If you have an unfinished basement, a garage or a storage shed, you can store much more in it if you have shelves. Built-in shelves are great, but if you’re renting or want the flexibility to rearrange the shelving units, you might want to make some free-standing shelves. Here’s a simple method for building some inexpensive storage shelves — and you can build them without power tools.

Materials to make two shelving units:

• 1 1/2-inch-thick sheet of plywood or oriented strand board (OSB). A full sheet is 4-feet-by-8-feet. Cost: about $7.50
• 16 8-foot 2-by-4s. Cost: $1.85 x 16 = $29.60
• 5 pounds of 3-inch deck screws. Cost: $28.24. You could probably find cheaper screws.

Process:

1) Cut the 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet of plywood or OSB into six pieces that are 4 feet by 16 inches. This requires five cuts. The lumberyard or building center might cut the plywood for you if you don’t have a power saw. Accounting for the width of the saw blade, these pieces will be slightly less than 16 inches wide.

2) Cut 12 pieces of 2-by-4 to 13 inches.

3) Cut six of the 2-by-4s in half. These will be slightly less than 48 inches.

4) Make six frames for the shelves. Put the 13-inch pieces between the ends of the 48-inch pieces and join each corner with two screws.

5) Attach the plywood pieces to the tops of the shelf frames with screws — two on each long side at least, more if you’d like. Note that the OSB will likely have a smooth side and a rough side. Keep this in mind as you attach it to the frames. Either side will work — this is only personal preference.

6) Attach an 8-foot 2-by-4 to each corner of the shelves, three shelves per unit. Use two or three screws per joint. You can pick a height for each shelf that works for you. Try to keep the shelves as level as possible.

7) Set the shelves in place.

Tips:

• For safety, attach at least one corner leg to a ceiling joist or something secure to stabilize the unit.
• If the shelving units aren’t perfectly level, you can use shims to level them — or use the method for leveling a table from Build Your Own Table (scroll down to “Make Your Table Stable”).
• The legs can be shorter than 8 feet. You might want to trim these to fit your space. I cut 13 inches from each and used those pieces for the frames, so I had longer leftover pieces.

Bicycle riding is popular all over the country in rural, suburban and urban settings. More and more cities are recognizing the need for bike lanes and special bike paths to accommodate the growing number of cyclists.

But on occasion, there is not a safe place to ride in your community or you would like to take your bikes on the road, so to speak. In which case, you may have need of a bike rack to transport your cycle. Sure, you can buy a ready-made rooftop bike carrier, but why not save a little dough and fabricate one yourself? A bicycle is a sustainable mode of transportation and making your own bike rack from scrap material is just part of a sustainable lifestyle.

Heating your home with a wood-fired stove or furnace can be a great way to cut down on gas or electric heating costs. But the process of getting the firewood for the stove is not always an easy task. You could choose to have the wood delivered to you split and ready to go; but this will no doubt cost almost as much as heating the conventional way.

To really save money by using wood heat, you need to gather, cut and split some, if not all, of the wood yourself. This requires an investment in equipment — chainsaw, sawbuck, hardhat, ear protectors and perhaps a log lifter to raise heavy, long logs off the ground for easier and safer cutting. To save even more money, you might consider fabricating the log lifter in your home shop. If you don’t know how to weld, this might make a great project to learn the basic skills. Some community colleges offer welding classes or you might find a local welding shop that is willing to teach you how.

If you make this log lifter or if you have fabricated other logging equipment, tell us about it in the comments section, below.

Summer is over, so many of you may be thinking of projects that didn’t get done during nice weather: expanding the vegetable garden, repairing the front porch steps or even building a backyard deck.

But don’t lament what didn’t get done — plan how you’ll get it done when the weather warms again. 

I’m considering putting a small deck adjacent to my house’s patio, one that would dry quickly after a Midwest spring rain. First things first, I need to decide upfront how much time and energy I can put into this outdoor building project. What’s most pressing for me to figure out is the footings, which go into the ground and support the legs or posts of the deck.

I could dig 3-foot deep holes and fill them with cement, making sturdy and freeze-resistant piers. This is a good idea, as I certainly don’t want the deck to warp and weave in response to seasonal changes.

On the other hand, I could use deck blocks, which sit on top of a base of fine gravel. They’re easy to move around, require no digging and allow the project to move along more quickly. However, they are susceptible to frost heaving. But if I think it’s possible this deck wouldn’t be permanent, it would be easier to take it apart and relocate it if I used deck blocks.

Have you built a deck? What approach did you take to support the posts? Are you dreaming of building a deck? Share your experiences and plans by posting a comment below.

My daughter lives in an apartment in New York City. As you can imagine, space is at a premium and any piece of furniture that can serve more than one function is likely to be a winner. I was taken with the highchair they bought when my granddaughter was old enough to sit up in one. It looks a bit like a step stool, but is actually a multilevel highchair that will be functional for many years.

The chair design in the 1986 article, The Family-strength Highchair, offers similar advantages. It has an adjustable tray for the youngest years or can be used as a high-chair as the child is ready to join the family at the dinner table. Once you’ve built this chair, you’ll want to make one for every household in your family with small children. It will be an heirloom gift that will last for generations.

Have you ever wanted to make your own paper for invitations or special hand-written note cards? Many books and articles have been written on how to make paper, but what distinguishes this How to Make Homemade Paper article from the rest is it encourages the use of newspaper destined for the landfill or recycle bin to be used as the raw material for your new handmade paper.

This is the perfect "re-cycle project:" newspaper, perhaps itself made from recycled paper, is used to create the pulp from which your new heavy-duty note paper is made. It’s fun and easy to do — a great project for these cool fall evenings at home with the family. After the paper has dried, you can use some autumn or Halloween-themed rubber stamps to jazz up your new homemade cardstock.

Consider this image — you have a new pair of boots that fit like a glove and are oh-so comfortable, but it’s time to take them off. You bend over, grab the heel and pull … not a wiggle. OK, try it sitting down. Put your foot on your knee, push down on the back of the heel and pull up on the toe … nothing.

Or, you can use a bootjack — a V-shaped piece of metal or wood that you put the heel of one boot into, while stepping on the back of the jack with the other foot. This allows you to stay standing with your foot straight, giving the best leverage for getting your heel up and out of the boot.

You can purchase a fancy metal bootjack from a farm store or you can make one yourself from a branch and a scrap of wood. Here’s a design for a forked-limb bootjack you can put together in a couple of minutes.

Purchasing the materials for a DIY project can involve making a number of decisions. For instance, if you’re building a backyard deck, you can choose from a range of materials that are inexpensive, but may last for only a couple of years, to expensive composite wood that can last a decade or more.

Decks can be constructed from high-end composite lumber, soft pine, durable cedar or redwood, or inexpensive slab lumber from a local sawmill. And the wood doesn’t have to be new; you might find it at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore or tear down an old building for the lumber. Each type of wood has advantages and disadvantages — price and durability are the key factors to weigh in your decision.

When you’re deciding on the materials for an outdoor wooden project, are you more apt to be swayed by cost or durability? Share your experiences in the comments section, below.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

I decided to build some cheap shelves for the basement and was cutting some 2-by-4s on the floor when the saw kicked back. I wasn’t injured, but it was a stupid thing to do. Using sawhorses to keep the wood in position is much safer, so I decided to build a pair.

I used the $6 sawhorses (Build the World's Best $6 Sawhorse?) as a model, but changed a few things to fit my needs. (The sawhorse plans are in the Image Gallery for that article.) You can build these with hand or power tools. I used a combination. Here’s how I built the sawhorses step by step:

Make the Top

Cut the following pieces of 2-by-4 to length.
4 pieces, 10 3/8 inches long (this is slightly more than the original plan)
2 pieces, 14 inches long
2 pieces, 19 inches long
2 pieces, 36 1/5 inches long (this is slightly more than the original plan)

Lay out the longest pieces with a 10 3/8-inch piece on top of the ends to make a rectangle. Square up the corners and attach with four 2 1/2-inch screws at each joint. I had to pre-drill the holes to avoid splitting the pine, even though I was using self-tapping deck screws.

Put the other two 10 3/8-inch pieces in the middle of the rectangle. You’ll know where these fit if you put the 14- and 19-inch pieces on top of them for reference. The 14- and 19-inch pieces should reach the ends, leaving a 3 1/2-inch gap in the middle. This gap is wide enough to fit a 2-by-4, but should be narrow enough that the foot of your circular saw will bridge the gap. (In the original plans, this gap was only 3 inches, but I thought I might want to put a 2-by-4 between the two sawhorses sometime, so I made it a little wider.) Attach the middle 10 3/8-inch pieces with four 2 1/2-inch screws at each joint.

Now attach the 14- and 19-inch pieces. Make sure the space between these is 3 1/2 inches; put a 2-by-4 between them to make sure it fits snuggly without binding. Secure each joint with three 2 1/2-inch screws, but keep them 1 1/2 inches from the outside edges. In the next step, you’re going to cut the bevel for the legs, and the screws would get in the way if they’re too close to the edge.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

Cut the Bevel for the Legs

Mark the edges of the top with a bevel gauge. I was trying for a 7-degree angle. If you don’t have a bevel gauge, cut a template from a piece of plywood or 1-by-2. Measure 12 inches along a factory edge of the board or plywood. Using a square, make a mark 1 1/2 inches from the edge. Draw a line from the mark to the starting corner to make a triangle; cut along this line. The narrow angle of this piece is about 7 degrees.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

Mark the top of the sawhorses as in the photo. Mark the angles on the ends; then, straight lines on the top. I wanted the legs to splay out 7 degrees for more stability, so I marked the sides for this, too.

You could cut out these pieces with a saw, but you’d be cross-cutting one 2-by-4 (against the grain) and ripping two 2-by-4s (with the grain). Cutting this by hand is hard work (I tried it). A circular saw will leave a rounded cut where you stop, so that’s not the best solution. You also could make all the cuts before assembling the pieces, but you have to keep the angles consistent and measurements precise.

The quickest and easiest method is to make the bevel cut nearest the center of the sawhorse with a handsaw and chisel out the waste of the pieces you’d be ripping if you used a saw. After you’ve chiseled those two boards, use a handsaw to cut the middle board. (Most handsaws are designed for crosscutting, not ripping.)

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

Cut only to the mark you made on the top. This photo shows the top of the   sawhorse facing the person making the cut. The saw angles down so that it   barely cuts the wood at the back of this cut. Cutting it from the other side would   be a more natural sawing position.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

Don’t be afraid to use a chisel! Take off little bits at a time — an eighth of an inch   or less. If you’ve never used a chisel before, this is a great project to try it out.

PHOTO BY TROY GRIEPENTROG

After you've removed waste from the outside 2-by-4s with a chisel, cut the middle   2-by-4 with a crosscut saw.

Cutting the Legs

Use the bevel gauge or template to mark the ends of four 2-by-4s. This will have two bevels (if you look down on the finished sawhorse from the top, the legs will jut off from the corners at an angle, not just to the side or front and back of the sawhorse). Before you make the cut, check that your lines match the notches in the top of the sawhorse.

Measure 32 inches from your first cut and mark matching bevels. Check against the notch in the top of the sawhorse again. Depending on your height, you may want to make the legs shorter or longer. Remember it’s easier to cut more off later than to add wood back.

Attach each leg with six 2 1/2-inch screws.

The cross braces add strength to the sawhorse. You can use 1-by-4s, 1-by-6s or 2-by-4s. Attach these to the legs with two 2 1/2-inch screws at each joint.

I leveled the sawhorses using a method for leveling table legs described in Build Your Own Tables. (Read Make Your Table Stable at the end of that article.)

Read Circular Saw Safety Tips to learn more about using the sawhorses safely.

I’ve recently started testing the Power 8 Workshop. This 18-volt rechargeable tool package includes a circular saw, drill/driver, jigsaw and flashlight. The setup includes two batteries and the charging station. But the thing that really sets this package apart is that you can attach the power tools to a small table (it also functions as a toolbox) to make a small table saw, drill press and scroll saw.

I haven’t tested the tabletop features yet, but I’ve drilled pilot holes for screws and driven up to 3-inch screws with the drill/driver. The keyless chuck is convenient. The batteries recharge quickly; I haven’t had to stop working to wait for a fresh battery.

The blade of the circular saw is to the left of the handle — an important safety feature that most saws don’t have. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s a good feature. The saw cuts just deep enough to get through a 2-by-4. Sometimes it leaves a sixteenth inch of wood at the bottom of the cut. Cutting dry cedar 1-by-6s was easy.

Have you seen similar rechargeable tool packages or tried the Power 8 Workshop? How do you like them?

The old house I just moved into doesn’t have screens for most of its windows. The storm windows are separate — they aren’t integrated with the main window frames. I enjoy having windows open whenever possible, but prefer to have screens to keep out the flying bugs.

I’ve thought about trying to figure out how to make a wooden-framed screen to insert into the window frame. But, in all honesty, I am not very good at envisioning how to do this. A do-it-yourself book might show me how, but I think I’d be more successful if one of the home improvement stores offered a class on making wooden window frames. I’ll have to check out the classes from my local stores to see if anything along those lines is available. Knowing how to do wood joinery with mitered corners would be a useful skill.

Both Home Depot and Lowe's offer classes and clinics on common household DIY projects. Check their websites for ones scheduled in your area.

What’s the DIY project in your home that you most want to do, but haven’t yet? What’s holding you back? Time? Money? Knowledge? Share what you dream of remodeling or fixing by posting a comment below.

Craft, sewing and woodworking projects are popular as hobbies, and to create useful household projects and special gifts. Occasionally, a project is so popular that the creator is able to turn the hobby or craft into a successful home-based business.

These three DIY projects have been notable favorites of Mother Earth News readers: “Build Your Own Mailbox,” “Old-timey Toys” and “Sunbonnet How-to: Make Your Own Sunbonnet in Less than Two Hours.”

Are you good with your hands? Have you created a successful home business based on a great craft or DIY project? Tell your story in the comments section below.

I needed to hang a picture last weekend and went to the kitchen junk drawer to get my most favorite hammer – an upholstery hammer. Thirty five years ago I took a reupholstering class and this hammer was a required tool.

I use this hammer on simple household repair projects – it’s lightweight and has a magnet on one of the hammer ends – making it convenient for delicate household projects. I would be lost without it in my fix-it tool kit.

What is your all-time favorite fix-it tool? Tell us in the comments section below.

That's right. It's too late to get any backordered Sarah Palin glasses. But somehow you've done it again — waited to the very last minute to cobble together a decent costume for that party tonight. Well, this awesome resource might help: Costume Idea Zone. They've got tons of easy costume concepts, and clearly it's OK with them if you steal their ideas!

Wanna go dressed as "Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Showers"? Easy peasy. Just stick cotton balls all over your blue outfit, and carry a spray bottle everywhere you go.

How about "Mucho Dinero," the guy with printouts of Robert DeNiro all over his clothes?

Not impressed yet? Try a "Running Nose." Wear a track suit and write 'No' all over yourself.

Yeah, yeah, these are costumes for the pun-inclined and laaaaazzzyyyy. But if you're here right now, I'm betting you're a lazy costumer. So check out the Costume Idea Zone. And please post your other costume ideas in our comments section below.

See also:  Orange and Black and Green — 5 Tips for an Eco-friendly Halloween