A Laundry Hamper for the Missus or How to Cure a Case of OCD

Okay, I'm just a little bit on the neat freak side. You couldn't tell it if you saw my garage/shop. I know it's messy but I haven't been able to start building on the ole Dream Shop yet. When I do.....it's going to be spotless and I'm going to hang a "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" sign up too, just to aggravate the missus! For all the good that will do.

For years I have opened the door to the laundry room and this is what I see!.

I finally figured out, the wife knows of my condition and if the clean laundry piles up high enough I won't be able to stand it, and wind up folding it all! I aimed to put a stop to that! Yes, sir!

Out in the shop I cut a 20 X40 inch piece of 1/2 inch plywood to use as a base.

I had some stock left over that my son and I had used for table legs in this project here. I cut four uprights 30 inches long and with my dado blade cut a 1/4th inch groove in the center of two adjoining sides.

You can see those, just below the nylon bumper in the picture to the left.

On the table saw, I cut two, 1 x 4 X 36.5 inch, cypress pieces, for the front of the hamper. One on top and one for the bottom rail and used the dado blade to make a tongue to slide into the upright grooves as seen in the picture.

I did the same thing for the end pieces only these were 16.5 inches in length.

For the center uprights I used a 1 X 4 for the front and a 1 X 2 for the sides. On the workbench I assembled the front Frame using glue and pocket hole screws.

For the slats I took a rough cut cypress 2 X 6 and ripped a 1/4 inch slat from it. Using this slat I kept bending it and slipping it into the side grooves to measure then I trimmed off small pieces from one end until I had a perfect fit that just touched the center upright but fit snuggly into the grooves of the end uprights. I used this slat to measure my 2 X 6 and cut it to length, then ripped out enough slats to weave into the panel as seen in this front view.

I was lucky and only had to rip off a small piece from the last slat to make every thing fit perfect.

The ends were a repeat of the front, except they were a bit challenging on account of I couldn't lay the assembly flat to secure the sides to the front.

With three sides completed I turned it upside down and screwed the bottom to the frame.

The back was easy. I cut a piece of 1/4 inch birch plywood that slipped into the grooves of the frame and I fastened everything together with glue and pocket hole screws.

I ran down to the farm supply house and picked up four casters and fastened them through the bottom and into blocks I had placed in the inside corners for support. I used 3" stainless steel wood screws for this.

Then I painted the whole thing with Krylon flat white, I think it took two cans.
Back at the lumber pile I pulled several rough cut cypress 1 X 6's and ran them through the planer. I made a panel using biscuits and Tite Bond III glue. (My glue of choice) This I let dry and got on the computer to find some support hinges. I found these at Rockler and they are crazy expensive but worth it!

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They hold this heavy cypress lid up with no problem. They have a chart that you can go by to figure out which hinge you need for the dimensions you use for a lid. They sell them in different inch pound ratings.

I cut my lid to size the next day and finished it with several coats of clear polyurethane and attached it using the torsion hinges.

The wife bought some canvas to line the thing with, and sewed an inner bag that we attached to the sides with snaps. We thought we would be taking the clothes out using this detachable liner but she just wheels the thing into the living room and unloads the clothes on the couch for me to fold to fold in front of the TV.

Here's the finished product! Our laundry room is much neater now!

I hope you liked my post!
CARRY ON!