Closet Display System

    Since getting back from CT Tuesday night, I’ve spent most of my time working on the new closet system in my studio. At work we recently got in some beautiful boards by Rubbermaid for those organizational tracking systems a lot of people install in their closets. It gave me the idea to do one in mine but not for organization, for an action figure display. I have way too many that are stored in bins or out in the shed because I don’t have room to put them. Well I want to see my toys damn it, so redone closet, here we come.

   On Thursday morning I stopped thinking about it and finally got my ass in motion. The hardest part of this whole process was actually moving everything in order to make room in my closet to do anything. A few months back I put my dressers in there which was pretty cool except for the fact that they were about an inch too wide, making it extremely difficult to open the drawers. So those had to come out in order to install my new shelving system. To get the two dressers out and into their new location meant moving my cabinet and lingerie chest which no does not contain any lingerie, that’s just what it’s called you pervs, but moving those to their new locations meant moving my bookcase and coffee table which is a really interesting square piece with multiple compartments on each side. While moving the furniture I decided to lay out my new rug as well which meant  spinning my old one around and sliding it over to the other side of the room.



         With so much to do I got up when Jaime left for work at 8:30 and got a move on. With my plan in place as to where to move everything and what order I needed to do it to be most efficient, I got to work. Not wanting to empty everything, I moved most of the furniture without removing anything which made things heavier but took a lot less time. Working out has definitely paid off because I moved everything without even using the hand-truck and somehow got it all in its new home before going to work at 1:00. The night we left for vacation I bought the entire case of 4 foot boards from work not wanting to miss out but on Thursday I decided to get the 3 foot ones as well. They both come five in a case and I figure I’ll just return whatever I don’t use.

   We normally have Friday off together but due to Jaime’s promotion, sometimes she has to work Friday now so I had the day to myself. Again I got going right away, woke up early and began putting up the shelving system. I was planning on using the electric drill to screw the upright tracks into the studs but it turns out I don’t have the proper drill bit so by hand it is. Amazingly I had the right number of tracking pieces and they were all the right size, not bad for a $10 bundle I picked up at the Norwich Goodwill in CT.

    The only problem I ran into was that the closet wall was bowed out in one area making it damn near impossible to screw the tracking system in. I had to use my shoulder to push against the wall with all my strength while screwing it in, and admittedly broke a sweat, might have come close to passing out too seeing as how I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. But I got all the tracks up and wrote down all the pieces I needed to complete the system before Jaime got up for work.

    I brought her in and hit Lowes and Home Depot to see who had the best prices. And of course I went to all the thrift shops as usual and didn’t buy anything, and still no Sasha Banks figure anywhere. We’re a little behind in Maine though, no one even had the set of figures that she comes in. So the search for Sasha continues.

    I met up with Jaime on her lunch and we had Subway at the park. Then I went back to Lowes and Home Depot to buy the parts I scoped out earlier. A good $60 later I had the brackets and rod for my closet as well as the wire shelving I had them cut to the exact right size.

     So it turns out they didn’t cut the shelving to the exact right size, in fact they were almost an inch and a half shorter than I asked for. Not feeling like going back for a third time I removed the tracking and slid it over so they’d fit. But, the screw wouldn’t go into the stud which means there was probably a knot in it, right where I needed the screw to go. So I attached the proper drill bit onto my electric drill and found out that the cord was a good two feet too short. With no extension cord in the house I connected a couple power strips together and there you go, I got my extra two feet and drilled through the damn knot in the stud. Power tools sure do make things easier.

    With all the parts in place I began resting the wooden shelves on their pretty architectural brackets. One major problem; they were crooked. Dumbass here forgot that the holes on the tracking had to line up exactly. Turns out they were all perfect, except for the one that was damn near impossible to do thanks to the wall bulging out. So rather than redo that one, I redid the others. Luckily with the drill it wasn’t too bad.

    The little piece of tracking I got was just the right size to fit above the compartment for the water heater, the 20 inch piece of wire shelving I had them cut came out right and fit in perfectly. The coat rack rod system thingy went in without any problems, I still have room beneath my coats to put two plastic totes, and I finally have a permanent home for all my jackets. I have about ten. And the wire shelf above the coat rack is just the right size for my box of extra tools.

    After adjusting the tracking and actually using my level this time, which to be fair I couldn’t have done before because I didn’t have the brackets to lay the shelves on, I got everything up properly and it looks amazing. However, dumbass strikes again and for some reason only bought three of the six inch brackets when I actually needed four. Granted I was just getting them on a trial basis to make sure it would work, why I only bought three is beyond me. And originally I was going to do only two of the four foot shelves but it turns out I can fit three so I needed two more architectural brackets as well. And wouldn’t you know that the architectural brackets were at one store, the plain bracket at the other.

  So on my way to pick up Jaime from work I went to Lowes which is where I needed to go anyway to return the wire shelf they screwed up. But before leaving I realized I would need to return all three pieces that the shelf was cut into, one of those pieces being the one that fit perfectly above the coats, that now had the full coat rack on it. Whatever, I’m not taking it back down so I’ll just keep the other two parts and use them in the shed or something. Then I picked up Jaime on time with a couple minutes to spare and ran over to Home Depot before they closed to get my other bracket. Then to Walmart to pick up some more kitty litter, our little fur baby loves a certain kind, luckily it’s the cheapest on the market but it also sells out quickly so when we see it, we get a bunch. Jaime wanted Chilis for supper and after my long day I was ready to sit down and take a break and I can never say no to Chilis. So I got my favorite meal there, the honey chipotle chicken crispers with fries and corn on the cob. My mouth’s watering now just thinking about it.

    I put up the new brackets and laid the shelves on them. Its looking exactly how I had envisioned. With the 200x series Castle Grayskull on the floor below the shelves, it looks like I’ll be able to fit a third three foot shelf in there which is awesome so I just need two more of the plain brackets for that. And I think I’ve decided to not do the wire shelving on the right side above the bookcase and just get some boards that match the four footers and continue the display shelving all the way over. I didn’t think it would be visible so displaying stuff there would be pointless but you can actually see it from most points in the room and I always have more cool toys I want to look at.

    I may have ‘pulled a Matt’ a couple of times but overall it went smoothly and everything fit exactly as I had anticipated, a little better even. Now with the extra boards that I got from work and planned on returning, I got a few ideas for those. The rearranging of the studio continues. More shelves it is.

    And before I post this I need to add one thing, while out today getting some more shelving for the studio I checked Walmart to see if they got in the new set of WWE figures and for once I was in luck, they just put them out. I finally got my Sasha Banks figure! Two of them for $10 a piece, one to leave in package and one to take out. And naturally this happens the night after the $23 one I bought online shipped out. Ah well, I guess I’ll have three. And now I have a new tracking system to put Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain on as well as a new shelf to display my out of package collection of WWF Hasbro figures on. We’ll get into that in my next post.