Beat bathroom clutter with soda tabs, a plastic cup and a couple of boards
Is your bathroom vanity covered in straighteners, crimpers, curlers and blow dryers? This simple organizer wrangles your hair appliances and more.
Yes, you can build this shelf!
Even the most basic of builders can create this shelf organizer for their hair appliances, accessories and more. All you need are some boards that you can have pre-cut at your home improvement store, some basic tools and a few items you can find around the house.
What you need
Here are the items you will need to build this bathroom shelf organizer:
- 2 pieces of wood that are 3 feet by 1 inch by 6 inches (1m by 2.5cm by 15.2cm)
- Box of 1.5-inch finishing nails (38mm)
- Hammer
- 3 soda can tabs
- 3 half-inch (13mm) screws
- Drill
- Phillipshead drill bit
- 1-inch (25mm) spade bit
- Pencil
- Fine grit sandpaper
- 1 disposable plastic cup
- 7 to 10 large cup hooks
Nail the boards together
Nail the second board to the first so that it is 1.5 inches (38mm) down from the top to form a T-shape.
Drill some holes
To create a slot for most curling irons, drill a hole into the board using the spade bit. Curling irons that have a barrel of an inch or more and larger hair appliances will need a bigger hole.
Trace your appliances
To create a large hole for larger appliances, hold your appliance against the shelf and trace around the largest part of the handle with a pencil.
Make room for everything
Drill a hole into the center of the traced area. Then drill holes right next to the first hole, making the holes connect, to cut out the rest of the area. If you have a skill saw, you can make this process easier by drilling a hole in the center of the traced area and then cutting out the rest of the hole using your skill saw. For the demonstration I made the holes both ways. They don't need to be perfect because no one will really see the holes when they are full of hair appliances.
Sand and paint
Sand down any rough areas. Spray paint the shelf and let dry for at least 3 hours.
Add cup hooks
Screw in the cup hooks below the holes for the cords of the appliances. The cords of the appliances can loop around the cup hooks for neat storage.
Create hangers for the shelf by screwing the soda tabs into the back portion of the shelf. Chances are, the screw head is too small and will through the hole in the soda tab. Create a washer from a plastic cup to fix the problem. Simply cut out a small triangle of cup and place it in-between the screw and tab while you are attaching the tab to the board. The larger hole will be for hanging the shelf on the wall. Bend the soda tab slightly away from the board for easier hanging. You will need three hangers, evenly spaced, along the back of the shelf for stability.
Bonus tip!
Here's an extra tip to make your organizer even more handy. Add a strip of magnetic tape to the edge of the shelf to organize bobby pins, hair clips and safety pins.