Organising a Gift Wrapping Cart / Station

I like having a selection of wrapping paper and bags in our house ready for when I have to organize a gift for someone or my daughter or son need to wrap items when they are staying with us .

However for quite some time I've been complaining that I couldn't find the items I was sure I had already bought and I seemed to be wasting a lot of time searching around trying to remember where I had put them.

So when I saw a wooden kitchen cart for sale on Facebook marketplace and I knew it was a really good price I had the idea of creating a Gift wrapping Cart or Station as our American friends would call it.

I know I am not the only person who buys things in advance.

I know I am not the only person who puts them away somewhere which seems to be logical.

I know I am not the only person who hunts around frantically looking for the items I bought and put away in a logical place but now I can't find them.

Obviously I am not as organised as I would like to be or need to be.

So I really needed to organise my wrapping paper and gift bags

I had made a first attempt at getting everything together some months before I saw the kitchen cart advertised but it was not a great success.

The bags had been gathered up and put into this plastic 3 drawer container and it did hold many bags that were not too big

BUT

there were a few reasons why this was not a success

1.   There was a piece broken off at the bottom corner of one of the drawers and was quite rough so I had to remember not to grab the drawer at the corner.

2.   It was reasonably fine for holding bags which were not not large - I still need somewhere to put the really large bags I had.   (you know the bargains we buy when we see them)


3.   I do like to use gift bags as much as I can but the younger kids within the family tend to prefer paper wrapping on their presents so that they can tear it off as quickly and roughly as possible and the only way to keep paper in this set of drawers would be to have sheets folded up and although I do have sheets like this I do hate folds in the paper on presents.

    So Mostly I buy rolls of paper and they would just be too long to fit in the drawers so they were still in a green bag I had bought some years ago however each time I took out a roll even though I would put it back into the bag (eventually) I would often leave the bag down somewhere and then forget exactly where I had left it the next time I needed it.

4.   I also have tissue paper to use in the gift bags and it is always folded so it will in the drawers okay but when I hunt through a drawer for a suitable bag or paper or tissue I found that the tissue paper got rather messed about.

5.   Then I needed to keep gift tags somewhere plus sellotape and string and ribbon and bows and scissors.

6.    The main reason that I disliked my choice of the plastic drawers was not the actual drawers but the difficulty in moving the set of drawers as they were not on castors and the fact that castors could not be attached because of the style of the bottom of them and also that it was too low to do wrap anything on top of it.

So a sturdy wooden cart on castors with shelves 

and a rail

and a drawer

and has a top that could be used for wrapping

was looking great to me.

I am a great lover of baskets for storage and have in the past grabbed up some bargains when I have seen them so I knew I had baskets which could work with this cart.


I had 3 sets of these 3 baskets which were in 3 sizes.

I also had a lovely box which had come with Gin Sing as a gift from our in-laws in South Korea and it could be put to use with the cart too.

So how would I go about using the box & baskets?


Would I put a basket on each of the 3 shelves?

Would I put 2 baskets and the box on the shelves?

It would really depend on what was in the baskets and how they would fit into the shelves once they had the contents filling them.


So what I had would have to be sorted into types and sizes starting with the gift bags.


A lot of my gift bags were of the same size and I started to place them in the largest of my baskets

but there were many others as well

so they had to be grouped into 2 lots to be put in the other two smaller baskets.



Then the papers

and the tissue papers

Because of the more flimsy nature of the paper and especially the tissue paper I decided they should probably be all in the Box and I knew they would all fit well in there.

The box was able to sit on the top of the cart or it could go on the top shelf so a choice had to be made about that.

But before that I had that other paper to cope with - the rolls of paper but I knew exactly how I was going to store them and yes it was on the cart okay.

In fact those rolls were one of the reasons I was really drawn to using that cart because I knew they could sit upright resting on on of the shelves and held on by the side rail or handle.

So that after they were put on the cart I had to decide about the final placing of the box and the baskets.

Would it be box on top with baskets on the shelves

except that the top shelf would not hold the basket due to height so I had to take the gift bags out and lay them flat on the shelf.


Or

Would it be box on the top shelf with largest basket on the top and other two baskets on the bottom 2 shelves?

However 2 things were left to finish off

1.  How would the drawer be used?

2.  What about the really large bags I also had that never fit into anything?


Well

The drawer will hold all the gift tags, scissors, sellotape, pens etc. that we also need to have a fully working wrapping cart / station but at the moment I do need to go out and buy some more gift tags or make some as I only have about 2 left.

and as for the very large bags this picture of the finished project will explain about them

Now if anyone has any ideas what I could use the long ties (see pic below) that came around the sets of baskets for I would be grateful for your suggestions just let me know in the comments because I hate to not use something and hate to throw something out when it might be useful later.

Erecting a New Garden Shed

If you missed the first post about our old wooden shed (which was quite some time ago) then head over to

Demolishing a Garden Shed 

first and if you don't want to read the whole post you can just watch the short time-lapse video.

Then last month ago I posted about the

Preparation for a New Garden Shed  

so you might like to click above and see the work involved there before we tackle the actual process of putting up our new shed.


We got rid of a wooden shed but we have now replaced it with a larger metal shed.

I am not going to say this project was easy, nor am I going to say it was FUNWORK because it wasn't but I am going to say that it was not me who had the hard work to do and we were all happy to see the job completed and also there was a great sense of satisfaction.


We bought a Yardmaster Shed and of course the first thing Fred did was to check up on any videos for tips on erecting one of these.

So to be completely honest about it all

The videos we found made it look easier than it really was!!

One guy seemed to be implying that he did it all himself except for when his wife helped him to lift up and carry over and place on the roof frame.

His shed was the size smaller than ours but after tackling this project we can say without a doubt that two people are needed for more than one part.

All the thanks is due to Fred & Daniel who did all the hard work.

The work was done over four days - not 4 full days due to Daniel having to work part of the time and because of breaks because of rain (we do live in Northern Ireland!).

Day One 

Fred was on his own except for when he asked me to check something with him.


First Stage  -  Organising Materials.

Unpacking of the three boxes, checking everything accounted for, laying out on paved area and patio table.

This kind of thing always takes longer than anyone would think.



Second Stage  -  Building Base Frame.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  attaching the various lengths of the base frame together,  placing base frame on the concreted area.

The important thing here was to make sure that the electric and water connections were inside and not too close to any of the frame.

Happily Fred had measured and placed the connections carefully during the pouring of the cement base.



Third Stage  -  Building the Roof.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  forming the front and back sections of the roof.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  completing the roof framework.

I did have to go out and help here as it was easier for Fred to make the connections while I held parts together for him.

This was all that was completed on the first day.

The next stages would definitely need two good workers.



Day Two

Daniel came for the afternoon and evening to help his dad.


Fourth Stage  -  Frame Uprights.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  joining the uprights to the base.

Because (at this stage) the base is not yet pinned down, the uprights can easily tilt and move the frame.  We live at the top of a hill so I had to frequently give a hand with steading the framework when the wind decided to blow through.

This part was rather tedious and time consuming.

Fifth Stage  -  Bottom Wall Panels.

Reading instructions,  checking for top and bottom of the panels,  slotting the panels between the uprights and screwing them in place.

Sixth Stage  -  Attaching Roof Frame.

Lifting and carrying over the roof frame, placing it on in exactly the right position and attaching it to the other framework.

Definitely a two-man job and glad they are both tall guys.

Seventh Stage  -  Side Panels.

Attaching the remaining side panels.

Easier and quicker paced here because they had got the hang of it earlier.

One man inside and one outside really helped here.



Day Three 

Daniel had to work so I had to help Fred but we didn't need any heavy work here.


Eighth Stage  -  Attaching Roof Panels.

Very repetitive job because there are quite a few panels to be placed and many, many screws and washers to be applied.

There are two clear panels to provide light into the shed.

Day Four 

Daniel was back to help for the final stages.


Ninth Stage  -  Attaching Sliding Doors.

Both Daniel and Fred had to work together to attach the sliding doors.

Tenth Stage  -  Securing Shed to Concrete Base.

Holes had to be drilled into the concrete at the corners and along the sides of the shed base frame.

Then the shed was bolted to the base.

Eleventh Stage  -  Filling the Shed.

All three of us then put all the things back into the shed from where we had been keeping them in the garage.

There was so much more room for them in the new shed and now there was more room in the garage again so a very happy result.




Fred of course made a short Time-lapse video this time again each day but we will not bore you with 4 days worth this time.


I don't think even I could describe this job as Funwork over Housework as it was very time consuming and hard work on us all.   But it was a job that had to be done.

Patio Furniture Restored

The Patio furniture was all rusted so the question was...


"Do we need to go buy new Patio Furniture?"


"Well no, not at all!"   is the answer.

We had bought a wrought iron Patio Set 2 years ago and a cover to go over it to protect it in the winter time.

I chose it because of the blue and white mosaic pattern which I really like and I knew it would brighten up our patio.

The first winter we dutifully put the cover over the 4 chairs and the table but we had a very very stormy winter and so the wind would catch under the cover and sometimes was strong enough to actually move the set.

Several times we would have to go out and fix the cover back into position and sometimes move the table and chairs back too.  Hence, because we are a lazy couple we got fed up with that and then last winter we didn't bother to put on the cover at all.

Well that was a big mistake because this summer we really noticed the rust taking hold on our otherwise sturdy chairs and we were not a happy couple then.

So I got on the internet and did some reading round the great DIY blogs that are out there to find out what we could do to get rid of the rust and save our Patio Set.
Having done that I proceeded to tell Fred that we needed to get brushes to rub over the chairs and get rid of as much of the old paint that was lifting off the furniture as we could.  Then we would need the rust treatment to paint over it and then the proper paint.

Fred headed off and came back with 2 steel brushes (one softer than the other)

and one tin of paint.

Now being me as usual I said

but that is not what I read in the blogs

Fred however told me that in the shop they explained to him that one type of paint would be perfect for the job because it was a dual purpose one,

it treats the rust and paints it.

but it would require 2 coats of this paint.


So off we started.



BEFORE


1.

The table was hardly affected by the rust at all but Fred gave it a quick go over with the softer brush anyway as we were going to have to paint it because originally the wrought iron was a dark grey but the paint we had got was black and the table & chairs would have to match up at the end.



2.

You can see here how bad the chairs were both front and back and underneath.


However the whole set was still very sturdy it was just dirty and rusted.




PREPARATION


3.

We had to tackle the chairs with the harder brush on the rust and I rubbed the white around the mosaic design part with the softer brush to clean it up as well.


There is a scraper on the harder brush and Fred needed it to help make it quicker to lift the old peeling paint.

Look at the nice sunny day we had for starting our project.

PAINTING  -  First Coat


4.

When all the chairs were well brushed over and wiped down we were able to start the painting.

It wasn't long before we were sitting down while painting and then also down on our knees to get at the lower and underneath parts.

We needed some masking tape to protect the mosaic part while I tried to paint around the tops of the chairs.

When we got the first coat of paint on the chairs we were tired and really had done as much as we could for one evening.

So then after a discussion of 

rain or no rain tonight?

we put the chairs into the garage because I was sure it was going to rain.




PAINTING  -  Second Coat


5.  Well we had quite a spell of rain over the next few days but eventually we got back to the chairs to give them and the table a second coat.

Notice it is no longer shorts and T-shirts but trousers and jumpers as in the two weeks we were doing this the temperatures changed dramatically, but then we are in Northern Ireland!

6.    Now there was one last thing to be done and that was the cleaning up of the table.

You can see how bad it was close up and how much better it looked after I had worked on it for a while.

The very centre out to the second round of light blue tiles was done using the softer brush and then some thin bleach rubbed along it.

The next section of dark blue tiles and next ring of light blue was done only with the bleach.

And then a small part of the outer section of mixed tiles was done with only the brush.

Definitely it is worth doing all of it with both brush and bleach as the centre part is really white now.

AFTER

7.     So now the job is completed and the Patio set is back in its place on the Patio

The Patio set was not very expensive 2 years ago at £199 but I certainly did not want to have to pay money for a new set next year and so investing in the brushes and paint was a much better option.  Plus the fact that Fred and I tackled a job together which makes the chore more bearable and we had some good fresh air while doing it.

Note it must be stated that it was definitely more Housework than Funwork for this project.