Cardboard

I took a 3d-sculpture class a few years ago, and one of the most valuable lessons I took from it was the power of prototyping with cardboard. The shelving unit of this project involves large slats of wood, and any mistakes in my measurements would be expensive, and time consuming. Instead, I chose to use my blueprints to cut into cardboard first, and then to cut my wood based on this carboard cutout.

The price for this? Free. Dumpster diving for large sheets of cardboard is surprisingly easy, and really rather clean. Many companies have two dumpsters, one for garbage, and one for the the cardboard and packaging from their receiving departments. Colleges as well are great locations to snipe out dumpsters marked 'cardboard.'

I dumpster dove, and found a great large box perfect for the size I was looking for. The bowas still assembled, and was full of huge staples. After carefully removing these, I unfolded the box and taped the open sides closed so I had one sheet large enough for the blueprint.

After consulting my blueprints, (below) and carefully marking and cutting, I pulled out a pretty accurate design, perfect for the wood I'll be cutting. And as the real test, it fits perfectly into the space it's supposed to:

Again, my favorite thing about cardboard is that is has a lot of give. I did have one fairly large mistake in my blueprint, and this became apparent quickly. I simply cut out a new strip, taped it to the edge with the mistake, and I have a quick guide for the wood cutting on how to rectify that mistake! Excellent. In the picture below, it looks like there is a lot of extra space in between the dresser, and there is. When i'm finished, i'll be wedging the dresser directly against this.

The Closet

I'm somewhat embarrassed to show the closet in its current state, but for posterity's sake, a few before shots:


I have shots of the whole room in its pre-anything dirty state, and its pre-shelving disarray state, but I'll hoarding those until I can compare them to what the finished room has become.

The finished and tested final blueprint for what I will be building in the closet. Again, I may curve the long edge of the slats, but that will be a choice I make as I cut.

Precise Blueprint - Details

A close-up of how the wrap-around will look on the smaller shelves. I really like the look, and hope it will turn out better


How the shelves will be mounted to the wall. The larger shelves will have supprts on both sides, and if needed, a cross-slat.


I may choose to curve the edges of each shelf, and may even vary the sive of the curve to create an artistic shape. Sketchup doesn't do curves very well, however, and that will be a choice I make as I cut.

Small Update

Work is progressing on the items I have to do. I've acquired the tools needed to move my clothesline up, and using a large piece of cardboard, cut out the exact shape I need for the pieces I will be cutting out soon.

Fleshed-out Problem

Deciding what I really need to change beyond the obvious - the layout of my closet, the placement of my bed, etc - has been fairly difficult. Changing much more really alters the layout of what I moved into originally. I organized the entirety of my space yesterday afternoon, getting rid of unused clothing and objects, organizing my receipts and general filing, etc. I think I need to do a few more things, and these will be added to my plans:

1. Move my current closet hanger line up a foot. I'm a tall fellow, and moving clothing up high will allow for more space below, on the portions i'm building.
   
2. I moved my dresser askance, like in the drafted pre-plan, and it's deeper than I planned for. This means I need to change my plan for the shelving units, to account for its new angle.
3. My bed. My king-size bed needs change, and I don't know what yet. It's huge, and distracting, and ugly, but I don't think something as simple as new sheets or something silly will fix it.
   
4. I need a better way to file away important documents. Shopping trip time.

My next job is to make perfectly accurate plans for the shelves, accounting for exactly what I want them to store and house.

Problem and possible solutions

Problem:

Living spaces are deeply personal. When presented with a situation that removes personality and/or privacy, those who wish to live unique and private lives are often uncomfortable. My current living situation is a perfect metric of this scenario. I have a room, but the areas surrounding this room are not, in any way, private. To make matters worse, as I am forced to live in relative solitude in this single room, I feel that my space is controlled by the objects I keep, as opposed to controlling a space with objects. I wish to make my personal surroundings more reminiscent of my personal style, more personal, and less cramped.

Solutions:

1: Move. Simply uproot myself to a better situation. Perhaps the only solution that fixes the fact that I live out of a room.

2: Destroy. Get rid of excess, and learn to live simpler. Donate books and clothing, get rid of excess furniture, (especially furniture I only use when hosting) hide excess I stubbornly refuse to get rid of into the closet, under the bed, etc. Perhaps store excess in the outside shed.

3: Organize/Beautify. Build/purchase storage units, for all the excess I rarely use. Get rid of my oversized bookshelf, and box up books and store them in the closet. Build shelving units into the stark closet, adding texture and color. Coat the walls with something personal, but not tacky. Paint.

DIY: Planning Stages

I've decided that a shelving unit in my closet will be a good start for organization. I've never done construction of really any sort, so I took the time to plan out exactly how I want to build these. I dont think I got the measurements quite perfect, and I need to Figure out how thick and how many shelves I actually want, but this is my first draft, and will probably be fairly close to what I end up building. I like how the outer shelves project higher than the inside shelves. This is to leave room for hanging clothing!

My closet currently:
The Plan:

Clutter

I'm dead tired of living in clutter. It's not that i live messily, it's that I have so much raw material in such a small space. It's genuinely hard to even organize it all, let alone make it look good. I've gotten into a bit of a habit, and it's gotta stop. I can't let myself let my mass of objects dictate how the space I live in works.

I've gotta beautify, organize, and hide. I have spaces where objects I rarely if ever use can be hidden, and I need to take advantage of them. Storage units need to be less prominent, etc. I need to make everything make sense, and make prominent those items I actually want see. I need to take advantage of my closet. build some shelving units. I need more ideas!

Mindmap