DIY Staircase Spice Rack

My "pantry" is a re-purposed bookshelf tucked next to the fridge. With space this cramped, I often end up disorganized and having to dig through a mess of ingredients to find the one thing I need.

Sad, Messy Kitchen Shelf :(

I'm always looking for ways to better organize my limited kitchen space. But spice racks are expensive, bulky, and many of them require that you use only one particular size and shape of spice jar. Lame.

So I decided to make my own, easily customized spice rack for under $20. This staircase-style rack is perfect to fit into a pantry shelf or set on the counter top. And it can be easily expanded if you need to add more "stairs."

DIY Cinder Block Aquarium Stand

Aquariums are a beautiful addition to the home. They are also insanely heavy and fragile. Think about it this way: a 55-gallon aquarium is basically five panes of glass holding over 500 pounds of water, sand, rocks, and fish.

If one of those panes were to crack because of unevenly distributed weight, you would likely have disastrous water damage on your hands. So you obviously can't just plop an aquarium onto a spare rickety table and hope for the best. But I've never been satisfied with the quality of aquarium stands sold in pet stores, and on top of that they can run you hundreds of dollars.

There's got to be a better option, right?