DIY Cardboard Shelf

I want to start off by saying that, although I have a full time job, I like to save as much money as possible. Plus, this helps me put some money in the bank for when I start staying home with the baby. I have quite the addiction to fabric and other craft things and my husband has already informed me he isn't giving me money for my addiction when I run out of money (we'll see-he spoils me ;] ). So, I figure if I put some money off my own back, I won't have to ask him for a while.

We are currently renting a very small two bedroom trailer until we can find a house. It's slim pickins around here and we are pretty picky. The Diva's room is VERY small and has a tiny excuse for a closet.

Since I'm cheap, I like to buy The Diva's clothes at yard sales, thrift stores, in the clearance racks (Hello, Old Navy!), and at department stores at the end of each season. Therefore, I have a few bags of clothes that are too big for her. The space above her clothes rack is where I decided to put the spare clothes. Only problem? No shelf and I'm too cheap to buy one we won't need forever. So, I made one using materials I had at home or had easy access to.

Materials needed:
-Pieces of cardboard
-Ruler and measuring tape
-Scissors or an exacto knife
-Pencil
-Tape or glue
-Fabric (I used some extra I had in a drawer)

I measured my space and decided I didn't want my shelf to be any bigger than 33"X11". I looked through my drawer and found some fabric I was pretty sure would fit around that and then I grabbed 8 beer case flaps that we had at work in our "To Throw Away" pile. After cutting off the end tabs, my pieces of cardboard were 16"X10.5". I cut two of my pieces into 10.5"X3" pieces (I got 6 of these out of two flaps).

Then I measured how they should go and just stacked them together and tagged the edges. You can glue to do this instead, but I forgot my glue at home and tape was all I could find at work.  putting one of the small pieces in between each of the layers of the meeting places of the big pieces to ensure my 'shelf' would not break in half.

Finally, I placed my fabric face down on the table and put my cardboard shelf in the middle of it. Folding each side of the fabric over my cardboard, I pulled tight and tagged the sides down. Here is the finished product:

And here is The Diva's shelf in use. (I organized her clothes by season in some Dollar Tree storage boxes we already had. They work GREAT! )

Thanks for reading; look forward to my next post on Tuesday!