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Hoosier Cabinets: The 1900s Kitchen Storage Genius That Still Works · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Well, hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. This is Home
0:04
Speaker 1: in Progress by Repco Light Paint, sponsored by Benjamin Moore.
0:08
Speaker 1: And I'm back, officially back, from vacation. The last week
0:12
Speaker 1: was a repeated episode. I think the week before that
0:15
Speaker 1: was a repeated episode. Sorry about all of that, but
0:18
Speaker 1: I just ran out of time. But I'm back, and
0:21
Speaker 1: I'm ready for new stuff. You know, brilliant, amazing new stuff.
0:27
Speaker 1: But before I get to all of that, I do
0:29
Speaker 1: want to tell you something funny about from my vacation.
0:32
Speaker 1: It's funny. It's probably too long of a story, but
0:36
Speaker 1: it's funny. It was embarrassing at the time, but it's
0:39
Speaker 1: funny in retrospect. Anyway, we're up north on our vacation.
0:43
Speaker 1: We're up north in a cottage on Burt Lake. If
0:46
Speaker 1: you're not familiar, Burt Lake is about 20 minutes south
0:49
Speaker 1: of Mackinac City. That doesn't really matter a whole lot
0:52
Speaker 1: for the story, but at least it puts it in
0:54
Speaker 1: your mind so you can place it. We do this
0:58
Speaker 1: vacation every single year. We go to that same cabin
1:00
Speaker 1: and Every single year. And because of that, we know
1:04
Speaker 1: that the lake there, you know, Burt Lake, right where
1:06
Speaker 1: we're swimming at least, that sometimes gives us swimmer's itch.
1:11
Speaker 1: Swimmer's itch. And in case you didn't know what that
1:14
Speaker 1: is or you don't know what that is, swimmer's itch
1:16
Speaker 1: is an itchy skin rash caused by an allergic reaction
1:19
Speaker 1: to a tiny microscopic parasite that's in the water. You know,
1:23
Speaker 1: lots and lots of tiny microscopic parasites cause all this itching.
1:28
Speaker 1: It's pretty miserable. but usually it's not all that bad. Now,
1:32
Speaker 1: there's more to what's going on with swimmer's itch, but
1:35
Speaker 1: who cares? You don't need to know that. It gives
1:37
Speaker 1: you an idea. That's all you need to know. It
1:39
Speaker 1: usually ends up looking like little mosquito bites on your legs.
1:42
Speaker 1: If you look online, you'll see all kinds of horror
1:46
Speaker 1: story pictures on Google. That's what I always expected with
1:50
Speaker 1: swimmer's itch. It turns out to be maybe 10 or
1:52
Speaker 1: 15 little dots on on my legs, you know, at
1:56
Speaker 1: the end of a week, usually, you know, that's usually
1:59
Speaker 1: what happens. The lake gives us that, like I said,
2:02
Speaker 1: from time to time. But we found that if you
2:03
Speaker 1: scrub off with a towel and if you shower and
2:06
Speaker 1: wash well after swimming, it's usually no big deal. So
2:09
Speaker 1: we know about it, but we don't freak out about it. Oh,
2:12
Speaker 1: we also did learn over the years that spraying your
2:15
Speaker 1: legs down with a waterproof sunscreen, that also seems to
2:18
Speaker 1: help before you, you know, before you go in the water.
2:20
Speaker 1: If you do that, that seems to help. I guess
2:22
Speaker 1: it makes it Harder for the little parasites to get
2:25
Speaker 1: to your skin. I'm not sure on the old science
2:28
Speaker 1: with that, but that's our working theory. Anyway, none of
2:32
Speaker 1: that is funny yet. I know I'm getting there. I'm
2:35
Speaker 1: getting there. One of the times that we went swimming
2:38
Speaker 1: this year, I left the sunscreen off my legs. I
2:41
Speaker 1: don't remember why. It doesn't matter, but I skipped it
2:44
Speaker 1: and I went into the water. And like 40 minutes later,
2:48
Speaker 1: my legs are itching in the water. That's never happened before.
2:52
Speaker 1: but they're itching really badly. And I go out, I
2:55
Speaker 1: scrub off, I do my shower thing thinking that's going
2:58
Speaker 1: to resolve this, but it doesn't. In fact, like a
3:02
Speaker 1: half an hour after that, my legs feel like they're
3:05
Speaker 1: on fire. You know, it's not pain. It's just incredible itchiness.
3:10
Speaker 1: It was absolutely miserable. It was the worst thing I
3:13
Speaker 1: can ever think I've endured. It felt like I had
3:16
Speaker 1: a million ants crawling up and down my legs. It
3:19
Speaker 1: was truly, truly horrible. So I flew down to the
3:22
Speaker 1: nearest little, you know, store and I snatched up $ 60
3:26
Speaker 1: worth of anti-itch creams and sprays and whatnot. Everything that
3:30
Speaker 1: I thought might help. You know, I just went with
3:31
Speaker 1: my arms full of these things and piled it all
3:34
Speaker 1: on the counter. And as I stand there, you know,
3:37
Speaker 1: pushing these things at the sales clerk, you know, I'm twisting,
3:40
Speaker 1: I'm twitching. You know, I don't even know what my
3:43
Speaker 1: face looked like. My eyes are probably watering. It was horrible.
3:46
Speaker 1: As I do that, you know, I get this clerk
3:49
Speaker 1: who absolutely only wants to talk. You know, this guy
3:53
Speaker 1: sees me and his face lights up. You know, maybe
3:55
Speaker 1: he hasn't talked to anybody all day or all week
3:58
Speaker 1: or all month so far. I don't know. But he
4:01
Speaker 1: latched on to me and he's just talking about everything
4:03
Speaker 1: I've got. Oh, calamine spray. I've used that. And then
4:07
Speaker 1: the next thing he grabs, cortisone cream. Looks like you've
4:11
Speaker 1: got some kind of itchy rash. Do you have an
4:13
Speaker 1: itchy rash? He is trying to start a million conversations.
4:16
Speaker 1: He's loud. Everybody's looking at him. And this goes on
4:19
Speaker 1: and on and on. And then as if that's not
4:22
Speaker 1: bad enough, we had to price check things. You know,
4:25
Speaker 1: the witch hazel, the Epsom salts, because I grabbed everything
4:28
Speaker 1: that I thought might possibly help. He's price checking stuff.
4:31
Speaker 1: He's hollering things out. It was horrible. It took forever.
4:35
Speaker 1: I was squirming. I was dying inside. I was trying
4:39
Speaker 1: to be polite, but I just had to get outside
4:42
Speaker 1: and lather myself in cream and And he wouldn't stop
4:45
Speaker 1: talking about the time he got poison ivy, for example,
4:49
Speaker 1: when he was five. Or was it when he was seven?
4:51
Speaker 1: Was it back at his grandma's house or was it
4:53
Speaker 1: at his parents' cottage? He can't remember. Finally, mercifully, mercifully,
4:59
Speaker 1: it all ended and I left. You know, I started
5:01
Speaker 1: applying the goodies that I bought. And after about two hours,
5:04
Speaker 1: some relief finally set in. Four hours more and I
5:07
Speaker 1: was feeling pretty good again. I was recovering from it,
5:10
Speaker 1: but it was a long afternoon and early evening. That's
5:13
Speaker 1: for sure. OK, so all of that happened. Still not
5:15
Speaker 1: the funny part. Flash forward a day. I'm still gun shy.
5:19
Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to go in the water.
5:21
Speaker 1: I'm nervous about it. And then I see a couple
5:23
Speaker 1: of new families show up and the two dads take
5:26
Speaker 1: all the kids down to the water and all of
5:28
Speaker 1: them go swimming in the shallowest, most swimmers, itchiest parts
5:32
Speaker 1: of the lake for nearly an hour. They're in there.
5:35
Speaker 1: And at one point it registers that if I don't
5:37
Speaker 1: warn them, if I, Dan Hanson, don't warn them, Those
5:41
Speaker 1: poor kids and dads are going to be miserable like
5:43
Speaker 1: I was. Now, I know my inabilities. I've talked about
5:47
Speaker 1: them on the show. I've got social inabilities. I can
5:51
Speaker 1: do the radio thing because I'm sitting in a studio
5:54
Speaker 1: by myself. I can fake it then. I can do
5:56
Speaker 1: it then. But social engagements with when people are there
6:00
Speaker 1: and it's all live and it's all really happening, they
6:03
Speaker 1: are not my thing. I'm clumsy. I'm awkward. I almost
6:08
Speaker 1: always turn social interactions into hilarious train wrecks. You know,
6:11
Speaker 1: hilarious for the kids, embarrassing for me. I knew that,
6:15
Speaker 1: but I couldn't let these people suffer, right? I have
6:17
Speaker 1: to do it. I have to warn them. This is
6:20
Speaker 1: so silly. Most of you would just handle it, right?
6:22
Speaker 1: This isn't even a story for most people. For 95%
6:25
Speaker 1: of the populace, this isn't even a story for me.
6:29
Speaker 1: It was an epic quest. So I'm sitting out there
6:33
Speaker 1: watching and I'm waiting for the right moment when the
6:35
Speaker 1: dad's you know, get on the dock. And there's this long,
6:39
Speaker 1: narrow dock that leads out to the swimming area. And
6:41
Speaker 1: they're heading back to their cabin. I figured this was
6:43
Speaker 1: the perfect time to catch them. I'll just go wait
6:45
Speaker 1: for them and I'll catch them. So as I'm heading
6:48
Speaker 1: that way, I'm rehearsing what I'm going to say. And
6:50
Speaker 1: I'd already rehearsed it. That's another thing I do. I
6:52
Speaker 1: rehearse all this stuff. And I think that's the problem.
6:55
Speaker 1: That's part of the problem. Because once I get off script,
6:58
Speaker 1: you know, once I start saying something that wasn't part
7:01
Speaker 1: of my rehearsed, you know, monologue or message, I can't
7:05
Speaker 1: get back to it. And I just spiral into chaos.
7:09
Speaker 1: But anyway, I'm walking towards them. I'm rehearsing what I'm
7:11
Speaker 1: going to say. And then when I get to the
7:14
Speaker 1: end of the dock, expecting them to have met me there,
7:17
Speaker 1: I find that they've stopped in the middle to look
7:20
Speaker 1: at something. Well, I started down the dock to kind
7:23
Speaker 1: of meet them. But then I stopped partway when they
7:26
Speaker 1: looked at me and thought I could see in their eyes.
7:29
Speaker 1: They thought I was trying to get past them to
7:30
Speaker 1: the water. And we all stared at each other at
7:33
Speaker 1: that point because we all knew I couldn't get past them.
7:36
Speaker 1: They were on the larger side, you know, no judgment,
7:40
Speaker 1: but they were on the larger side. And the dock
7:42
Speaker 1: is really, really narrow. And so somebody is going to
7:45
Speaker 1: fall in the water if I try to get past them.
7:48
Speaker 1: So we just stare at each other. And it's kind
7:50
Speaker 1: of a standoff. And that's the first awkward moment that
7:54
Speaker 1: happens in this. And I could feel it. And I
7:57
Speaker 1: knew this was a really bad omen. But I thought
7:59
Speaker 1: I'd alleviate this. You know, I'll just propel myself past
8:03
Speaker 1: this awkwardness and get to my message and I'd make
8:07
Speaker 1: everything good. So I shouted at them, you know, across
8:10
Speaker 1: the 20 feet or so between us. And I said,
8:13
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to get past you. Nope. I just
8:17
Speaker 1: am waiting for you to come to me. Well, I
8:20
Speaker 1: could tell by the look on their faces that my
8:23
Speaker 1: wording didn't make a lot of sense to them. You know,
8:26
Speaker 1: they had no idea what I was after. They're just thinking,
8:28
Speaker 1: what does this weird little guy want from us? Why
8:30
Speaker 1: do we got to go to him? You know, and
8:32
Speaker 1: I knew the minute I said it, it was awkward.
8:35
Speaker 1: So I tried to fix awkward moment number two by saying,
8:38
Speaker 1: I have a message for you. Idiotic. I have no
8:43
Speaker 1: idea what my brain is doing. You know, I guess
8:46
Speaker 1: I was just in that all too, you know, all
8:48
Speaker 1: too familiar death spiral of all of my social interactions
8:52
Speaker 1: or most of them. It's never all of them. I
8:55
Speaker 1: can do it sometimes. Most of them death spiral like this.
8:58
Speaker 1: And I was in that death spiral and I knew
9:00
Speaker 1: it at that point. I knew how it was going
9:02
Speaker 1: to go, you know, from this moment on. But for
9:05
Speaker 1: the sake of their children, I plunged ahead because I'm
9:08
Speaker 1: noble like that. Anyway, I walked up to the guys, right?
9:11
Speaker 1: I look them both in the eyes and literally, and
9:14
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, again, I can't explain it. I lifted
9:17
Speaker 1: my leg way in the air and then I pulled
9:20
Speaker 1: my shorts, you know, the shorts leg way high. And
9:24
Speaker 1: I said, I have swimmer's itch all over me, all
9:28
Speaker 1: over me, swimmer's itch. Their eyes. Oh my goodness. I
9:32
Speaker 1: wish I had had a video. I probably wouldn't want
9:36
Speaker 1: a video, but I kind of would like a video
9:38
Speaker 1: of this moment so I could show people what I
9:41
Speaker 1: saw in their faces. I will remember it forever. They
9:45
Speaker 1: just stared at me. Their eyes started to water. They
9:47
Speaker 1: were stunned. They were shocked. They were confused. I think
9:51
Speaker 1: they thought it was a little funny. I think they
9:53
Speaker 1: were a little nervous at first because I seemed unstable.
9:56
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure I seemed unstable. But now when I.
10:00
Speaker 1: lifted up my leg and showed them the dots on
10:02
Speaker 1: my leg or the little the little swimmer's itch marks
10:06
Speaker 1: or spots, I could tell that they realized I was harmless,
10:10
Speaker 1: but they figured I was quite eccentric. So they just nodded. Right.
10:13
Speaker 1: They nodded. And I just kept going. So I pointed
10:18
Speaker 1: at the water. And I said, swimmer's itch. And then
10:21
Speaker 1: I pointed at my legs again. And then I nodded
10:24
Speaker 1: at the men very gravely. Point at the water, point
10:27
Speaker 1: at my legs, swimmer's itch. And I figured we're communicating.
10:32
Speaker 1: I knew I was messing this up big time. They're
10:34
Speaker 1: just nodding. They're trying to be polite. It was surreal.
10:37
Speaker 1: My brain literally was shutting down or had shut down.
10:40
Speaker 1: It left, flipped the lights off and left. I knew
10:43
Speaker 1: I was doing so badly in this interaction. And all
10:46
Speaker 1: I had really wanted to do was warn them. So
10:48
Speaker 1: I tried one more time because I hadn't gotten my
10:50
Speaker 1: message across yet. I told him it's really bad this year.
10:53
Speaker 1: You know, the swimmer's itch in the water is really bad.
10:56
Speaker 1: I don't normally get it this bad, but I did.
10:58
Speaker 1: I just didn't want your kids to get it. It's miserable.
11:01
Speaker 1: So be sure to have them scrub up really good after.
11:04
Speaker 1: You know, that's all. Finally, it worked right. It worked.
11:08
Speaker 1: I did it right. I did well. I saved the interaction.
11:11
Speaker 1: I got my message across the point registered. I could
11:15
Speaker 1: tell in their eyes. And they finally understood what I
11:17
Speaker 1: was trying to do. So they said, thanks. They smiled
11:20
Speaker 1: and they nodded and I should have left. I should
11:24
Speaker 1: have left. Don't know why I didn't leave. Don't know
11:27
Speaker 1: why I wish I'd left, but instead I thought somehow
11:32
Speaker 1: more needed to be said. So I held up my,
11:36
Speaker 1: I held up my leg again and I said, I've
11:40
Speaker 1: been lathering up my legs with Vaseline before swimming. And
11:46
Speaker 1: then I went on to tell him, it feels weird,
11:48
Speaker 1: but not as weird as you might think. And it
11:50
Speaker 1: seems to help. Man, their faces, utterly frozen. They were
11:57
Speaker 1: utterly frozen. You know, it looked like a movie that
12:00
Speaker 1: somebody hit pause on. I don't think they blinked. I
12:03
Speaker 1: don't think I don't think their hair moved in the breeze.
12:06
Speaker 1: Even they were just frozen. And finally, at that point,
12:09
Speaker 1: my brain said, please let us leave this place. And
12:13
Speaker 1: my body started to obey finally. And I turned around
12:17
Speaker 1: and I walked or slunk back to the cabin. This
12:20
Speaker 1: was like Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday afternoon on our week
12:25
Speaker 1: long vacation. I had the entire rest of the week
12:27
Speaker 1: to spend at this place with these people. And I
12:31
Speaker 1: knew they were going to be wondering about me all
12:34
Speaker 1: the entire time. Anyway, the Vaseline really does work. And
12:38
Speaker 1: it really isn't as weird feeling as you think. I
12:40
Speaker 1: had all my kids, they were using it because nobody
12:43
Speaker 1: wanted the swimmer's itch and nobody got anything after that fact.
12:46
Speaker 1: And it turns out, I think those people were fine too.
12:49
Speaker 1: And I think they thought I was kind of just
12:51
Speaker 1: that lovable eccentric that happens to vacation there from time
12:55
Speaker 1: to time. I think it all ended well, but I
12:58
Speaker 1: have no idea why I shut down mentally when I
13:01
Speaker 1: have social interactions, but it happens all the time. And
13:04
Speaker 1: at this point in my life, just try to roll
13:06
Speaker 1: with it. And I find whatever joy or fun I can,
13:09
Speaker 1: and I just pull that out of those interactions and
13:13
Speaker 1: those situations because really that's all I've got. I know
13:15
Speaker 1: I'm going to mess it up. I might as well
13:16
Speaker 1: enjoy it. All right. Enough of that. Way too long.
13:20
Speaker 1: but I thought it was kind of fun. It's a
13:21
Speaker 1: good way to break in after vacation. All right, have
13:24
Speaker 1: you ever heard of Hoosier cabinets? Hoosier, as in, you know,
13:28
Speaker 1: Hoosiers with Gene Hackman, the movie. Hoosiers like that. Have
13:31
Speaker 1: you ever heard of Hoosier cabinets? Well, I just learned
13:34
Speaker 1: about them, and I think they're the coolest things. They're
13:37
Speaker 1: the coolest things ever. I'm going to tell you why
13:40
Speaker 1: right after this. Home in Progress is brought to you
13:43
Speaker 1: by Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know, people
13:46
Speaker 1: often think of paint as just another line item on
13:49
Speaker 1: the project supply list. But here's the thing. Everything you do,
13:52
Speaker 1: every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush, all
13:55
Speaker 1: comes down to the quality of the paint. The paint
13:57
Speaker 1: is the project. Make sure it's the best. And we're back.
14:01
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paint,
14:03
Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And let's talk about who's your cabinets.
14:08
Speaker 1: And to get started, I'm going to describe a couple
14:10
Speaker 1: of key points of one of these things. And I
14:13
Speaker 1: just want you to decide in your brain whether you
14:16
Speaker 1: think this was something really old, you know, from the
14:18
Speaker 1: early 1900s, or does it sound like something that's pretty modern? Now,
14:23
Speaker 1: it is really old. You know, I'll tell you that
14:25
Speaker 1: right off the bat. But just decide if it sounds
14:28
Speaker 1: old or if it sounds like cool new stuff. All right.
14:31
Speaker 1: Who's your cabinets? They were about four feet wide. They
14:33
Speaker 1: were roughly six feet tall and they were a furniture piece,
14:36
Speaker 1: you know, freestanding. They had lower cabinets, a counter area,
14:40
Speaker 1: and then another set of upper cabinets that are a
14:43
Speaker 1: little bit shallower than the base. So can you picture that?
14:46
Speaker 1: You know, nothing fancy, nothing fancy. But here's just one
14:50
Speaker 1: really cool thing about this type of furniture piece. The
14:53
Speaker 1: counter area that I mentioned, it slides out, okay? So
14:57
Speaker 1: it's sitting there. You know, when it's pushed in, it's
14:59
Speaker 1: just sitting there and you've got a nice work surface
15:01
Speaker 1: to work on. But if you need more work surface,
15:04
Speaker 1: you know, more counter space, you can just pull it
15:06
Speaker 1: out And instantly, you get another six to eight inches
15:09
Speaker 1: right when you need it. That is really, really clever.
15:13
Speaker 1: The part that really gets me is that the drawers
15:15
Speaker 1: that are directly underneath that counter, they move with it.
15:19
Speaker 1: When you see pictures of these things, you assume that
15:22
Speaker 1: the drawers are going to be left behind and below
15:25
Speaker 1: that countertop when you pull it out. But that's not
15:27
Speaker 1: how it works. When you pull the counter out towards you,
15:30
Speaker 1: the drawers come along for the ride, which means the
15:33
Speaker 1: stuff that you need in those drawers is never, ever
15:36
Speaker 1: buried underneath. behind the spot where you happen to be standing.
15:39
Speaker 1: Those are just a couple of the main selling points
15:42
Speaker 1: of these Hoosier cabinets. And even though, you know, at
15:45
Speaker 1: least to me, the design features feel incredibly modern and
15:49
Speaker 1: incredibly brilliant and incredibly clever, these were actually in place
15:53
Speaker 1: way back at the beginning of the 1900s. You know,
15:56
Speaker 1: late 1800s, they came about and popular through the 20s, 30s,
16:01
Speaker 1: something like that. So let's talk about them for a
16:03
Speaker 1: little bit. And I'm pretty sure by the time I'm done,
16:06
Speaker 1: you're going to want one. I bet I can convince
16:10
Speaker 1: 25 to 60 percent. I mean, what a ridiculous range.
16:13
Speaker 1: 25 to 60 percent. Let's be bold. I feel I
16:17
Speaker 1: can convince 50 to 60 percent of you that you're
16:21
Speaker 1: going to want one. You know, you may not get one,
16:23
Speaker 1: but you're going to want one. OK, when they came out,
16:27
Speaker 1: you know, these things came out early, you know, 1900s,
16:29
Speaker 1: late 1800s. 90s, I think they were first made. They
16:33
Speaker 1: start to hit stores and stuff like that, early 1900s.
16:38
Speaker 1: And as the years go by, they catch on like wildfire.
16:42
Speaker 1: Even though they could be a little pricey for the
16:44
Speaker 1: time period, almost everybody wanted one. And millions of people
16:49
Speaker 1: brought them into their homes. And all of that happened because...
16:52
Speaker 1: For most of American history, this is kind of news.
16:55
Speaker 1: This is kind of, well, I don't know if it's
16:56
Speaker 1: news for you. It was news for me and it's interesting.
16:59
Speaker 1: But for most of American history up until that point
17:02
Speaker 1: and through this point for a little bit, kitchens were
17:06
Speaker 1: nearly empty rooms. It's not what we think of as
17:09
Speaker 1: a kitchen. That's not what older kitchens were like. You know,
17:12
Speaker 1: you basically had a work table, you had a sink,
17:15
Speaker 1: maybe a cupboard and a few open shelves. And that
17:18
Speaker 1: was about it. Built-in cabinetry existed. It was around, but
17:23
Speaker 1: it was pretty much a luxury. It meant hiring a
17:26
Speaker 1: skilled carpenter to come and build furniture right into the house,
17:29
Speaker 1: and most people couldn't afford that. Built-in cabinets didn't really
17:33
Speaker 1: become a standard in American kitchens until the late 1920s.
17:37
Speaker 1: So for a good long time, the average kitchen had
17:39
Speaker 1: no counters, no cabinets in any sense that we'd recognize.
17:43
Speaker 1: And that meant that the things that you used every day, flour, sugar,
17:46
Speaker 1: dry goods, bowls, baking powder, all of those things were
17:49
Speaker 1: scattered around the kitchen or stored in a pantry. So
17:52
Speaker 1: every time you baked, you had to walk, you know,
17:55
Speaker 1: out to the pantry for flour, back to the table,
17:57
Speaker 1: across to the shelf for a bowl, back to the
18:00
Speaker 1: pantry because you forgot the baking powder. Loads of back
18:03
Speaker 1: and forth just to do a basic daily task. And
18:05
Speaker 1: then in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hoosier cabinets
18:09
Speaker 1: start showing up and they're marketed as cabinets that can
18:12
Speaker 1: save you a thousand steps. And that idea catches on
18:17
Speaker 1: because whether the number was literally a thousand or not,
18:20
Speaker 1: the cabinet really did save an incredible, incredible amount of work.
18:24
Speaker 1: I mean, these things are really, really amazing. It didn't
18:26
Speaker 1: replace the pantry, you know, but what it did do
18:29
Speaker 1: was pull the everyday baking supplies out of the pantry
18:32
Speaker 1: and it put them all inside one workstation. You know,
18:36
Speaker 1: 50 pounds of flour, right there. Sugar, right there. Rolling pins,
18:40
Speaker 1: bread knives, cutting boards, spice racks, all of it right there,
18:43
Speaker 1: along with that pull-out counter to work on. You know,
18:46
Speaker 1: everything you needed for the basic daily kitchen jobs of
18:48
Speaker 1: the time was concentrated in one small space. That's why
18:52
Speaker 1: they caught on. That's part of why they're so cool.
18:55
Speaker 1: But there's so much more to say. We're going to
18:57
Speaker 1: talk about the great features that they offered. You know,
18:59
Speaker 1: just tons of features. The reason for the name, you know,
19:03
Speaker 1: Hoosier Cabinets, and the resurgence that they're seeing, you know,
19:06
Speaker 1: right now in our day and age. And we'll do
19:08
Speaker 1: all of that right after this. Home in Progress is
19:12
Speaker 1: brought to you by Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore.
19:14
Speaker 1: Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping, and
19:18
Speaker 1: then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away with
19:20
Speaker 1: an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply. The
19:24
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best. And
19:27
Speaker 1: we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco
19:30
Speaker 1: Light Paints and sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And we're talking
19:34
Speaker 1: about Hoosier cabinets, not Hoosier cabinets, but Hoosier cabinets, like
19:40
Speaker 1: the movie, like the Gene Hackman movie, like Indiana Hoosiers,
19:44
Speaker 1: Hoosier cabinets. They're a kitchen storage solution from the early 1900s,
19:47
Speaker 1: and they are still in use. incredibly clever and inspiring
19:52
Speaker 1: even now, even today in 2026. And before I go
19:56
Speaker 1: too much further into all that I want to talk about,
19:59
Speaker 1: I want to walk through one of these things from
20:01
Speaker 1: front to back so you can get a mental image
20:03
Speaker 1: of what we're talking about. And if you're able to,
20:06
Speaker 1: just Google Hoosier cabinets. H-O-O-S-I-E-R, cabinets. Google that. Take a
20:12
Speaker 1: look at some pictures. I've also got a fun video
20:15
Speaker 1: in the show notes of a lady walking you through
20:17
Speaker 1: why she loves hers. It's 12 minutes. It's sometimes, you know,
20:21
Speaker 1: a couple of times maybe a little repetitive, but it's
20:24
Speaker 1: a really fun video. She'll sell you on them even
20:27
Speaker 1: better than I am doing here. So you can find
20:31
Speaker 1: that in the show notes. Just go to repcolite.com. You'll
20:34
Speaker 1: find it right there. But here's the basic layout. You've
20:37
Speaker 1: got a wide lower cabinet that sits on the floor.
20:39
Speaker 1: It's the deepest part of the whole thing. It's usually
20:41
Speaker 1: sitting on casters. Above that is the work surface, that
20:45
Speaker 1: little countertop that I talked about that will slide out.
20:48
Speaker 1: And then above that, you know, kind of mounted on
20:51
Speaker 1: that in some way because that counter will slide out.
20:54
Speaker 1: So mounted on that in such a way that it
20:56
Speaker 1: doesn't impede that, you've got shallower upper cabinets. You've still
21:02
Speaker 1: got room underneath them to work. And quite often in
21:06
Speaker 1: that area, you know, directly above that counter, you've got
21:09
Speaker 1: a little roll top section that gives you easy access
21:12
Speaker 1: to counter level storage. Again, storage that isn't affected by
21:16
Speaker 1: the counter rolling out. So it must sit on something
21:19
Speaker 1: just above that rolling counter, that sliding counter. But anyway,
21:22
Speaker 1: you've got a little shelf area there that's kind of
21:25
Speaker 1: counter level that you can fill with stuff and then
21:28
Speaker 1: you can just hide it all with this little roll
21:30
Speaker 1: top section. you know, divider that keeps that clutter out
21:33
Speaker 1: of sight when you're not working. That's the basic look,
21:36
Speaker 1: and it's all one piece. Now let's look at the details,
21:38
Speaker 1: starting with that work surface again. Now, I've already mentioned
21:41
Speaker 1: a couple times the pull-out counter and the traveling drawers.
21:44
Speaker 1: But that counter, it's often a porcelain enamel or a zinc.
21:48
Speaker 1: It's durable. It's wipeable. It's meant to be worked on
21:51
Speaker 1: really hard. It's really long-lasting. So that's what that material
21:55
Speaker 1: is on that counter. And then above that counter, behind that,
21:58
Speaker 1: One of those upper cabinet doors, again, if you get pictures,
22:01
Speaker 1: this will all make a lot more sense. It's radio
22:04
Speaker 1: and I'm still a newbie at all of this, so
22:07
Speaker 1: I'm probably not doing a good job of describing it.
22:09
Speaker 1: But behind one of those upper cabinet doors, a lot
22:12
Speaker 1: of Hoosier cabinets have this large flower bin. It's a
22:16
Speaker 1: great big bin and it's for storing flower in. And
22:19
Speaker 1: beneath or at the bottom of that bin, you know,
22:22
Speaker 1: it kind of looks like a big chute. And at
22:24
Speaker 1: the bottom of it, there's a built-in sifter and dispenser.
22:28
Speaker 1: So instead of hauling out a sack of flour or
22:30
Speaker 1: digging around in a big bin with a scoop, you
22:33
Speaker 1: just slide your bowl underneath it, turn a crank, and
22:36
Speaker 1: sifted flour drops right where you need it. And many
22:40
Speaker 1: of them also had a sugar bin working on basically
22:42
Speaker 1: the same idea, often on the other side, behind one
22:47
Speaker 1: of the other upper cabinet doors. So that's really, really cool. Really,
22:52
Speaker 1: really cool. Then you've got the doors themselves. If you
22:54
Speaker 1: open the upper or the lower doors, The backs of
22:57
Speaker 1: the doors are working storage and not an inch of
23:01
Speaker 1: space is wasted in these things. Everything is just engineered
23:04
Speaker 1: perfectly to make the most out of all the space
23:08
Speaker 1: that you've got, you know, give you the most storage
23:10
Speaker 1: and the most practical storage. So on the backs of
23:12
Speaker 1: all these doors, you know, all these cabinet doors, you've
23:15
Speaker 1: got spice racks, you've got cookbook holders, you've got racks
23:18
Speaker 1: for pie tins, you've got hooks along the sides. There's
23:21
Speaker 1: essentially no wasted area anywhere. You know, every surface is
23:25
Speaker 1: doing something. down in the wider lower cabinet, when you
23:30
Speaker 1: open those doors, you'll often find a low shelf that
23:32
Speaker 1: slides out for pan storage. And most of them, I
23:35
Speaker 1: guess I can't say most of them, a number of them,
23:38
Speaker 1: a lot of them, that kind of slide out thing
23:41
Speaker 1: is automatic. You open the doors and it kind of
23:43
Speaker 1: just gently rolls out, not in your way, but right
23:47
Speaker 1: into just an easy access position. So you're not going
23:51
Speaker 1: to have to be laying on the floor, crawling around
23:53
Speaker 1: with a flashlight looking for pans or whatever, like I
23:56
Speaker 1: have to do at all my lower cabinets, the shelf
24:00
Speaker 1: rolls out. And I know a lot of modern shelves
24:02
Speaker 1: will do this, but this was happening again back in 1900s.
24:07
Speaker 1: They had this built in. So cool. Then add in
24:10
Speaker 1: all the other little nooks and crannies that are built
24:13
Speaker 1: into these things for storage. And you see how amazingly
24:16
Speaker 1: clever and practical this could be. And all of it
24:19
Speaker 1: is packed into a piece of furniture that's taking up literally,
24:22
Speaker 1: you know, four feet of of wall space. It's four
24:26
Speaker 1: feet wide. It's proof that a small footprint, if that's
24:29
Speaker 1: what you're working with, it's not necessarily a limitation. It's
24:33
Speaker 1: a design constraint. That's for sure. But constraints make people
24:36
Speaker 1: clever if you will actually embrace and, you know, meet
24:40
Speaker 1: that constraint head on. So if you've got a small
24:42
Speaker 1: room somewhere or, you know, just a small space and
24:45
Speaker 1: you've struggled with the fact and, you know, bemoaned the
24:48
Speaker 1: fact that this is just too tiny of an area
24:50
Speaker 1: for what you need, it could be, you know, this
24:53
Speaker 1: isn't magic. But check out these Hoosier cabinets, and who knows?
24:58
Speaker 1: You know, a little bit of cleverness, a little bit
25:00
Speaker 1: of a, you know, a different idea, a different way
25:03
Speaker 1: to use some of the space, and you might find
25:05
Speaker 1: you've got all the room you need and then some. Anyway,
25:09
Speaker 1: that gives you kind of a ballpark idea of what
25:10
Speaker 1: they look like. Now let's talk briefly about the name,
25:13
Speaker 1: Hoosier cabinets, and I want to talk about who invented them.
25:16
Speaker 1: And as to that part, the inventor, that one's easy.
25:19
Speaker 1: Nobody seems to know for sure exactly who invented them.
25:22
Speaker 1: You can find patents for kitchen cabinets going back to
25:25
Speaker 1: about 1885. And what seems to have happened is that
25:28
Speaker 1: a bunch of Indiana furniture companies landed on the same
25:31
Speaker 1: idea around that same time. You know, a bunch of them.
25:35
Speaker 1: According to the museum in Napanee, Indiana, which has one
25:38
Speaker 1: of the best collections of these Hoosier cabinets in the country,
25:43
Speaker 1: according to them, no one person and no one company
25:46
Speaker 1: gets the credit. So there's a lot of claims, a
25:48
Speaker 1: lot of companies will take the credit, but according to
25:51
Speaker 1: a kind of an impartial historical source, they're kind of saying, hey,
25:55
Speaker 1: we can't really pin it down to any one person
25:58
Speaker 1: or any one company. What we do know is the scale.
26:01
Speaker 1: We know that there are basically 130 or so different
26:06
Speaker 1: companies that were building versions of this cabinet in the
26:10
Speaker 1: time period that they were really popular. We can track
26:13
Speaker 1: them down. We can see them through newspaper ads, through
26:16
Speaker 1: sales listings, and basically just walking through antique malls and
26:19
Speaker 1: looking at what's actually out there. Most of the companies
26:22
Speaker 1: who were building these were in Indiana. Some of them
26:25
Speaker 1: were in Ohio and around the Midwest, but most of
26:28
Speaker 1: them were located in Indiana. Now, the biggest one, the
26:31
Speaker 1: biggest company making these was the Hoosier Manufacturing Company in Newcastle, Indiana.
26:36
Speaker 1: They were the loudest advertiser, and that's why their name,
26:39
Speaker 1: a lot of people believe that their name is what
26:45
Speaker 1: became the generic term for the whole category of these cabinets.
26:49
Speaker 1: You know, basically the same way every tissue became a Kleenex.
26:53
Speaker 1: Every one of these types of cabinets became a Hoosier cabinet,
26:56
Speaker 1: possibly because of the Hoosier manufacturing company. That's one of
27:01
Speaker 1: the claims. But even that claim is contested. You know,
27:04
Speaker 1: some people argue that it's just because they came from Indiana.
27:06
Speaker 1: You know, the Hoosiers, it came from Indiana. That's why
27:09
Speaker 1: they're Hoosier cabinets. Either way, they took off, as we
27:13
Speaker 1: already discussed, and eventually one in 10 kitchens had one.
27:17
Speaker 1: And that may not sound like a ton, but it's
27:19
Speaker 1: a big deal considering the price and the timeframe that
27:23
Speaker 1: they were really popular. All right. So if they were
27:25
Speaker 1: so cool and all of that, where did they go?
27:27
Speaker 1: You know, what happened to them? Well, the answer is really,
27:30
Speaker 1: really simple, really obvious. Built-in cabinets came about, you know,
27:33
Speaker 1: they became more popular and they became kind of the
27:36
Speaker 1: standard in kitchens. By the late 1920s, houses were getting
27:39
Speaker 1: built with real cabinets worked in, you know, continuous countertops
27:43
Speaker 1: and a freestanding cabinet suddenly just really couldn't compete with
27:46
Speaker 1: a whole wall of storage. You know, that's part of it.
27:49
Speaker 1: Another part is that these cabinets sat on legs. They
27:52
Speaker 1: were furniture. And furniture on legs can be hard to
27:56
Speaker 1: clean underneath. You know, dust, grease, all of that collects
27:59
Speaker 1: in that open space below. And it's just a pain
28:01
Speaker 1: to get at. Built-ins won partly on being brilliant and
28:05
Speaker 1: partly on just being easier to keep clean. And to
28:09
Speaker 1: combat this decline in people wanting these cabinets... The Hoosier
28:14
Speaker 1: cabinet company started coming out with prettier patterns, brighter colors.
28:18
Speaker 1: One company offered their basic cabinet in a vaguely Mediterranean styling,
28:22
Speaker 1: but none of that worked. You know, by 1935, the
28:25
Speaker 1: Hoosier cabinet was considered old fashioned and Hoosier manufacturing was
28:29
Speaker 1: sold off. That company, that big company that we talked about,
28:32
Speaker 1: sold off and liquidated in 1942. So you'd think that
28:37
Speaker 1: was the end of these cabinets, that they faded into
28:40
Speaker 1: the sunset of history at that point. But they didn't
28:43
Speaker 1: because they're so cool. You know, Hoosier cabinets are having
28:46
Speaker 1: a resurgence. People are seeing the value, the appeal, and
28:49
Speaker 1: they're snatching them up. You know, either old oak cabinets
28:52
Speaker 1: that need work. You know, they can be found for
28:55
Speaker 1: a few hundred bucks or so, depending. You can find
28:58
Speaker 1: them or you can also find fully restored ones, cleaned up, refinished.
29:02
Speaker 1: The hardware is all sorted out. And those are going
29:05
Speaker 1: to start around $ 1, 100 and average closer to $ 1, 800 or so.
29:09
Speaker 1: But you can find them all over the place in
29:11
Speaker 1: all different conditions. You can also find plans online, you know,
29:15
Speaker 1: including some from Popular Woodworking and other sites like that
29:19
Speaker 1: regarding on how to build your own. Now, why would
29:21
Speaker 1: you want to do that? Well, again, you've just got
29:24
Speaker 1: to look at them a little bit. And I think
29:25
Speaker 1: one of the best ways to get a really good
29:27
Speaker 1: tour of them is to check out that video that
29:30
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier in the segment. The lady that walks
29:32
Speaker 1: you through her cabinet shows you all the different things
29:35
Speaker 1: she does with it. She uses it for baking and
29:37
Speaker 1: it's absolutely perfect. She's just remodeled. her entire kitchen, you know,
29:41
Speaker 1: all new cabinets and everything. And she says that this
29:44
Speaker 1: old Hoosier cabinet that she's got is the one place
29:47
Speaker 1: in her kitchen that absolutely works flawlessly. You know, even
29:51
Speaker 1: with the new kitchen design, that's not as good as
29:54
Speaker 1: this Hoosier cabinet for what she's trying to do. So
29:57
Speaker 1: those are Hoosier cabinets. And I've got to confess, I'd
30:00
Speaker 1: never heard of them before. So I was really intrigued
30:03
Speaker 1: when I ran into them and I decided to make
30:05
Speaker 1: a segment out of them. Now, what I want to
30:08
Speaker 1: do is take a break. And when we come back,
30:10
Speaker 1: I want to pull four, five, six design principles out
30:14
Speaker 1: of these Hoosier cabinets and take them and apply them
30:18
Speaker 1: to pretty much any project you tackle in your home,
30:21
Speaker 1: any remodeling or reorganizing project. There's a lot of good
30:24
Speaker 1: stuff in these cabinets that we can apply to other things.
30:27
Speaker 1: We're going to do that right after this. You're listening
30:31
Speaker 1: to Home in Progress, where the projects are real, the mistakes,
30:34
Speaker 1: they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational, and the only thing
30:40
Speaker 1: more stubborn than that old wallpaper on your bathroom wall
30:43
Speaker 1: is your determination to get it fixed. Proudly sponsored by
30:47
Speaker 1: Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore. Paint with a purpose,
30:50
Speaker 1: people who care, and everything you need to get the
30:52
Speaker 1: job done right. And we're back. You're listening to Home
30:55
Speaker 1: in Progress by Repco Light Paints, sponsored by Benjamin Moore.
30:58
Speaker 1: And we've been talking about Hoosier cabinets, H-O-O-S-I-E-R, Hoosier cabinets.
31:04
Speaker 1: And I know most of you aren't going to go
31:06
Speaker 1: rushing out to buy one, and that's fine. But I've
31:08
Speaker 1: been thinking about that cabinet for a while now. And
31:11
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to the fact that whoever designed
31:13
Speaker 1: it understood some design principles that we often forget. You know,
31:17
Speaker 1: they're not unattainable design principles anymore. Some of them are
31:20
Speaker 1: common sense, but we tend to overlook them, to forget them.
31:24
Speaker 1: Here are four of them. Four design principles pulled straight
31:27
Speaker 1: out of that cabinet that apply to pretty much any
31:30
Speaker 1: project that you can take on in your home. You know,
31:33
Speaker 1: your garage, your closet, your laundry room, your bathroom, your workbench,
31:37
Speaker 1: the cupboard under your sink, any space in your home,
31:40
Speaker 1: these will apply. All right. The first principle that I
31:42
Speaker 1: want to cover is this. Name the one job that
31:45
Speaker 1: the space is supposed to do and then let the
31:47
Speaker 1: job do the cuttings. What I mean is the Hoosier cabinet,
31:51
Speaker 1: it wasn't a kitchen. It knew that and it didn't
31:54
Speaker 1: try to be a kitchen. It was a baking and
31:56
Speaker 1: a prep station. That's it. That's what it was for.
31:58
Speaker 1: It didn't hold the good china. It didn't hold the
32:01
Speaker 1: roasting pan that you use twice a year. It didn't
32:04
Speaker 1: hold the canned goods. You know, those were for the pantry.
32:06
Speaker 1: You know, the cabinet had one purpose and the items
32:09
Speaker 1: in it all served that goal. Now, here's the slightly
32:13
Speaker 1: broader homeowner version of this And I think it could
32:17
Speaker 1: be really useful, you know, for some people more than others.
32:20
Speaker 1: But generally speaking, stuff drifts into a room. You know,
32:24
Speaker 1: it happens over years. Somebody sets something down at one
32:27
Speaker 1: point and it stays. You know, it gets moved to
32:29
Speaker 1: a shelf maybe because it was in the way. It
32:31
Speaker 1: gets set over here. And then that's just where that
32:35
Speaker 1: thing is kept from that point on. Nobody ever decided
32:37
Speaker 1: that it belonged there. It's kind of like a squatter.
32:40
Speaker 1: You know, it just arrived and never ended up leaving.
32:43
Speaker 1: And over time... We kind of become blind to it.
32:46
Speaker 1: We don't even think about it. We just kind of
32:47
Speaker 1: that's where it is. And, you know, that's that. For example,
32:52
Speaker 1: that maybe doesn't make sense, but go stand in your
32:54
Speaker 1: laundry room right now and take a look at what's
32:56
Speaker 1: on the shelves or check out the storage shelves in
32:59
Speaker 1: your garage or the cleaning cupboard or your workbench or whatever.
33:02
Speaker 1: Check out those different areas. And I bet. You're going
33:05
Speaker 1: to find things that really don't belong there when you
33:07
Speaker 1: really think about it. You know, you may not see
33:09
Speaker 1: it at first, but look it over. Think about what
33:12
Speaker 1: you use that place for and do these things belong here?
33:14
Speaker 1: You know, I've got things in my laundry room on
33:16
Speaker 1: the shelves there that are taking up space that really,
33:19
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the day have nothing
33:21
Speaker 1: to do with laundry. They just arrived one day and
33:24
Speaker 1: they never left. And I don't even think about them.
33:27
Speaker 1: Same thing in the cleaning cupboard. And all of those
33:29
Speaker 1: things take up space from items that could be there,
33:32
Speaker 1: that should be there. So the first move in any
33:35
Speaker 1: space isn't buying more storage materials or whatever, expanding your area,
33:44
Speaker 1: putting shelves higher and higher. The first thing is just
33:46
Speaker 1: naming the job that the room or the area is
33:49
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish and then getting rid of all the
33:52
Speaker 1: things that don't serve that job. It costs nothing. It's
33:56
Speaker 1: a great first step. And you'll often gain a lot
33:59
Speaker 1: of storage or some storage or workspace when you move
34:03
Speaker 1: the things to better homes. You're going to gain that
34:05
Speaker 1: for free. So start with that. That's the first principle.
34:08
Speaker 1: The second principle is related. Once you've named the job
34:12
Speaker 1: that the area is for, get everything that the job
34:14
Speaker 1: needs within reach of the one spot. First principle, get
34:18
Speaker 1: the things that don't apply to the job out of
34:20
Speaker 1: the spot. You know, name the spot and get the
34:22
Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't apply out of it. This one, get
34:25
Speaker 1: everything that you need within reach of the spot. You
34:31
Speaker 1: And don't get up again. It's going to save you
34:33
Speaker 1: a thousand steps. Everything you need for the work that
34:36
Speaker 1: you're going to do at that workstation is inside the
34:41
Speaker 1: sweep of your arms. You know, the flour is right there.
34:44
Speaker 1: You don't even have to get up from your chair
34:45
Speaker 1: to get it. There's a dispenser. You just turn the crank.
34:48
Speaker 1: There it is. The sugar's right there. The spices are
34:51
Speaker 1: on the door, the bowls and all of that stuff.
34:53
Speaker 1: It's kind of near your feet, you know, it's right
34:57
Speaker 1: down there. You're not walking anywhere to get this stuff.
34:59
Speaker 1: So tonight, maybe count your steps while you're making dinner.
35:03
Speaker 1: You know, how many times do you walk away from
35:05
Speaker 1: the counter that you're working at to go to the pantry,
35:07
Speaker 1: to the far drawer, to the cabinet over the fridge, whatever.
35:11
Speaker 1: Each time you wander off to get something that you
35:14
Speaker 1: need is a potential design weakness in the layout of
35:17
Speaker 1: your space. You know, something that you might be able
35:19
Speaker 1: to fix and something that can make a job like
35:21
Speaker 1: food prep or whatever, again, make it easier, make it
35:25
Speaker 1: more enjoyable. Now, can you always fix it? Of course not.
35:29
Speaker 1: You can't always fix it. But in my kitchen, for example,
35:32
Speaker 1: I waste a ton of steps. And when I look
35:34
Speaker 1: at where I'm storing things, I can see that I'm
35:37
Speaker 1: not storing things based on where I will use them.
35:40
Speaker 1: I'm just storing them based off, literally, I think I'm
35:44
Speaker 1: basing it on how the kitchen drawers and cupboards were
35:47
Speaker 1: laid out in the house that I grew up in.
35:49
Speaker 1: It's just kind of a default position. It just seems
35:52
Speaker 1: like That's the drawer for this stuff. Is it the
35:55
Speaker 1: best place for that particular, you know, whatever, you know,
35:59
Speaker 1: group of stuff? Maybe not, but that's where I'm putting it.
36:02
Speaker 1: So look your space over with that in mind and
36:04
Speaker 1: try to get the items for given tasks all within
36:06
Speaker 1: arm's reach. And if you're designing a space or completely remodeling,
36:11
Speaker 1: you know, something, don't forget this point. You know, keep
36:13
Speaker 1: it front and center in your mind when you work
36:15
Speaker 1: out the placement of new cabinets or whatever. The third
36:19
Speaker 1: principle is this. Use the space that you've got creatively.
36:23
Speaker 1: You know, go back to the Hoosier cabinets in your
36:24
Speaker 1: mind and picture the doors. You know, every door interior,
36:28
Speaker 1: you know, the inside of the door is doing work.
36:30
Speaker 1: Spice racks are mounted right to the door, a cookbook holder,
36:33
Speaker 1: racks for pie tins, whatever. Some of them even had
36:36
Speaker 1: charts printed inside, you know, with baking times and measurements
36:40
Speaker 1: and all of that on it. There's essentially no wasted
36:43
Speaker 1: area in these cabinets. Every surface is carrying something or
36:47
Speaker 1: serving some purpose. Now for me, you know, maybe for you,
36:51
Speaker 1: but for sure for me, My storage problems usually aren't
36:55
Speaker 1: entirely or completely square footage issues. My main storage problems
37:01
Speaker 1: is that I'm usually using only part of the available space.
37:05
Speaker 1: You know, open a kitchen cabinet and look at the shelf,
37:07
Speaker 1: for example, with the spice, you know, bottles in it.
37:10
Speaker 1: Now that shelf is set at a height for cereal
37:13
Speaker 1: boxes a lot of the times. So above those, you know,
37:16
Speaker 1: three inch or whatever spice jars, there are eight inches
37:20
Speaker 1: or whatever of dead air, you know, wasted space. If
37:23
Speaker 1: you've got those little tiered racks, you know, a lot
37:24
Speaker 1: of us have those little tiered spice racks. That makes
37:27
Speaker 1: it better. But under the back spices, you know, the
37:30
Speaker 1: back of that rack, there's still empty space. Is there
37:33
Speaker 1: a way to create a storage solution that would still
37:36
Speaker 1: allow you quick access to those spices without wasting that space?
37:40
Speaker 1: You know, what about taking a page out of the
37:42
Speaker 1: Hoosier cabinet playbook and just mounting a spice rack on
37:45
Speaker 1: the inside of the door? You know, could I make
37:47
Speaker 1: that work? Could you make that work? That's just one
37:50
Speaker 1: example of what I'm getting at, you know. I've got
37:53
Speaker 1: that going on all over the place in my home.
37:56
Speaker 1: Areas where I'm just not taking advantage, full advantage, creative
38:00
Speaker 1: advantage of the space that I've got. I'm sure you
38:03
Speaker 1: have the same thing as well. All right, fourth principle,
38:07
Speaker 1: last principle. Borrow the space, then give it back. Who's
38:11
Speaker 1: your cabinets? They have that pull-out counter. You know, I
38:13
Speaker 1: love that so much. You pull it out, you gain
38:15
Speaker 1: six or eight inches of counter workspace. But that's only
38:18
Speaker 1: half of the genius of it. When you'd rather have
38:20
Speaker 1: the walkway than the counter, you just push the counter
38:23
Speaker 1: back in. So cool. So smart. Space doesn't have to
38:27
Speaker 1: be permanent to be useful. So ask yourself, where am
38:30
Speaker 1: I short on space? Only sometimes. You know, in those areas,
38:34
Speaker 1: you don't need permanent square footage solutions. You need space
38:37
Speaker 1: that shows up on demand. Now, what does this look like?
38:40
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like pie in the sky. But
38:42
Speaker 1: the laundry room, it's a great example, an easy example
38:44
Speaker 1: in the house. You need usually a big flat surface
38:47
Speaker 1: to fold space. clothes on, and you usually need that
38:50
Speaker 1: for about 11 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever a
38:54
Speaker 1: few times a week. The rest of the time, you
38:56
Speaker 1: need to be able to walk through the room. So
38:58
Speaker 1: a fold-down surface that's hinged to the wall above the
39:01
Speaker 1: washer and dryer solves all your problems. It can cost
39:04
Speaker 1: about $ 40 and take you an afternoon's worth of time,
39:08
Speaker 1: and you can give yourself that folding surface when you
39:10
Speaker 1: need it. but it can fold away when you want
39:12
Speaker 1: to have that space for something else. The same kind
39:14
Speaker 1: of thing could apply to a workbench in a garage.
39:17
Speaker 1: You know, hinge it against the back wall and flip
39:19
Speaker 1: it up when you don't need it. You get the idea.
39:21
Speaker 1: The biggest point is to remember the Hoosier cabinets accomplished
39:25
Speaker 1: a ton of heavy lifting in terms of storage and
39:27
Speaker 1: practicality in a four-foot-wide footprint. So lack of space isn't
39:31
Speaker 1: the biggest problem that we encounter. It's a design constraint
39:34
Speaker 1: for sure, but constraints can bring out our most clever,
39:37
Speaker 1: most ingenious solutions if we tackle them head on and
39:41
Speaker 1: with some creativity. So see what you can do in
39:43
Speaker 1: your space. All right, that's going to do it. If
39:45
Speaker 1: you want to catch this episode again, you can find
39:46
Speaker 1: it online at repcolite.com Whatever you do today, make sure
39:50
Speaker 1: paint's a part of it. Have a great weekend, everybody,
39:53
Speaker 1: and I'll see you next week. For Home and Progress,
39:55
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.