10 Minute Tuesday: Fixing a Kitchen Drawer

I posted recently about how I'd been on a bit of a home improvement hiatus. But... sometimes a project is born out of necessity, not because I think it will be fun or will make the house look nice. And that's what happened today! I was making some tasty pumpkin muffins with my son (ahh, fall!) when one of my kitchen drawers stopped opening all the way. It happens to be the drawer where I keep measuring cups and stuff like that, so it was sort of important to the whole baking process. After grumbling about it for a bit, I decided to have a little look-see at what was going on. And this is what I saw:

Yup. The dovetail joint holding the two sides together had come apart. Luckily, that's a pretty easy fix! I pulled everything out of the drawer (the most annoying part), and found our little squeeze bottle of yellow wood glue (side note: everybody should own wood glue. EVERYBODY!).

The next step was to apply the glue to the ends of the dovetails. I borrowed one of the kids' paintbrushes and went to work slathering it on there. I didn't worry about being neat with it, since it wipes off really easily with a wet paper towel (as long as you do it right away). I smooshed everything back into place and wiped up the glue:

And that was it! The whole thing took about five minutes. Everything stayed in place on its own, or else I would've clamped it. But in this case, that wasn't necessary. After some drying time, the drawer is as good as new. Success!!

10-Minute Tuesday: Organize Your Linen Closet!

This is part of a new series I'm starting-- quick and easy projects every Tuesday!

Ok, I am not the most organized person. I don't want people to open my closets, like, EVER! I try to keep the "visible" part of the house tidy, but the closets? I tend to shove things in there and pray the door closes. Guilty as charged. And I am sort of mortified that I am about to show you my linen closet. Because it was pretty bad!

Anyway, I saw these Sterilite crates at the store the other day-- for a whopping $3.50 each. So, I bought three. One of the crates has all the "grown-up" sheets, one has the "kid" sheets, and the other has rags and hand towels. And then I just pulled the rest of the stuff out and put it where it actually belonged (that box actually has a telescope in it... totally goes in the linen closet, right?). I also found about 4 cans of paint and some brushes. Not to mention the channel-lock pliers I've been looking for for MONTHS! (by the way, channel-lock pliers are useful for SO MANY things. We have at least two pairs around here somewhere. I think we need more.).

But yeah... it really didn't take long at all, and my sheets (which were the biggest problem) are all safely tucked away in their little green crates. My soul is happy. Plus, it'll be easier to paint this closet now. Maybe I should just suck it up and do that already... SIGH...

I also have room for a lot more stuff now! hmm... For an old house, we actually have a crazy amount of closets/storage. What else do you think I should put in there?