If you have children or pets at home (or even if you just occasionally get pets and kids as guests), it is always best to store detergent (including concentrated laundry packs) in their original containers, up high and preferably out of sight.  That makes a cabinet above your washer or dryer the perfect place.

I’ve talked about laundry room safety before on the blog, but today I want to make it even easier on you.


The problem with high laundry room cabinets is that often you can’t find or even see what is in them.

The only way I can ever find things is to take the larger items out and set them on top of my washer and dryer.

Why is this such a bad thing to do?
Because now my detergent and laundry packs are in arm’s reach of little ones.

It may seem like no big deal, but it is easy to forget to put detergent containers back on the shelf. We all get lazy, and even though I know better, if it slips my mind or I get distracted it only takes a few seconds and now there is an unintentional temptation to little hands.  (Check out this video to see a laundry room through an inquisitive child's eyes!)

To remind myself to keep my laundry packets up and out of reach, even have a Packets Up! Prompt sticker right on my washing machine, but anything else I can do to make it easier on myself is great.  (You can get your own cling decal on the Packets Up! Website)

So what did I do to alleviate this dilemma? What any good DIYe’r would do!  I built something! 



Like a good DIY'er - I decided to build something to help me keep my packets up AND make laundry time easy.


No longer is everything stacked behind other stuff. I have two levels of storage! Nothing is getting lost behind the larger containers, and so I have no reason to take them completely out.

How to build your own cabinet risers:

Supplies;
1/4 inch plywood
Table saw or circular saw
Nail gun with 3/4 inch nails

Optional:
Decorative wood trim
Wood Glue
Wood filler
Paint
Step 1:
Measure you cabinets and figure out how deep and how wide they are.  You want to make your organizer about half the depth of your cabinet (to give you two levels of equal size) and however wide you think reasonable.

My cabinets were 10 inches deep so I first cut a strip 5 inches wide (to use at the riser platform)

Step 2:
Determine the distance between the shelves and decide how much “rise” you need the risers to be.  I knew my tallest bottles (spray starch) were only about 4 inches shorter than the space between the shelves so I made my riser 3 inches tall so they would still fit.

Therefore I cut a second strip of plywood 3 inches wide.

Step 3:
Cut down your strips to length.   In this case I wanted my riser to be about 12 inches wide so I cut a 12 inch section off the 3 inch strip and the 5 inch strip. Next to make the final (short) sides of the box I cut two 4-3/4 inch  segments from the 3 inch strip. (The width of the top board minus 1/4 inch to take into account the thickness of the plywood)

Step 4:
Assemble your riser with a nail gun.
This is what the box looks like from the bottom side.  You can see I keep the finished part of the plywood facing forward for the cleanest look. However the top piece of plywood has an exposed cut edge which is unfinished.  Since this is just for inside your cabinet you may not care, but I wanted to pretty it up a little bit.
Step 5:
Cut down trim the width of your riser.  I used a miter box to miter the edgesStep 6:
Attach the trim. I used wood glue, but you could use nails too.  Since it is just decorative I wasn’t too worried about durability.
Step 7:
Fill the nail holes, sand and paint.   I used bright white paint to match the cabinet doors.

Now it is time to install it.  I just love how suddenly I can see everything. I had NO IDEA there was so much stuff in my cabinets, and it will be easier than ever to find everything. All while keeping my kids safer 
Thanks so much to The American Cleaning Institute for partnering with me on this project. Since 2013, ACI has worked to with parents and caregivers to spread information about the proper storage and use of liquid laundry packets.   I am also passionate about their mission and encourage you to keep your #PacketsUp.