Today was a full and busy day, but I’ll just talk about one part of it.
In our toddler room there are two white wooden shelves on the wall. Many, many, many years ago I added some art-drying ‘shelves’ to it, using – as is my custom – junk I had lying around.
Yes, they are those mesh cubby things zip-tied together. The ironic thing is our toddler teacher liked them. I offered a couple of times to re-do them, but she liked being able to put many papers on them. To each their own.
Well, this summer it was time for them to go. They were just falling apart, and I realized the solution – closet shelving! It’s made for this stuff. However, the pre-cut pieces were 48 inches long and I needed 47 1/2 inches of shelf.
Do you know what the preferred tool for cutting shelving is? Do you know what Menards had marked down from $34 to $12.99??? Do you know what I own now?
I learned a lot about them. Little wires are easy to snip, but two of the bars on the shelves were 1/4 inch thick. I couldn’t do it with my arms, and Lloyd cut through one with just his arms and was astonished how the blades didn’t break. He couldn’t stay all night, so it was up to me to figure out how to use them. He suggested putting one handle on the floor. I tried putting all my weight on it:
Ha! That is not how you go about it. You can’t cut through it in one ‘bite’, you have to nibble. Press, release, press, release. At least if you’re me.
The shelf side supports curved in, so I wasn’t able to put both shelves up without them being very close together. So I cut the back off the bottom shelves, making them shallower, and I think it will work out just fine.
Oh, did I mention that I had to re-paint the wood part before hanging the shelves? Thank goodness for Hulu Plus.
Anyway, it’s done. Need any bolts cut?
Gretchen says
Yes I do. I forgot my locker combination. It is locker #457. Please come quickly -- my lunch is inside.
Brad says
The change is really nice. It makes the shelves look much neater. It was worth the effort. 🙂
Lauren's dad says
They also serve as master keys for storage padlocks when renters don’t pay up.
Lauren says
Gretchen: Ha!
Brad: Thank you!
Dad -- we need to watch back-to-back episodes of Storage Wars for a whole day. You would love that show.
Deborah says
You can get 11% back from a Menard’s rebate, also. Then they will be even cheaper!