Making space

So, I’m in the middle of a space project here at the new house.  With the knowledge that I’ll be here for
25 years, and the blank canvas of a new house untainted by our historical use of it, I’m using every one of the clever ideas I’ve ever heard of to make every inch of space more useful.

The one I implemented this weekend was shelf risers for our food storage.  It’s an idea that’s been around for years but I first saw it on Lifehacker.  I’m sure there’s someone that sells these out of the Skymall catalog for $24 a set, but it’s really a simple idea.  (Oh yeah, it sells for $14 plus shipping!  A crime!)  Your cabinet is so deep that you can’t see what you’ve got in the back, and that lends itself to clutter.  Instead go get yourself some 2×4’s or 1×2’s at Home Depot and ask them to cut them to the length of your cabinets.  Then go to the back of the cabinet and stack them three high.  In front of that, stack them two high, in front of that put one, and voila, you’ve got a four level cabinet that lets you see the cans in the back clearly, and lends itself really well to good organization.

You can see the result above.  It’s totally awesome, and I’m entirely proud of the fact that I did it with $5 worth of lumber!

One of my many other projects over the weekend was replacing a ball cock and a flapper on a toilet.  $10 in parts that saved me at least $100 in a plumber.  Although aggravating, the plumber visit could have been affordable, but what motivated me was that time.  It took me ten minutes each to install the parts in my toilet, whereas the visit from the plumber would have sucked up much more of my time.