Upcycle Saturday

This week, I was over at a friend’s house and I always marvel at her clean, uncluttered kitchen countertops. After the visit, I came home and decided I was really tired of storing all my “sink stuff” on the kitchen counter. It looked untidy, took up space, and it has to be moved out of the way every time I wipe down my countertops which seems to be a dozen times or more a day.

That led to searching the internet for the perfect solution. I found this Rev-A-Shelf set on Amazon, but I didn’t want to wait two days for it to arrive. Instead, I checked out the company web site, found that they were sold at Home Depot and off I went. Grrr…….they were not at Home Depot. Instead, I started looking at alternative storage containers, which then got me thinking surely there was something at home that I could use. So home I went to search.

I looked at every plastic container I could find…it wasn’t as easy as I had been expecting because whatever I chose needed to be narrow enough not to bump into things already stored in the cabinet,  but sturdy enough that it wasn’t going to tear or break from the weight of the items it was holding.

I went outside and started scrounging through the garage. Maybe something out here. Then it happened. I found it! And it was perfect! Well, perfectly imperfect, but just what I needed.  A few years back the plastic casing around the light on the garage door opener somehow broke. You’d have to ask Cary about that, as I wasn’t there when it happened, but one of the two clips that hold the casing broke and, rather than throw it away, it got stashed in the garage for that “someday we’ll fix it” moment that almost never happens, which is why you should fix things at the time they break. To be honest, I didn’t even know we still had the casing but it made my day finding it.

Next was to find the right tools. We really do have an organized container of screws but I couldn’t find any short enough.  The screws couldn’t be too long or they would come through the front side of the thin cabinet door when I installed them. It’s for that reason everyone should have a “just in case” can of odd bits and pieces of junk. It’s in our JIC can I found two screws that would work. I drilled two holes through the plastic casing and headed back to the kitchen.

Next, I eyeballed it to make sure it was fairly level and installed the screws. These were so sharp on the ends, I didn’t even bother drilling holes in the cabinet doors first. And the Oh, Happy Day! everything was put into it, fit, door closed and life is good. I’ll admit, it’s not nearly as attractive as the Rev-A-Shelf, but my version only cost about $3 (gas for the wasted trip to town looking for the shelves) vs. $40  for the store-bought version. I realize their set included two shelves, and I did like that. Don’t think I haven’t been eyeballing that second casing still hanging from the garage door opener…..lol!

Have a happy weekend! ♥