Drawers

Who doesn’t have a junk drawer in their home… or like five or six of them? I think every drawer in our house became a junk drawer at some point.

There’s little I despise more than wasting precious time looking for something. Rather than succumb to disorganized drawers, think what solutions will work for your items.

I eliminated my entire desk of office and craft supplies by using cubby shelves and pegboard. At first, I wasn’t sure I would put things back on the pegboard after I used them. Yet, there’s nowhere else for it go, since I ditched my old desk.

I am loving the pegboard organization – I can clearly see everything I have, and it looks really cool.

DIY Home Organization Ideas - Using Pegboard Instead of Desk Drawers

Mount a pegboard to the wall and empty a few drawers

If you don’t have a huge space for a pegboard, it’s no problem. You can use small pieces of pegboard in creative spots, such as on the back of kitchen cabinet doors to hang measuring cups or special utensils.

You’ll be surprised just how many messy drawers you can empty with this organization trick.

Another idea is to use drawer dividers to separate things. I put these in our kids’ bedroom drawers to separate socks, bibs, accessories, and more. I also organized our kitchen junk drawer with bins.

And, as another home organization tip, don’t forget to give your drawers a good ole clean-out, especially those kitchen junk drawers.

You don’t need to keep take-out menus because everything is online. Those extra ketchup and soy sauce packets never get used either.

Lotion, nail polish, and make-up all get old after a while.

So, definitely clean up your drawers a bit as you are organizing, and you will easily gain some coveted space.

Where to Buy:

The Dollar Tree and Big Lots are my favorite places to find storage and organization bins, especially around back-to-school time. You’ll find lots of neat little bins and baskets.

If you like your storage bins to match, buy a few more than you need because it’s hard to find the same bins and baskets again. But overall these stores are great for frugal diy home organization ideas.

If you would rather shop online, these interlocking bins are awesome. There’s eight of them, and you can use them individually or interlock them. Did you know they make adjustable drawer organizers too?! I love anything that can be easily customized.

Last, here’s a great drawer organizing kit for dressers.

How to Make:

Look around your house, or your recycling bin, for things you could use as drawer dividers.

You could use empty plastic or cardboard bins or boxes, such as shoe boxes or cereal boxes. Cut them to size or reshape with some masking tape, and you’ll have yourself free organization.

You could even make dividers from cardboard – and spiffy them up with some cute contact paper.

This DIY home organization tip shouldn’t be overlooked. Handling those messy drawers will make for a much neater and more organized home.

Mistake #6 – Not using doors and walls for hooks and racks

Every time I came home with the kids, I would always drop the diaper bag on the ground. Sometimes it would make its way over to the closet and embarrassingly, sometimes it remained on the ground for a few days.

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize the solution was to buy a $2 hook for the mudroom.

I can now easily grab the diaper bag when I’m on my way out the door, and it doesn’t drive me crazy on the floor for days. If you always have school bags on the floor, add hooks in your mudroom or entryway for kids to hang their bag up.

If your kids are always leaving their hoodies around, put some hooks up for them in a hidden spot.

Simply find the problem areas, and then think about how you can create a spot for it.
Don’t disregard your doors and little spaces on the walls, where you can easily add a hook or a rack.

Don’t overlook the organization that hooks provide – they are also an easy DIY project

The back of the closet door is perfect for holding towels – rather than throwing them over a door, having kids leave wet towels on the floor, or cramming them all on the same towel rack.

Closet doors are also perfect for little containers, such as spice racks, to hold toiletries. Pantry doors are perfect to add basket storage too.

Look around your home and identify what is driving you nuts and then create spots for these things.

Where to Buy:

You can buy command hooks to attach easily to walls (no tools involved and easy removal). These provide a solution in just minutes. You could also go for a more classic hook. These hooks are very inexpensive and add classy organization.

I love this hook rack with a cute shelf. It’s so modern-looking, and I love the way three of them look on the wall – it’s like a gallery of home organization. 🙂

If you are trying to maximize closet door organization, this organization rack is huge and can hold so much! You can even attach it to your door (or wall) with command hooks. It doesn’t get easier than that!

How to Make:

You can easily DIY a hook rack with a wooden board and a few hooks from the store. Or instead of hooks, get a little creative and use washers or screws, as long as they have enough length to hold your items.

To DIY racks to attach to doors, use dollar store bins and a few screws to get the same effect. If you have any spice racks that aren’t being utilized in the kitchen or garage, you can attach them to closet doors to hold toiletries.

Attach spice racks (or other containers) to closet doors.

Adding hooks and containers to doors and walls is a great DIY home organization tip that definitely keeps your home neater.

Mistake # 7 – Missing out on furniture storage

Furniture takes up most of the space in our rooms, so why not capitalize on it?!

If you are looking for a new piece of furniture, think about furniture with built-in storage. We were in the market for a couch that converted to a bed, and we found one that had a massive amount of storage under the cushion.

Stools, ottomans, and end-of-the-bed tables all usually have storage space built in too. If you are looking for a kids bed, lots of them have drawers built-in underneath the bed.

You can also buy under-the-bed storage containers to slide under beds. These are great for holding things like kids artwork collections, craft supplies, pillows, out-of-season clothes. Depending on the size of your bed, you can get quite a few bins underneath.

As far as DIY home organization ideas go, using furniture as storage is really underutilized and can offer so much additional storage.

Where to Buy:

Amazon has lots of options for under-the-bed storage – from the plastic containers to carts to clothes storage bags. I am loving the clothes storage bags. I purchased a few of them to store comforters, blankets, and extra throw pillows in and was able to clear out two shelves in our hall closet!

Think about all that storage you will gain by using the space under your bed more wisely.

How to Make:

There are tons of awesome tutorials out there that have storage built-in furniture. You can make a platform bed frame that has tons of storage underneath. I’ve also seen cubby bookshelves built into beds. There also are coffee tables you could make, where the top opens and provides hidden storage.

And, if you are feeling really ambitious, you could make a couch or chaise lounge with storage entirely underneath. We haven’t tackled any of these projects yet. If we do, we will be sure to post them 🙂

Thinking about furniture storage is a great DIY home organization idea that really creates extra space.

Mistake #8 – Lack of using labels

If you have ever felt the frustration of pulling down bin after bin looking for something, then you know the importance of labels. I’ve pulled down many closet bins looking for scarves – only to find shoes, hats, and everything in between.

When you label items not only do you save yourself time when you go to use those things, but you keep yourself and your items more organized. You get used to seeing the labels, so you know where everything is. And, you know exactly where to put things back.

Labels are great for kids too, giving them the tools they need to put their own things away. For younger kids, include a picture of the item, so they can clean up on their own. (The picture label then becomes a learning activity – as kids see the picture along with the word and learn the word.)

Additionally, labels are great for husbands too. 🙂 You’ll notice things get put back in the right spot much more easily.

Using labels with pictures encourage kids (and husbands) to put toys away

How to Make:

For extra home organization, labels are really easy to make. Just use masking tape or paper, but I do love the idea of adding pictures for kids to help clean up.

Simply google the item, grab a picture, and paste it into a printable document. I was definitely surprised at how much cleaner my toddler’s toys were when he knew where everything went.

Where to Buy:

As easy as masking tape and paper are for labels, I love my label maker. It makes everything look much more neat, organized, and consistent.

I LOVE this label maker– and it is a dream come true! It has tons of fonts and decorative options, making for very cute labels and of course, easy organization.

You can also find cute labels at the craft stores. I found a bunch of mini chalk boards attached to a clothes pin and used these to label my fabric storage bins. The dollar section at Michaels never lets me down as far as DIY home organization ideas 🙂

Taking Action

Picture a completely organized home. You can walk to the bathroom without tripping on toys. You can reach into your linen closet and easily find a pillow case. You can find a pen in the junk drawer with one swift reach.

Everything has a place. It’s perfection.

By choosing a few of the above DIY home organization tips and ideas and seeing them through, you will start to regain your sanity. Start small – with just one or two items, and you’ll start to see a great change.

You’ll make more space in your home. You’ll create places for things to be put away. You’ll use the space you have more wisely.

Above all, you will no longer be stressed out by a disorganized house. Instead, your organized home will be your place of zen.

How to Make an Amazing DIY Lamp from Anything

July 23, 2017 by Eileen 47 Comments

I love when inspiration strikes – especially when it makes for an awesome DIY project.

When we put my grandma’s house on the market, we did a ton of cleaning, emptying, selling, and donating.

One of the last things left was a homemade fishing lamp that was set aside for my uncle who enjoyed fishing. He wasn’t interested in the lamp, so on closing day, my dad grabbed the lamp on his way out of the door. It was the very last item left.

That’s when the inspiration came.

My dad does not fish – however, he is a model train collector, and he noticed that the base of the lamp would perfectly fit one of his trains.

So, he repurposed the old fisherman’s lamp into a train lamp, rewiring it with a three-way light switch that toggles the main lamp light as well as a train cabin light.

How cool is that?!

My dad’s friends loved his repurposed lamp so much that my dad decided to make one from scratch for his friend’s birthday.

How to Make a Lamp

Today, we are sharing how to make this amazing DIY lamp. Ash made the base, and my dad did the rest. For clarity, we’ll state all the directions in first person point of view. Without further ado, here are all of the details on how you can make a DIY lamp too.

You can use any item or model that you’d like 🙂

DIY Lamp Materials

Model for lamp
Piece of 2 x 10 for base
2 x 1 ¼ wood for lamp pole
Electrical lamp components (3 way 2-circuit socket switch and threaded lamp pipe)
Lamp wiring, shade and bulbs

How to Make the Base of the DIY Lamp

First I started with the base of this DIY lamp. It is 15 ½” by 9.” Depending upon what model that you are putting on the lamp, it can be larger or smaller. I used a train that was nearly 12″ long so these measurements worked out perfectly.

To make the base, I started with a rectangular block of scrap wood (cut from a 2×10 board). My plan was to shape it into an oval, route a groove around the top perimeter and sand it smooth.

To get a perfect oval, I used the computer. I created an oval in software, printed it and laid the cutout on the scrap wood. I then outlined the cutout with a pencil.

With a perfect oval outline on the wood, I made a rough cut with the jigsaw. Then, I used an orbital sander to smooth the edges.

When I was happy with the result, I used my plunge router with a quarter round bit and cut a groove around the edge to give the oval a professional touch.

To finish the base, I used the orbital sander once again to smooth the flat surfaces.

Here is the completed base:

How to Make the Lamp Pole

Next was the lamp pole. The pole was 2 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ by 8 1/4″ high upright. So, 2″ by 1 ¼ ” wood could be used. When choosing your model to go on the base, keep in mind the height of the pole, as it might need to be greater to allow room above the model and below the shade in order to reach lamp switch.

First, mark the center of each end of the upright wood pole. Then carefully drill from both ends. Use a level, so that holes drilled closely align in the middle.

A small round file is helpful if the holes do not align.

I used 3/8″ drill, as it perfectly allowed for a standard threaded lamp pipe to fit snugly in the hole.

Here’s the threaded lamp pipe inserted into the pole.

Applying Finish

After that, stain and then polyurethane both pieces of wood. I did two coats of stain on the base and it was perfect.

I let the stain, and then polyurethane each dry overnight.

Additional Lamp Pole Work

Returning to the lamp pole, on the side that is to be the back of the lamp, I drilled a 5/16 hole. This hole was made at a 45 degree angle about 1” from the bottom. I drilled until it connected with the existing ⅜ hole.

Then, on the front side of the pole, drill a very similar hole, about 2″ from the bottom.

Here’s one of the 45 degree holes I made:

Assembling the Electrical Parts

Next, I threaded the electrical lamp cord (stranded) into both holes until there are a few inches of each above the top end of the wood.

Next, I aligned the electrical lamp components.

Note that the socket has to be the type with a three-way switch. This way it will work both it’s own socket and a remote one sequentially.

The spacer and the socket bottom will thread into the threaded lamp piece that will be inserted into the wood.

Attaching the Lamp Pole

Once that is done, I centered the upright wooden lamp pole at the rear of the base.

Then, trace the outline with a pencil. Divide that shape in two, and locate the center of each of the two halves.

Afterward, drill pilot holes through the base at those spots.

Next, turn the base over, and enlarge the holes. However, they should be a diameter less than that of the screws to be used. So, use a countersink drill bit so that the wood screw heads will be recessed.

Then, insert the screws until they protrude slightly from the top side.

Afterward, set the post in position so that the screw tips mark the underside of the post where the screws will enter the bottom of that post.

Next, drill screw holes in bottom of the post where marked, and hold the two pieces of wood together tightly while screws are tightened.

I used 2 1/2″ wood screws due to thickness of the base. If post is not level due to any warp in the base, insert a shim under the post or remove post and trim its bottom surface.

Assembling the Lamp Parts

Next, you want to very carefully read the instructions that came with the socket.

With both wires extended through the threaded lamp pipe and the socket base, push the pipe down into the wood base. If it doesn’t fit tightly, put some wood glue on the threads first.

Next, very neatly wire the socket exactly as the instructions state, noting which wire will go to the wall outlet and which to the model.

After, put the metal cover on the socket, and slowly pull the excess wires at both small holes at the base of the posts.

Then, I snapped the socket cover into its base. Make sure that the lamp switch is to the right side.

Customizing the Model

Next, I disassembled the model I was building into the lamp. I used the mounting holes in the small socket as a template for drilling holes in the floor of the model for screws to attach the socket.

Also, I drilled a hole for the electrical wire to enter the model.

With the small socket attached to the model with screws, washers, and nuts, use a pair of 5″ or longer twist ties to securely fasten the model’s axles to the rear rail of the track.

Next, I installed the small frosted light bulb into model’s socket. You could also consider taping thin yellow plastic sheet pieces over the insides of the model’s windows to dim glare.

Finishing the Lamp

After, install the lamp cord plug for wall outlet, allowing about 6′ of cord.

Then, reassemble the model, adding the lamp shade and a standard light bulb.

Here is the finished DIY lamp, featuring a model train.

Here is the finished DIY lamp along with the repurposed lamp that was previously a fishing lamp. Not bad, right?! The best part is that now that you know how to make a DIY lamp – you can make one with any kind of model. The sky’s the limit!

How to Create Amazing Craft Room Storage

July 5, 2017 by Ash 82 Comments

Anything you could ever want, for any project, resides in Eileen’s craft room.

Ribbon, paint, pipe cleaners, card stock, felt, sewing materials, hot glue. Not to mention all of the kids crafts and holiday materials.

However, there was no room for any kind of craft room organization and storage. I usually found Eileen behind a mountain of fabric or sitting amidst a pile of felt scraps. The closet was packed with those plastic drawer organizers filled to the brim.

With hopes to organize, and perhaps even empty the closet, Eileen wanted to add storage to the walls. It was a great idea because there was tons of wall space that was barely being utilized.

She had her office desk and computer in that corner, so she envisioned being able to spin around in her chair and easily access any of her materials.

Her craft room organization and storage vision included pegboard, shelving, and wall-mounted cubby storage.

Creating Craft Room Organization and Storage

In designing a plan, Eileen was thinking that she would have pegboard in the corner, using hooks and mini shelves to hang up craft supplies that she used a lot – scissors, tape, paints, brushes, etc.

Then, above that she would have two long shelves that would hold a bunch of fabric storage bins. She also has a large supply of those fabric storage bins, as they are all over our house. She keeps holiday decorations in them, learning activities for our son, party supplies, and a lot more. The more bins she could fit on these shelves, the better.

Last, and the part she was most excited about was the wall-mounted cubby storage. These would be little cubbies that could hold all kinds of things – bins of felt scraps, stacks of card stock, envelopes, and little bins of office supplies.

Time for me to get to work on a design for all of this craft room organization and storage.

Making a Design

I took Eileen’s ideas to the drawing pad and sketched out some 3D designs in TinkerCAD. Here is what I came up with for her craft room organization and storage:

The black box is the filing cabinet. The aqua panels on the wall are the pegboard. The semi transparent block in the center represents the dimensions of Eileen’s desk chair.

The craft room organization and storage project was going to be fairly easily to get done. The pegboard and shelving was straight forward. The only slightly challenging piece was the cubby storage. I had never made cubbies before, but it didn’t seem too hard.

Must-See Before & After

Here are a few before pictures of the mess. The first one is of the corner that is now transformed. The second is a messy closet filled with plastic storage drawers filled with crafting materials (that were then emptied onto the storage cubbies, shelves, and pegboard.)

And, here was the final result.

The craft room organization and storage project truly turned a messy, wasted corner of space into a crafter’s dream.

All of this craft room organization and storage completely emptied 5 bins/dressers/plastic storage containers worth of materials. Crazy, right?!

Planning

To embark on this craft corner project, I started off with a quick trip to Home Depot.

The craft room organization and storage project was very modular.

There were three unique pieces (pegboard, shelving and cubbies) that could be worked on and installed independent of each other.

Part 1: The Pegboard

I chose to work on the pegboard panels first. They were the simplest to get done.

Pegboard needs a backing frame to ensure there’s enough space for pegboard hooks to be inserted. Most people usually use furring strips for the frame. Since I didn’t have any, I started by cutting some 1” backing strips from scrap wood with my table saw.

Here’s a picture of my self-made furring strips:

To assemble and join the strips into a frame, I used pocket holes. Here’s a picture showing my Kreg pocket hole jig in action:

Here’s the framing coming together.

When the pegboard frame was completed, I secured it to some wall studs using deck screws.

I later built another smaller frame on the right to make the pegboard paneling hug the corner.

It was now time to paint the pegboard. Eileen picked out a crafty color from Benjamin Moore. She and our son had a fun trip to the paint store, where our son picked out his favorite color paint chip and got to bring it home 🙂

Prior to rolling on the paint they picked, I laid out the pegboard on some 2x4s in the driveway. Then I rolled on two coats of paint.

The pegboard was ready to attach to the mounted frame. Here’s a picture showing the final result of the craft room pegboard:

To secure the pegboard to the frame, I used pocket hole screws. They were perfect because they had built in washers and would prevent the pegboard from ripping through the screw heads under load.

Here’s a picture showing one of the pocket hole screws:

The first part of the craft room organization and storage project was checked off my list.

Pegboard Organization Tips

Below is a picture of how Eileen organized it all. The craft room pegboard completely emptied out her plastic desk organizer and more.

On the pegboard, Eileen used a collection of various pegboard hooks that I had, as well as some awesome little plastic buckets from Dollar Tree (3 for a $1). I did order some fancy pegboard organizers from Amazon, but I kept them for my own pegboard since she was happy with her organizational system.

I have to admit – I have already benefited from the pegboard organization. When making a few measurements upstairs, I easily grabbed her measuring tape. The scissors are found easily without digging through a drawer – and I just used the fishing line to make a kite with our son – without having to ask for where they were or dig through storage containers.

Part 2: The Cubby Shelves

Now for the cubbies.

Eileen was really excited about the cubbies, knowing they would bring a lot of organization and storage to her craft room. She had so many little paints and other crafts that would fit perfectly onto cubby shelves.

So, I looked online for ideas and came across two popular designs for cubby shelving. The first design used pocket hole screws to hold the cubby shelves in place. The second design used routed dados for the shelves. I went back and forth about which design I wanted to use.

The pocket hole method was the fastest and easiest to do. I am also a huge fan of pocket holes.

However, I felt that these cubbies needed a bit more craftsmanship. After all, they were going to be in the same room as our recent window seat bookshelf project. So I opted for the routed dado design.

As for the wood, I normally just use the common pine boards sold at Home Depot for most of my projects.

However, the cubby shelves needed an upgrade. Common pine boards are full of surface imperfection and knots. So I opted for their “select” pine boards. It was twice the price of the standard boards, but there was a huge difference in the quality.

I was excited to work with wood of this quality. It was a rare treat for me.

Cutting the Dados for the Cubby Shelves

Now on to the construction of the cubby storage shelves. First, I had to calibrate my router to the correct depth setting. I used a scrap piece of wood and made repeated cuts with varying depths until I got the 3/16” depth required for my dados:

Next, I outlined the dados with a pencil and ruler, and clamped down a piece of scrap wood for a router guide.

Now let the routing begin:

I was a little disappointed with my first dado. I’ve done many dado cuts in the past, but for some reason, this one was slightly wavy. The edges were not perfectly straight like I was accustomed to. I started to worry that something was wrong with the router. Then after closer inspection, I realized that my scrap wood guide fence had small imperfections along the surface.

Thinking this might be the root of my problem, I swapped out the wooden guide fence with a metal ruler, as seen below:

I re-ran the router through the cut and success! The wavy edges went away. I guess scrap wood isn’t the solution to everything. I had to be careful using my ruler as a fence for the rest of the cuts though. It provided a very small surface for the router to move along. The router risked slipping over the edge of the ruler and ruining the boards.

So very carefully, I cut all the boards and produced the following:

Here’s a top-down view showing how I cut dados on both sides of some of the boards:

The boards with dados on both sides were going to sit vertical inside the cubby shelf. Then square shelves would be inserted into the dados to form the cubes.

Adjusting the Cubby Design

At this point, I took a look back at my design, and suddenly remembered something that I had forgotten.

Eileen wanted some of the individual cubbies to be long enough to hold standard printer sized sheets (8.5×11) for her large card stock collection. I had intentionally gotten 10” wide boards for the cubbies to account for this. However, I forgot to factor this requirement into the rest of the design.

The dados were all cut to allow perfectly square cubbies, approximately 8”x9”x9.25”. This would result in the 8.5×11 sheets hanging off the edge slightly.

I didn’t want this to happen, so I needed to make an adjustment to the design. With the dados already cut, I really didn’t want to waste any wood. So I thought really hard and came up with the adjusted design below:

Two of the vertical boards could be cut right where the bottom dado groove was made. Then a longer horizontal shelf could be inserted spanning two cubbies.

This would result in the two end cubbies at the bottom being long enough to hold the 8.5×11 sheets easily. It also added a nice aesthetic touch to the design, breaking up the repeating squares. Both Eileen and I were very happy about the design modification.

Assembling the Cubby Storage Shelves

With that little hiccup out of the way, I proceeded to assemble the shelves. I used deck screws, construction adhesive and 90 degree wood clamps. Also, I used a countersinking bit with my drill for the deck screws. I didn’t want to risk the wood splitting.

Here is a picture showing the wood clamps in action:

Construction adhesive was essential to a sturdy design that wouldn’t wobble over time:

Here I have the 4 main vertical boards secured in place:

The cubby shelves are starting to take form here:

I used construction adhesive for all the inside shelves too, I didn’t want them moving in the dado grooves over time. I also used some deck screws where possible too (like on the end pieces).

Here is some more progress made on the cubbies (see how I also had to use some bar clamps to pull the inside shelves tightly into the dados):

Using Ratchet Straps

When all the inside shelves were placed into the dados, I saw that the top measurement of the cubby shelf didn’t match the bottom. Little gaps here and there in the dados were adding up and making the top of the cubby wider than the bottom by about an inch.

When I squeezed in one pair of dados with a bar clamp to eliminate a gap, another gap would open up slightly somewhere else. It was getting a little frustrating.

Then inspiration hit me. Maybe I could use some ratchet straps to pull in all the shelves tightly at the same time. It seemed a little silly at the time to use ratchet straps for this project, but I gave it a shot:

Guess what? The ratchet straps worked.

As I tightened each ratchet, I could hear the satisfying creak of the dados squeezing together tightly.

I checked the upper measurement of the shelf and it was finally in agreement with the bottom. I secured the final top board and attached some strategically placed boards in the rear to help mount the cubbies to wall studs. The cubby build was pretty much complete.

Here is the cubby shelf so far. It looked so nice – and Eileen loved it. It was the perfect answer to her craft room organization and storage problem.

All that remained now was to wood putty the screw holes and paint.

I used one coat of primer and one coat of cabinet enamel paint. I had some enamel paint left over from previous projects, and thought it would be perfect for the cubbies.

Since I didn’t want items sticking to regular paint over time, the enamel based paint would eliminate this concern.

Here is the painted cubby storage shelf eagerly awaiting installation:

Cubby Organization Tips

Here is the completed shelf – including Eileen’s organization.

She used the cubby shelf for a lot of card stock, construction paper, and felt organization. That emptied an entire cart worth of messy piles. She used little bins and mason jars to organize things like paper clips, tacks, paint brushes, pom-poms, kids scissors, and popsicle sticks.

Keep reading to see how I attached the cubbies to the wall.

She does a ton of kids crafts with our son, including lots of card-making and letter-writing. With this cubby organization, she can easily access his collection of stickers which are grouped in a bin as well as card stock and envelopes.

Part 3: The Storage Shelves

Last on the list for the craft room storage project was the regular shelves above the pegboard.

Eileen wanted to use fancy decorative wooden shelf brackets. The only one I could find in stock at Home Depot was decorative and had a max weight capacity of 10 lbs.

However, the wood itself felt pretty sturdy. The low load capacity stemmed from the cheap keyhole hangers in the rear. The shelves were going to be secured to the wall with lag bolts, so I could ditch those keyhole hangers and just reinforce the brackets.

Here’s a picture of the wooden bracket (also called a corbel):

There are lots of ways to put a shelf on the wall. Depending on the design and load bearing capacity of the shelf, you can either attach directly to drywall (with toggle bolts or other drywall fasteners), attach to wall studs (with lag bolts), or a combination of the two.

My shelves needed to be able to hold a lot of weight, so pure drywall attachment was out of the question.

I had initially planned on bolting the wooden brackets directly to wall studs. However, the placement of the wall studs was not practical for the look of the shelves. Either the brackets would be really close together, or one side of the shelf would extend very oddly past one bracket. I could attach one bracket to a stud and the other to drywall, but I wanted a more sturdier design.

A Shelf Design that Worked

So I came up with an elegant alternative for the craft room shelves. I would bolt a 2×4 directly to the wall studs, spanning the length of the shelf. This would hold most of the load. Then I could position the wooden brackets however I liked, as they would rest directly on the drywall (regardless of stud position).

This design was essentially replacing the cheap keyhole hangers (that came with the brackets) with a beam bolted to wall studs.

Here’s a picture showing the final design of one of the shelf mounts (it’s upside down right now):

Once turned right side up, the surfaces currently facing you would be pressed flatly against the wall, and lag bolts would secure the 2×4 to wall studs.

See how the vertical surface attached to the wooden bracket wasn’t flush with the 2×4? It’s because this shelf mount was going to rest directly on the pegboard. So even though the 2×4 would be bolted to the wall, the wooden brackets would sit on the pegboard.

Eileen requested this design as it looked really good visually. So I had to offset the brackets for this mount to account for the depth of the pegboard. This wasn’t an issue with the second shelf mount, as it would rest entirely against the wall.

Assembling the Shelves

For the construction of the mount, I used construction adhesive and deck screws. It was critical to pre-drill all the screw holes with a countersinking bit.

Here’s the shelf mount turned right side up (you can see the shelf behind it waiting to be attached):

I attached the shelf to the mount with more construction adhesive and deck screws:

Here are the two shelves primed and painted (again I used the enamel based cabinet paint for the shelf surface):

I had used a ¾” Forstner bit to make a hole for the lag bolts. This would prevent the lag bolt heads from sticking out past the surface of the wood. For an even more aesthetic touch, I planned on covering the holes with some mushroom head screw hole plugs.

In no time, the last construction part of the craft room storage and organization project was completed.

Shelf Organization Tips

I purposely built the shelves so that four storage bins could fit on each shelf. Below is how Eileen utilized these shelves.

She picked up six fabric storage bins from… the dollar store! She should really take stock in that company. Each bin has a purpose – kids crafts, her crafts, sewing accessories, holiday decorations, felt scrapes, and extra office supplies.

Eileen was in awe at just how much these bins held and how organized – and easily accessible her materials now were.

Installing the Cubbies & Shelves

Since all three elements of the craft storage corner were completed, they were ready to be installed. The pegboard was already mounted to the wall. I just needed to hang the cubby storage and the regular shelves.

I started with the cubbies first. Unfortunately, the size and weight of the cubbies was too much for me to just hold it against the wall while I attached it.

So I attached a temporary 2×4 to the wall studs for me to rest the cubby on. This would allow me to position it perfectly without breaking my back. It would result in some small screw holes in the drywall after removal, but I could easily patch that up with drywall compound.

Here’s a picture with the temporary brace in place (I made sure it was perfectly level):

Here is the cubby storage shelf mounted to the wall:

The other shelves were very easy to attach. I rested the lower shelf directly on the pegboard and inserted the lag bolts. Since the pegboard was already level, I didn’t have to worry about this shelf being uneven.

Once in place, I used some 12” spacer 2x4s to hold the above shelf in place while I attached that one as well:

How did it all look?

The pegboard, wall shelving, and cubby storage all came together really nicely, providing a plethora of storage space in Eileen’s craft corner.

And here, my friends, is the end result of all of this new craft room organization and storage:

Here is how Eileen put all the storage to good use:

Here’s another shot after some creative uses of pegboard hooks:

And most impressively…

With the amount of new storage created, Eileen was able to empty out tons of storage containers. She emptied three storage towers, one cart, and one dresser. She completed underestimated the amount of space all of the new craft room storage gave her.

Here’s the impressive ensemble of containers she emptied with this project:

I was sure happy to see that black dresser emptied out. I tossed it to the curb that very day. It had been in closets for the past eight years and before that was my old college furniture. That poor dresser had long outlived its purpose.

Time & Cost of the Craft Room Storage

This was a relatively short project to work on, and it provided so much craft room organization and storage for Eileen. I accomplished everything on a weekend, which always puts a smile on Eileen’s face. The final cost was around $250.

Don’t forget to download our free plans for this craft room organization and storage project.

The new craft room storage made a huge impact in Eileen’s craft room and office. She emptied out so much space in the closet, which can now be a linen closet.

All of that wall space that was wasted before was now holding an incredible amount of craft and office supplies. Her craft room organization and storage problem was solved. And, all of her craft materials were easily accessible, rather than shoved in bins and bins in the closet.

Eileen’s craft room and office is her absolute favorite place in our home, as she has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a window seat on one side and a highly organized craft corner on the other side. It’s truly her dream room.

It was well worth the time and investment.

The Secret to Organizing Home Projects & Repairs – Free Printables

June 29, 2017 by Eileen 48 Comments

While in the paint store the other day, a lady looked at my samples and said to me with a smile, “Choosing a paint color is more difficult than buying a car.”

I laughed, looking down at my dozens of shades of blues and greens.

I was sitting in the paint store with my toddler (who behaves perfectly when he gets to choose his own paint chip at the end) looking through samples of whites and greens, in an attempt to choose colors for my parents’ living and dining room.

Also in hand, I had a sample of the flooring we were putting in, and I was trying to envision the white chair rail running through the dining room. It was a little overwhelming!

You see, my sister decided to redo my parents living room and dining room while they were on vacation, so we were making all of the remodeling choices, leaving my desk looking like this:

Rather than dumping all the paint chips and floor samples in a drawer, I wanted to have everything organized for my parents – so they could see the exact paint colors and flooring sample we used, for their own reference. Thus, my DIY home improvement printables were born!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place to store your paint chips and room samples along with notes on the work you did or had done in your home? Heck yeah! And, I needed this organization for my own home too.

Keep Your Home Improvement Efforts Organized

I created these free DIY home improvement printables that I used for my parents house as well as my home – to store all of the home improvement updates in one, easy-to-access place.

Not only will the home improvement printables keep a reference of paint colors and floor samples, but it serves as a record for all of your house projects and repairs. I divided the worksheets into three categories – interior, exterior, and appliances.

You can keep a log of the home improvement work you or your contractor completed by room (including walls, floors, cabinets, countertops). This serves as your paint color reference too.

You can keep your exterior work organized (tree work, siding, roof, etc), and appliance maintenance (including when they were serviced/replaced and contractor information). The DIY home improvement printables keep all of these records organized in one place.

Also, you can download all of the worksheets in one download, or you can download just the pages you need, but these printables will have you organized in no time!

Simply hole punch them or put the printables in a sheet protector and place them in a binder, according to section. You can also keep contractor receipts and records, stored behind the log of the work done.

No more digging through file folders looking for the contractor that installed your fans. No more searching the garage for that leftover can of paint that may or may not exist.

And, the best part?

Down the road, when you go to put your house on the market, you can leave out the bound home improvement printables for your showings. It will show prospective buyers that you took great care of your home and are leaving them with information that goes above and beyond.

With all of the time you spend updating your home – choosing paint colors, installing new flooring, researching contractors, you owe it to yourself to keep all of this home improvement information in one easy-to-find place.

All of your home improvement updates, records, and files can be placed in this binder, in an organized, seamless fashion.

Easy DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms with a Giveaway

June 10, 2017 by Eileen 120 Comments

This post is sponsored by My Wonderful Walls. All opinions are entirely my own.

Recently, Ash and I have been getting a toddler room ready for our sweet little son, which means new furniture, new color schemes, and of course, new wall decorations. His nursery decorations were random things that I put together before he was born. So it was time to decorate with something he really enjoys. With all of the adorable (and expensive!) artwork out there for kids’ rooms, I decided to venture out and make my own.

My goal was to create something special to hang on his walls that he would treasure – and that I wouldn’t grow tired of later. So, with just a few key materials, I was able to create these adorable DIY canvas wraps. They are so simple to make! .

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We love My Wonderful Walls products so much that we also have a 15% off coupon code for everyone. Just visit My Wonderful Walls and use JUNE15 at checkout (expiration June 30, 2017).

If you are the lucky winner of the giveaway, you can use the coupon code too. They have some awesome stickers, decals, and stencils 🙂

How to Make DIY Wall Art for Kids Rooms

I had this vision to create something with little effort that would also save others time and money on room decorations.

This vision included using gallery wraps or wrapped canvases. I wanted to avoid the hassle of frames – it’s a lot of work to pick out frames, mats, and work out sizing. As an added bonus, wrapped canvases are super easy to find at craft stores, usually are on sale, and definitely save money- as frames and mats are much more expensive. Plus, I was happy to avoid having a bunch of glass frames hanging in my son’s room.

Next, I searched high and low looking for wall stickers or wall decals that I liked. Yet, rather than stick these directly to the walls to create a mural-like piece, my thinking was that I could easily stick these wall decals to the canvases. It would certainly make for a really simple but elegant project.

The problem? A lot of wall decals for kids look really cartoony. I wanted to find something that looked more authentic and artistic.

Then, I stumbled across My Wonderful Walls and LOVED the vehicle stickers they had. Their vehicle stickers have so many colors and details – they look almost textured. I fell in love with this rusty truck (pictured below). Isn’t it adorable?!

Also, their wall stickers were a really nice size and would definitely fill 9×12 and 8×10 canvases.

Materials for DIY Wall Art

Canvas Wraps – easily found at craft stores
Acrylic Paint – found at craft stores
Painter’s tape – only if painting stripes or chevron designs
Washi tape, if desired
Alphabet stickers, if desired – easy to find at craft stores
Vehicle Wall Stickers – from My Wonderful Walls (15% off using JUNE15 – exp. June 30, 2017)

Budget-Friendly Tip – When buying the canvases, paint, and other materials from the craft stores, check for sales and coupons before going. A lot of times the craft stores run 40%-60% off canvases. You could also use a coupon and buy a pack in bulk. Some craft stores even have surveys you can fill out that gives you a discount off of your next purchase.

In order to get the sizes right on the canvases, I waited to purchase the canvases until I received the stickers. Then, I took the vehicle decals to the craft store with me, so that I would get the canvas sizes right. The wall decals came in one long roll, so it was easy to bring to the store with me.

Because the vehicle stickers from My Wonderful Walls were a really nice size (and this was their mini kit), most of the canvases I bought were 9×12, 8×10, and a few 8x8s.

I also picked up a few little 4×6 canvases for the road signs. With all of the stickers and canvases, I definitely had enough to decorate a large room.

Making the Wall Decorations

After I had my materials together, I first cut out each wall sticker and placed it on the canvas that it would go on. I also arranged groups of canvases together to visualize how they would look on the wall.

Painting the Canvases

Time to paint! You could do this in a few different ways – you could just paint a solid background or you could create a design with painters tape – like stripes or chevron. You could even do polka dots, if you have adhesive circles! It’s up to you how creative you’d like to be.

I decided to opt for mostly solid backgrounds with a few striped canvases too. The solid background was easy to do. It took me two coats of acrylic paint. Be sure to paint the sides too – to give it the gallery wrap look.

Making the Perfect Stripes

Painting the stripes was a little more difficult, but I eventually got a perfect technique down. I would highly recommend using painter’s tape and nothing else, as you will get the strongest stick.

On my first attempt, I used painter’s tape and then painted the blue stripes – and I got a very imperfect line. After a bunch of experimenting (even tried gesso – which made no impact), this is how I got perfect stripes.

Place your painter’s tape on the canvas.
Next, use white acyrlic paint to seal the edges of the painters tape to the canvas. You are essentially creating a seal, so the intended color (blue in my case) doesn’t leak under the tape.
Wait a minute or two – but don’t let the white dry completely, and paint the stripe your intended color. Do a even stroke, going only one direction, so that your intended color doesn’t get underneath the tape.
Peel the tape off right away (after you are done with the top and bottom line). Once acrylic paint dries, it’s very plastery, so you want to remove the tape before the paint dries.

In the below picture, you can see the first stripe painted, with a perfectly straight line. Above that, you can see the white sealed edges along the green painter’s tape.

Now, some of my blue stripes were streaked with white from the seal I painted, but I much preferred going over the stripe again rather than having a jagged edge.

I also recommend having a practice canvas and painting short stripes, before attempting a good canvas. Once I had the routine down, each of my canvases came out perfect.

Decorating the Canvases

Now for the fun part! It was time to stick the vehicle wall decals to the canvases. The wall stickers were such great quality and so easy to work with. The stick was perfect – and they were easy to move when I changed my mind on placement.

Adding a Few Extras

One of the things I definitely wanted on the canvases was the name of the vehicle. My son is very visual and has taught himself lower case letters just from observation, so I figured if I passively have the names of the vehicles on the canvases, he will learn to spell.

So, I labeled as many vehicles as I could with the alphabet stickers I had. (This involved getting a little creative and “making” some letters).

Last, I felt that some of the canvases needed a little extra touch. I saw some cool washi tape at the craft store and added it to the canvases.

I’ve never used washi tape before, but I’ve seen so many cute creations with it that I thought I could use the washi tape to give the look of roads, construction signs, and railroads. It was the perfect touch!

Time & Cost

After collecting the materials, the DIY wall canvases took about one to two days to make, including dry time for the coats of paint. It was a super quick project.

The cost really depends on how many of the materials you need to purchase. If you have paint and alphabet stickers, then you’ll just need the canvases and stickers.

And, if you are interested in FREE wall decals, enter our giveaway – and you’ll be well on your way to making these adorable room decorations. Free wall decals plus the coupon code (JUNE15) will definitely save you money on the project 🙂

If you are looking for a simple tutorial to make DIY wall art for kids rooms, definitely consider this one. The materials were easy, the canvases were simple to put together, and they turned out great. You’ll definitely save money while creating something your children will adore.

How to Throw a DIY Party (Without Going Crazy)

April 10, 2017 by Eileen 42 Comments

Washing the dishes at the end of a long day, you think about how you can barely keep up with the day-to-day routine.

There are crumbs all over the floor you just cleaned. You didn’t get to the overflowing laundry pile today. Lunches to pack, homework to check, kids to get to bed.

It’s endless.

On top of that, your child’s birthday is coming up, and you really want to throw a nice party.

But how can you handle party prep in addition to all the draining housework and all of the other things going on?

With these tips and tricks, you will be able to throw an awesome DIY party without going crazy.

1. Choose 3-5 DIY party ideas and that’s it.

With Pinterest being an easily accessible party-planning archive, it’s typical to feel overwhelmed with all of the ideas out there.

Instead of trying to do everything, which can end in half-hearted efforts or stress overload, just pick a few manageable party DIYs.

This will put a creative spin on the party, without all the pressure.

For my friend’s son’s truck party, we chose 3 party DIYs – a cardboard truck photo booth cut-out, truck goody bags, and a pin the wheel on the truck game.

It was a manageable amount of work, and it creatively tied in the theme of the DIY truck party.

Definitely browse Pinterest or Google images to see what’s been done before. This will help you to brainstorm or even emulate ideas.

And, there are lots of easy DIY party ideas out there.

2. Cut corners with your time, where you can.

Designing, ordering, stamping, and mailing an invitation too much? Save yourself time with an Evite.

Cooking not your forte? Do a few crockpot dishes or order a few dishes from a local restaurant. Baking a cake too time-consuming for you? Order it from the bakery.

Spend your time where YOU feel it is most valuable.

Remember, you can delegate tasks out to reliable family or friends.

For every family party, my sister’s job is to work with the photos – whether making a photobook, collage, or slideshow. She never lets us down, and it’s a task I don’t have to worry about.

Also, prioritize your list, so that if you don’t get to everything, you aren’t disappointed.

For my son’s Sesame party, we barely got to set up the last game “Grover’s Obstacle Course.” We literally threw some pool noodles on the ground along with some balls.

Of course, the toddlers didn’t mind, and I didn’t either because this was low on the priority list.

3. Keep entertainment simple but creative.

Whether it’s music that goes with the party’s theme or party games for kids, entertainment can bring a lot to a party.

Since it can be overwhelming to know where to start, look for what’s already been done. Lots of websites have free templates and printables that can make your planning a piece of cake.

For baby or bridal showers, pick a game or two where most of the work has already been done for you, a game with easy prep or free templates.

We played such a fun game at my friend Meg’s shower – Mustaches and Tiaras, where all of the prep work was done.

For kids’ DIY parties, think easy. Kids love coloring or craft stations, playing with trucks in the sand, or having an egg race.

These activities can easily be adjusted to go with the party’s theme. For example, if having a vehicle party, instead of an egg on a spoon, use a race car on a spoon.

Station games are also great – and they can be made from foam boards from the dollar store.

You can literally make a Pin the “Blank” on anything – characters, animals, trucks, etc. I personally love using felt for these – since felt sticks to felt.

If planning a DIY anniversary party, put together a soundtrack with popular songs from the year the couple married.

Entertainment doesn’t need to be elaborate, or even time-consuming. Think easy – and don’t forget you can also delegate.

4. Do as much as you can early.

Creating, making, and shopping without of stress of a deadline is much more fun.

So, choose a few things that you easily get done ahead of time – like shopping for decorations or working on some DIY party projects. Then, get these done as early as you can.

This will free up your time closer to the party for things like cooking, food shopping, and cleaning.

For my dad’s Beatles party, I started working on the decorations a month or two ahead of time. I would cut letters for banners while I was watching television or had a few minutes of downtime here and there.

I had all of the decorations and games finished early, so the week of the party, I could focus on cooking and cleaning.

Planning and creating are so much more fun when you aren’t working against the clock.

5. Shop smart.

Prior to the DIY party, as you are doing your regular shopping at the grocery stores or craft stores, keep your eyes peeled for party things you can stock up on.

For example, take advantage of sales on paper products – plates, plastic wear, napkins, etc – or even decorations. I bought an abundant supply of ribbon at Michaels at 70% off before the winter holidays.

Months later, I used the ribbon to make banners – and was so happy I didn’t have to make a special trip out to the store.

For kids’ goody bags, it might be smart to steer away from food with all of the allergies out there.

If you are wondering what to give, the Dollar Tree and A.C.Moore have great deals for just $1. You can find cute kids books, stickers, coloring books, and learning games.

Choose a few that go with the theme of your DIY party, and you’re all set.

Speaking of the Dollar Tree, it wouldn’t be a section on shopping smart without mentioning that this chain has the best selection of all the dollar stores. Dollar Tree has all kinds of books and games. Their party section doesn’t disappoint: table cloths, paper products in various colors, pom-poms, and all kinds of other party goodies.

A few trips to Dollar Tree will definitely shorten your to do list – and not be a big hit to your wallet.

Remember, shopping early helps too. When shopping without the stress of a deadline, you tend to easily find the things you are looking for.

And the Housework…

Birthday parties are days that your child anxiously awaits. Even though a DIY party will make your to do list a little longer, following these 5 simple tricks will make the party planning more than manageable.

And, about the housework, no one will notice how clean the kitchen is or see the overflowing laundry baskets hidden away.

Of course, the floors will be dirty again in five minutes, whether or not you had guests over.

Skip links

Main navigation

Decor & Organization

How to Build Steps for a Shed

How to Build a Ramp for a Shed

Determining the Ramp Angle

Leveling the Ramp Foundation

Attaching Stringers for the Shed Ramp

Building the Ramp Foundation On the Shed

Completing and Testing the Shed Ramp

Installing Windows and Building Doors for the Shed

How to Install Windows on a Shed

How to Build Doors for a Shed

Adding Lattice Under the Shed

Installing Lighting on the Shed

Time and Cost of Building a Shed from Scratch

Future Shed Plans

How to Build a Hexagon DIY Planter Box

Materials

Instructions for Building a Hexagon DIY Planter

How to Build a Triangular DIY Planter Box

Finishing the Planter Boxes

How to Build a Wall-Mounted Hook Rack

Materials for the DIY Hook Rack

Instructions for Making the DIY Hook Rack

Sanding the Scrap Wood

Staining the Hook Rack

Marking the Hook Rack

Applying a Finish

Attaching the Hooks

Mounting the DIY Hook Rack to the Wall

Time & Cost

How to Find Time for DIY Projects

1. Get up an hour earlier

2. Cut some things out

3. Let kids work with you

4. Delegate what you can

5. Organize your project ahead of time

6. Multi-task, multi-task, multi-task

6. Put the devices down

7. Use wait time to the max

How do I start?

Mistake #1 – Not Using Closet Space Wisely

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #2 – Disregarding Empty Wall Space

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #3 – Not Using Cubby Shelving

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #4 – Leaving out items that could be hidden

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #5 – Ignoring Messy Drawers

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #6 – Not using doors and walls for hooks and racks

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake # 7 – Missing out on furniture storage

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #8 – Lack of using labels

How to Make:

Where to Buy:

Taking Action

How to Make a Lamp

DIY Lamp Materials

How to Make the Base of the DIY Lamp

How to Make the Lamp Pole

Applying Finish

Additional Lamp Pole Work

Assembling the Electrical Parts

Attaching the Lamp Pole

Assembling the Lamp Parts

Customizing the Model

Finishing the Lamp

Creating Craft Room Organization and Storage

Making a Design