Expert Advice on Home Improvement

To keep the items you have stored in the trunk of your car from sliding around, attach self-adhesive strips of hook-and-loop fastener (hook side) to the bottom of a storage conntainer, then press the container to the carpet in the truck. Watch this video.

Garage doors can be easily damaged by high winds during a hurricane or severe storm. Metal reinforcement kits are available that attach to the concrete slab and framing above the door to provide two additional points of support, or you can make your own garage door reinforcement from 2×4s. Watch this video to find out how to go about it. Watch this video.

While converting an unused basement, attic, or garage into additional living space is a popular option, careful planning is needed to prevent potential problems. If you take these unique planning and design aspects into consideration, your conversion will be a success. Watch this video.

A laundry room often becomes cluttered and contains wasted space. To better utilize it, shelves and storage units can be made from sheets of medium density fiberboard while a storage unit holds multiple laundry baskets. Watch the video to find out more. Watch this video.

Adding a built-in ironing board is a great way to maximize space in the laundry room. They are designed to fit between two studs on 16” centers and come with a shelf to hold the iron as well as a plug and light. Watch this video.

Typical closets contain little more than a clothes rod with a shelf above it. To provide better use of the space, a complete closet makeover can be turned over to a company that specializes in organizational solutions. Watch the video to see what’s involved. Watch this video.

When looking for extra storage in a garage or workshop, don’t forget to look up. Standard wire shelving from the home center makes great overhead shelving between ceiling joists. One of the great things about using wire shelves is that you can see right through them to see what is stored. Watch the video to see how it’s done. Watch this video.

It can be hard to find a place to store lumber that is out of the way while at the same time accessible. To solve this problem, overhead storage racks can be made using ¾” metal pipe and fittings. Watch this video.

Clear plastic storage boxes are great for holding nails, screws, and small hand tools in the shop. The removable dividers can be positioned to accommodate various length items while the clear plastic case allows you to easily see what’s stored inside. Watch this video.

Rolls of brown paper come in handy in the workshop, but it can be hard to find a convenient place to store and cut them. One solution is to screw two metal hooks horizontally to the wall of the shop far enough apart so the paper fits between them. Watch this video.

While ¾” metal pipe or thick wall conduit, make a strong closet rod that won’t sag, it’s not very attractive to look at. To improve the looks, cut a piece of 1″ diameter thin wall PVC pipe (SDR) to the length needed. After sanding the plastic pipe smooth, slide it over the metal pipe, and install in the closet. Not only does it look better, but clothes hangers will slide much easier over the slick plastic surface. Watch this video.

To mount a 1″ x 4″ shelf on a pegboard wall, drill holes in the back to accept straight pegboard hooks. Before drilling, hold the shelf up to the pegboard to make sure the holes align. Watch this video.

In a cramped bathroom, finding a place for a wastebasket can be a real challenge. One way to solve this problem is by mounting it on the inside of a cabinet door. This not only provides easy access, but hides the basket from view. Watch this video.

Removing the hanging rod and installing additional shelves will allow this closet to hold a lot more than clothes and Christmas ornaments. Since the room is being converted into a home office, the closet was modified to store a file cabinet and office supplies. Watch this video.

Closets typically have a hanging rod with a single shelf above it. This leaves several feet of wasted space near the ceiling that could be used more effectively for storage. While you could add cleats to the wall and another long shelf, a better solution is to make two side by side freestanding shelves out of 1” x 12” pine. Watch this video.

Fold-down ironing boards are a great way to reduce clutter in your laundry room. They’re a real timesaver as well, allowing you to keep your iron ready to go at a moment’s notice. They can either be surface mounted or recessed into the wall—as we’ll be doing here—for a low profile look. Watch this video.

If you’re tired of constantly untangling and tripping over your extension cord, try turning a 5-gallon plastic bucket into this handy cord caddy. To use, place the bucket near an electrical outlet and plug the end of the cord that extend through the hole into the outlet. It’s a good idea to spread the cord out during use to keep it from overheating. Watch this video.

If you spend a lot of time gardening, you know how handy a potting bench can be. Not only does it give you a convenient place to work with your plants, it also keeps the inevitable mess that goes with it confined to one spot. Watch this video.

While the garage is a great place for storage, it often becomes cluttered, making it hard to find what you need. Here are some easy projects to allow you to get even more storage space out of your garage while keeping it organized. Watch this video.

An important step in organizing your garage is to store large tools—like rakes, shovels, and wheelbarrows—so they’re easy to find when you need them but out of the way the rest of the time. Start by attaching a long board to the wall at eye level. Watch this video.

The dead space above a garage door is a perfect spot to store everything from ladders to extra pieces of lumber. To utilize it, first measure above the garage door to see how much room there is to the ceiling joists above it. Add the thickness of the joists to the length and cut the 2 x 4 hangers to that length. Watch this video.

Every homeowner can use more storage space, so we’ll show you how to add a shelf down each side of your garage. These shelves are located up high so they’ll be out of the way and need to meet the following criteria: They must be high enough so you don’t bump your head while walking under them. They must be low enough to accommodate whatever you plan to store on them. And most importantly, they must be sturdy enough to support the weight. Watch this video.

A pegboard wall makes a great way to hang your tools in the shop for easy access. When we had finished building the workbench across the back wall of the shop, we covered the wall space above it with pegboard. Watch this video.

While the garage often doubles as a home workshop, it’s hard to get much done without a sturdy workbench. This simple built-in bench runs the entire length of the garage wall and attaches directly to the exposed studs. It’s easy to build and can be completed in just a few hours. Here’s how it’s done. Watch this video.

Finding room in the kitchen to store the various bins needed for recycling can take up a lot of valuable cabinet space. Here Danny comes up with an innovative solution to the problem by installing chutes made from standard 4” dryer vent pipe that send cans and plastic bottles to bins located on a lower floor of the home. Watch this video.

Danny constructs a simple dumbwaiter using a garage door opener. Unlike expensive commercial models, this dumbwaiter only cost around $300, and it’s great for moving groceries when your garage is on a level below your house. Watch this video.

Organizing your kitchen cabinets to make it easy to find your food items is easy. We found that you can actually make small steps inside your kitchen cabinets to display canned goods so that you can actually see what’s in the back of the cabinet. Watch this video.

A workbench is certainly convenient to have in a garage but you don’t want it to interfere when it comes to parking your vehicle. We found that by attaching a pair of metal saw horses to a piece of ¾” thick 3′ x 5′ plywood with screws you can create a lightweight workbench to easily move out of the way. Regular wood saw horses would work too but using metal folding saw horses gives you the option to fold the workbench up and store it against a wall so that it is even further out of the way, or you can easily carry it to another location. Watch this video.

If you’re looking for ways to gain extra storage space, a basement staircase leading up to a first floor is an ideal spot. Very often these staircases have drywall on the inside of the stairwell while the outside is left with the framing exposed. This provides the perfect place to put in some 2×4 shelves. Watch this video.

The problem with storing fasteners in a shoebox or coffee can is that it creates a mess and makes it hard to find anything. Instead, use a cupcake pan and separate your washers, nuts and screws so that they are easy to find. To prevent the organizer from falling over or taking up valuable space in your garage or workshop, consider storing it on the underside of a workbench. Watch this video.

Disposing of unwanted paint can be difficult because paint is considered a hazardous waste in its liquid form (it can leech into ground water if dumped in a landfill in this form.) Here’s a tip for drying out paint to simplify disposal. Watch this video.

It’s inevitable that if you store your pots and pans with the lids on them, they won’t stay that way for long and you’ll find yourself constantly searching for the right lid to the right saucepan. Organize your pot and pan lids by creating a simple storage area for them. Watch this video.

Sometimes a hole is more than a hole; it’s a storage solution. For example, a 1×4 piece of wood mounted horizontally on the wall is perfect for screwdriver storage if it has well spaced, correctly sized holes drilled in it. The same concept works for nut drivers and chisels, but you’ll want slightly larger holes. Watch this video.

More and more tools these days are cordless, but from time to time you still need to plug a tool in. That usually leads to an extension cord strung across the garage or workshop floor which in turn leads to someone inevitably tripping over it. Watch this video.

Finding adequate storage space is a problem anywhere in the home but especially in garages and basements where the stuff that has nowhere else to go. If your garage, shop or storage area has exposed studs, here are some great storage solutions. Watch this video.

No matter how well your automobiles are maintained, an occasional oil drip is inevitable. Unfortunately, the stain usually remains long after the leak has been repaired. Watch this video.

A wet-dry vacuum is a great tool to have in the garage or workshop but moving it around is often problematic. Invariably we pull the vacuum around by the hose and one of two things happens: the hose pulls out of the vacuum or the whole thing tips over. Watch this video.

Pegboard is great to have in any garage or shop to hang your tools on, but to make it work properly you need to put wooden cleats around the back of it. The cleats allow the pegboard to remain off the wall so that you have room to put the hooks in. Watch this video.

Attics are all about storage, but rarely is the storage organized. Here’s a simple solution to take advantage of the open framing found in most attics. Create shelves for attic storage by building an “L” shaped support from 1×4s. One end of the “L” runs vertically attaching to the side of the roof rafter. The other end, running horizontally, attaches to the same rafter further down. Watch this video.

Every kitchen has a junk drawer and we can’t change that, but we may be able to help you organize your junk. Drawer organizers can be purchased from most home centers or discount stores but rarely do they allow you to truly customize the drawer space. The solution: create custom dividers using lattice strips (sizes vary but most are about 1/8′ thick and 1 ¼’ to 1 ¾’ wide). Layout the pattern you want and create interlocking joints by cutting notches in the lattice half the depth of the lattice and the full thickness. Hook them together and set them in place. Watch this video.

We all need more storage space and here’s a quick tip for formalizing that space you used as a child. The space under your bed doesn’t have to be just for hiding stuff you don’t want to put away. By adding casters to the underside of an old drawer you can recycle it to serve as under-bed storage. Before choosing casters be sure they won’t raise the drawer too high keeping it from easily rolling under the bed. Watch this video.

Here’s a simple solution to organizing the dirty laundry in your laundry room. Construct a custom shelf unit sized to hold three to five laundry hampers so clothes can be sorted upon arrival in the laundry room. Watch this video.