Using Up More Scraps

A few weekends ago, Curt built us some shelves in our previously empty and unused pantry, and then I painted eveything the same color as the walls. He did order the flat boards that made the shelves, but everything else was built out of scraps we had laying around our garage. I had been using a single cupboard to hold our food items in the kitchen and it was nice to move everything into a bigger area so it wasn't so crowded. I can't imagine how we will ever fill up this pantry. Never say never. This room has a locked door in case we ever rent out our house to vacationers (so do our master bedroom closets and wine room - though two of those three rooms are currently completely empty).

It only took a couple of hours to build these shelves and it's the same process he used in all of our bedroom closets and the mudroom, which now have rods and a shelf on top in each. He used some additional scraps as braces to support the shelves here, though I'm not sure it was needed. They look good though. It's not anything like the "dream pantry" photos I see all over Pinterest, but it's definitely roomy and functional and that's enough for me. 

Right before Christmas, we finally hooked up our washer and dryer. We bought the washer back in August and the dryer in November - both from CL for $150 and $350 respectively. The washer was only a year old and I think the dryer is about the same age, and a steam dryer at that. It's red - fancy! I saw some tutorials online for building a wooden stand that sits underneath the appliances so you can slide laundry baskets underneath, which seemed genius to me. So, Curt ignored the instructions and used more scraps to build something to the size we needed. We couldn't put a shelf on top because they are different heights so storage underneath seemed smart. The stand was not pretty at first due to the bad shape the wood scraps were in, but after we put a few coats of paint on it, it didn't look half bad. Three $5 IKEA laundry baskets slide underneath. Being able to do laundry has made our car trips a lot lighter because we were carrying our clothes back and forth, towels, bedding and and rags - lots of rags. There is always something to be cleaned and many messes to be mopped up. And now we don't have to fill up our car every weekend with dirty rags.