Simplify.  
Organize.
Declutter.

Hmmm......

Enter Me.

Voila!  A two-hour project magically transformed into a weeklong monster!

Designed to make my life easier, less cluttered, and more organized, my utility cabinet transformation remained unfinished for almost a week and instead made my life more complicated, more cluttered, and in more disarray than ever in the process. 

It started out with a good plan.  A simple plan.  Measure the interior dimensions of the cabinet to determine how big a board I would need.  Buy a board, cut it to size, install using L-brackets.  Drill small holes for the shelving brackets, cut down existing shelves to new size, install.  Done.

Monday:  Bought the board, had the guys at the hardware store cut it to size.  Take it home.  GREAT!

Tuesday:   Removed items out from pantry cabinet including shelves, filled up my entire kitchen with its contents and had no where to prepare food or set anything else down.  Put the board in.  Didn't fit.  The guy at the hardware store cut it 1/8th of an inch too wide.  TRUST ME, my measurements were correct.  I saw him measure at the store after he cut...why would I think he was measuring incorrectly?  If I say 22 & a 1/2 inches, I need 22 & 1/2 inches.  Not 22 & 5/8ths!!!  1/8th of an inch!!!  (It turns out, they are not responsible for "accurate" cuts and 1/8th of an inch is within their range of "acceptable" inaccuracy.)

Drove down to pick up river rock facade, kids in tow.  Drove home with over a thousand pounds of concrete rocks & mortar perched on a pallet in my minivan, and happy kids strapped in, eating the free freshly popped popcorn from the store.

Wednesday:  Life.  Rainy day.  No way to address the cabinet with the board still not fitting.  Reeeeeallly wishing I had my own table saw.  Meanwhile, the weight of the river rocks still sitting in the minivan is clearly quite heavy as my husband and I observe the minivan sitting low in the driveway.  Task:  unload the rocks (one or two at a time) and the 90-lb bags of mortar by myself, in the rain, into the garage. 

Thursday:  Getting VERY ancy with all the disarray, mess, and lack of cooking space cluttering up my entire kitchen.  Need to buy meals more often than I like and stressing about all the money getting flushed down the toilet as a result.  Ugh.  That evening, I take the board back to the store, and have it re-cut. 

Friday:  Finish up the cabinet project and get stuck again:  shelves need to be cut to size.  Take them to the store to see if they'll cut them for me (they're too wide for my mitre saw).  It's against store policy since they are not being purchased from the store.  Research table saws.  Kitchen still overrun, tolerance has run out and my stress level is high.

Saturday:   Peter's uncle helps us out by cutting down the shelves on his table saw.  THANK YOU, TIO!  Return home with shelves cut to size.  DONE.  Put the stuff back in, get rid of superfluous stuff, enjoy.  BREATHE. 

More on the river rock another time.

UPDATE:  I have been thoroughly enjoying my utility cabinet.  My brooms, mop, and bucket all fit so nicely in there and are no longer hard to find as when they had no home and migrated from room to room.  The items on the shelves are more organized and the space functions as it is supposed to.  A little more tweaking with a few more spaces in the house and I think things will be 100% how I want them to be.  For now, the utility cabinet transformation was a worthwhile project and definitely a positive change to my home, even if it did mean a week's worth of frustration.  The calm that comes of it now will last me for years.  

Care to share any home improvement, organization/declutter project of your own?

PS - lesson learned:  don't trust the store guy to measure & cut properly!!!

PS II - lesson learned:  it was all worth it.  :)

PS III - a table saw of my own would be a mighty fine thing...