How to Make a Custom Organizer for a Child's Closet

Ron stopped off in the town of Danville, located on San Francisco's East Bay, to visit the home of long time friends Bill and Susan Drummond. Their daughter Jennie wanted to create some better storage in her closet for clothes, toys and games and her brother Billy agreed to help her. Ron designed an easy-to-build modular system that featured adjustable shelves and a closet rod to hang clothes. The kids really got involved in this one, and the results were very…organized!

Click here for a list of what you will need in order to complete this project.

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1. Make a drawing:

• Good organization begins with a good plan and Jennie had a very clear idea of what she wanted and prepared a detailed drawing to show Ron her ideas.

• Based on Jennie's drawing, Ron prepared a sketch of his own, which he went over with the kids just to make sure that he understood their plan correctly.

• Jennie's closet organizer would consist of three sections. The ends of each section would have wooden legs...

• ...connected together with lengths of copper pipe.

• Those ends would then be attached to each other with more copper pipe to form a free-standing frame.

• Finally, adjustable shelves would be added...

• ...and the three free standing sections would be connected together.

2. Cut wood:

• After they had all agreed on the plan, they were ready to cut the uprights or legs to form the ends of their structure. Billy used a tape measure and measured and marked seven feet with a carpenter's pencil.

• Ron showed them how to use a Japanese handsaw to cut the wood where it had been marked.

• Ron asked Bill and Susan to help the kids with the next step, which was marking the locations for the holes into which they would insert the copper pipes. For accuracy, they clamped the four uprights together and used a carpenter's square to draw a single line across all four legs at once.

• It was important that the holes for the ½ inch copper pipe were straight and perpendicular to the surface of the wood. To help them get the accuracy they needed, they used a portable drill press, which attached to the hand drill and helped keep everything in alignment. They only drilled part of the way through the wood, which would keep the ends of the pipe from showing and prevent them from sliding out.

• After drilling the first set of holes, they rotated the uprights and began to bore the second set. This second set of holes was for the ¾ ince copper pipe stretchers that would connect the ends together. Since this copper pipe was a bit larger, they used a larger drill bit.

4. Cut copper pipe:

• After they measured and marked the copper pipe, Ron showed them how to use a pipe cutter. He clamped the cutter to the pipe and then rotated it around the pipe and tightened it slightly with each rotation. Then he let Jennie give it a try.

5. Assembly:

• They began the assembly process by squeezing polyester glue into the holes for the cross pieces and then added the pipes to form their first section.

• After assembling all of the end sections, it was time to connect them together to form free standing frames. To do this, they once again applied glue to the holes, inserted the stretchers into one end section and then set the other end section on top. They repeated the process three more times before their framework was complete.