DIY Guide to Wooden Organizers

Organizers can be a great addition to any room. Whether your goal is organizing a closet or a utility room, building custom wooden organizers is a great idea to add usability and value to your space.

Closet Organizers:
These are great for anyone who shares a closet with another person. Personally I am not sure how we could co-inhabit ours without organizers. When designing your custom organizers, go for what will work for you and what you can adapt to your life over time. Great features of closet organizers are drawers and cubbies, both of which can be interchanged with one another. By building drawers with castors for movement rather than tracks, you allow yourself the option to rearrange how your closet functions over time. And by using pegs to hold the shelves in place, you can adjust the spacing quite easily.

Utility Organizers:
My laundry room was simply an open space with one small closet when we moved in. Since then, we have added wooden organizers, counters, and even piping for me to hand clothes from. I went with an industrial look for my laundry room because it would be totally different from any other room in my home. By building cabinets and an open counter space, I now can store my towels, blankets, board games, cleaning supplies, a presser and even my holiday decorations!

How to Build Organizers

Supplies:
Particle Board Casters (Optional)
Nails Pegs (Optional)
Hammer Drill and bits
Tape Measure Paint
Level
Framing Square
Caulk
Saw

First you will need to determine the size of your organizers. Start by measuring the space and designing what functions you desire. Envision what you want the organizer to look like and what you need to store inside it. You will need to build the larger pieces first. Measure the wood twice and hold the tape measure in the space to make sure the height works. Cut the pieces and nail them together. It is much easier to construct the organizer piece by piece where it will be rather than to bring in large awkward pieces.

If you are putting pegs for adjustable shelving, use the tape measure to measure the spacing of the hole and the level to ensure that the shelf will sit flat.

To construct drawers, determine the size, cut the pieces and use the framing square to help you when you are attaching them together. Remember that the drawers will need to be smaller that the space they will occupy.

Once you have the unit in place and it is how you like, use the caulk to go over any seams that exist where you have joined pieces of wood. This will dry to form a smooth transition between pieces and will make the units much easier to paint. Just be sure you allow the caulk plenty of time to set up before painting it.

Have fun with the project. The point of a custom project is to make it you own, and if that means throwing a fun color of paint on the organizer, go for it! Pain can always be changed.