WFMW: DIY Shelving

It's another edition of Works-For-Me-Wednesday! A day when I can brag about my accomplishments in life! I mean, umm...a day when I hope to give you some ideas for your life. It's all about you. Really, it is.

Last year I saw a great shelving system on the Better Homes and Gardens website. Last month I designed a similar shelving system for our laundry room. And last night we finally got it built and put up!

Considering how quickly our family keeps growing, I am always in search of new storage spaces and solutions. When I realized last year that our laundry room was just FULL of empty wall space, I set it on my heart to transform that empty space into storage space. I decided to design the system myself rather than purchasing a pre-made one for two reasons:

1. It would give me exactly what I wanted, and
2. I thought it would be cheaper.

I never did really do much pricing for shelving systems, so I don't know if we saved any money, but I don't think we spent any more than if we had bought one. The whole thing cost us around $65.

When I started designing, the first thing I did was measure EVERYTHING. I measured the wall space. I measured the folded towels. I measured the laundry detergents. I measured the trash can. You get the idea. After everything was measured, I drew up the plans with exact inches. Since I'm not the math genius in the family, I had my husband figure out exactly how to divide up the boards to get the best use of them.

We purchased 8 pieces of 6ft 1" x 12"s, measured them out, cut them, and pieced them together. (Okay, so most of that was my husband. But whatever. I totally helped.)

When we finally got it upstairs and installed, I was so pleased! But I was also wishing I had painted it. Oh well. I can always paint it later.

Here is the before, middle, and after of our brand spanking new USEFUL storage space in our laundry room:

BEFORE:

See how pitiful? I know. And to think that our builder didn't put any shelving up. We had to do that sad job ourselves.

MIDDLE:





Much better! Oh, and see my new ironing board?

AFTER:





Oh how I love thee, beautiful storage space! And yes, all those bags at the top are diapers. (We have always liked to stock up before our little ones arrived.)