A Flurry of Creativity

Friends with kids, do you ever feel like you are constantly being defeated in the cleaning realm by your children?  I’ll spend all night cleaning and organizing a disaster they have created, only to turn around the next morning to see it already in horrible disarray.  Puzzles strewn about and buckets of toys upended… and I only turned around to pop oatmeal in the microwave.  How did this happen?!  I thought maybe it would get better after Julius was done with the toddler phase and we weaned/forced him out of the “dump out every basket of toys” phase.  Unfortunately he has transitioned into the art supplies phase, in which not only does he produce messes, but actively creates choking hazards.

In an effort to contain the arts and crafts mess/danger I moved all the art supplies to the basement.  This sort of worked to contain the art mess, but the basement instantly became coated with a snow-like blanket of teeny-tiny scraps of paper, open markers, glue and WIP projects.  It looked like Edward Scissorhand and Andy Warhol opened a studio together.   I moved trash cans around so Julius could more easily remember to cut into the trash can but it never worked.  He would cut up tiny pieces of paper wherever he pleased.  Then one day he left the glue open to leak all over my brand new couch and for my own sanity I came up with a new idea.  I bought him a little art table and told him he needed to do all art at the table.

Adorable (foldable!) arts and craft table and chairs I got for the kiddos.

Of course it didn’t help, and now I have just a carpet covered in tiny scraps of paper with a table sized silhouette of clean carpet.  There hasn’t been any more glue situations though, so I’m calling it a win.  It’s the little things, like 2’x2′ of carpet you don’t need to vacuum on a daily basis.  Speaking of game changing organization I’m still basking in the glow of my improved closet.  Today I’m going to tell you how I made the cute little coat rack for Julius and Patricia’s coats.

Closet Door Coat Rack

What you’ll need:

• 3.5″x3/4″x (see below) wood (I used one of the pieces of pallet…)
• 5 single wall hooks
• 2 Hollow Door Drywall Anchors
• paint (in the color of your choice)
• spackle

1. Cut board down to size (our door is 30″ wide and I cut the board down to 23″ wide).
2. Route edges of wood with desired border on top side of board. 
3. Here you really should sand the wood.  But it didn’t do that great a job and I wish I’d tried just a bit more. 
4. Paint & let dry.  (I did 2 coats of white.) 
5. Attach hardware.  You’ll want the outside hooks to be no less than 7.5″ from the edge of your door.  For me this meant the outside hooks were 4″ from each edge.   I then evenly distributed the other three hooks between.
6. Prepare to mount your board (you may need another set of hands).  Position the board where you would like to mount it.  I mounted mine centered in the door, 42″ off the ground so it was easy for kids to access.
7. I then drilled a 1/8″ hole centered between the 1st and 2nd hooks – through the board and into the door.  Confirm your board is level then drill another hole between the 4th and 5th hooks and removed the board from the door.
   

   Here’s one of the pre-drilled holes.  Contrary to what I said about getting an extra set of hands, I did this myself so I didn’t have a third hand to take a picture.

8.  Into the holes drilled in the door I inserted the anchors. 
9. Finally I mounted the board through my predrilled holes into the anchors, sinking the screws so they are slightly below the face of the wood board.
10. To clean up the face of the board and hide the screws I used drywall spackle to cover the holes.
    

    Pink spackle (dries white) waiting to dry.

    You made it to here again?!  You really do deserve a prize!  Well Earth Day is coming up, so to prepare you I’m going to be giving away a mid-size stand up Stasher bag to one lucky winner!  I realize lately that I’ve gotten a bit downtrodden and pessimistic about climate change, so I need your help to cheer me and other readers up!  To enter the contest post with some positivity on climate change progress (from things you are doing to help the planet, to news stories that cheered you up)!  You have until May 2nd to enter.  I can’t wait to hear what you’ll come up with.