Winter Project: Basement Cleanup and Reorganization

Over the past 4.5 years I've been in my wee little house, I've slowly been fixing it up. One of the first things I did was finish the basement; a good half of it became my craft room. The other part became a bit of a dumping ground of stuff. One of my winter projects is to go through the stuff and reduce the volume of stuff with the goal of creating a more usable space at the other end of the craft room, potentially as an exercise area. I workout at a gym 2-3 times a week but I would like to do more yoga and core exercise at home. I've been doing this upstairs but it means moving furniture out of the way.

Because I don't have a driveway or front yard, some sort of yard or garage sale isn't really an option, so I've been donating and listing some stuff for sale. Once all the extra stuff is gone, I'll need to look at better storage options for the stuff I would like to keep in the basement. For one person, I really don't need so much stuff and I've been evaluating the stuff I do have and thinking about the relationship I have with my stuff. I'm hoping the end result of this process will be a space I'll look forward to using more.

Credenza drawer project

When I moved into my new house, I knew I wanted a vintage credenza to use as a TV/entertainment unit, to store CDs, DVDs, photo albums, gadgets and other odds and ends, and received one as a gift. With having cats, I thought it would be best to hide as many cables as possible. So I took it upon myself to see if I could adapt one of the drawers to allow access to the cable box. I knew what I wanted to do and had an idea of what kind of hardware I would need, but just wasn't sure if it would work. After getting some advice and spending less than $10 at my local big box store, I managed to turn the drawer front into a flap that opens on hinges, and stays closed with a magnetic clasp.

The first thing I had to do was remove the front panel of the drawer, which was fairly simple, but I did have to saw off some of the wood from the sides of the drawer that were slotted into the drawer front. I then drilled a hole in the back of the drawer and a corresponding hole in the back of the cabinet for cable access. This allowed me use some of my fancy tools, including the circle cutter!

The tricky part was figuring out how to place the hinges so the drawer front would have enough clearance so it could actually open.

Ta da! It worked. With the door closed you wouldn't know it has been modified. In total I think this took me about half an hour.  I also changed the drawer handles.