(The following took place on the week of September 12, 2023)
I haven’t done almost any woodworking in nearly 15 years. But I want to get back
into it! At least, I think I do. And this is NOT an inexpensive hobby to get
into to not be sure… But I’m pretty confident that I’ll enjoy it. So much
so, that I bought a table saw! But not incredibly confident, so I got a somewhat
cheap (but still good!) table saw that I knew I could resell easily, if needed
I have some tools I have accrued over the recent years, so with that plus my
table saw, I should be able to come up with something, right?? Oh no. Maybe me
not being able to come up with a project is a sign that I won’t enjoy this hobby
after all… 
I don’t want to just buy a bunch of tools and materials
and then not use them. What should I do to move forward?
So I do what I always do when I am struggling, I talked to my wife 
about
it! I told her that I want to make something small, but useful. For me, her, or
us, it doesn’t matter. Just so I can get back into the world of woodworking and
get an indication if I am even still interested in it. After brainstorming over
the next couple of days, we came up with a few ideas:
- Single hanging wall cabinet for our bathroom to store hair tools and products
- Small floor cabinet with countertop for our laundry room for folding clothes and better storage
- Shelf caddy for our Yeti lids (there are almost no normal glasses or coasters in our house!)
- A box for her hair bows
The first two ideas sounded very intimidating, and I would need many more tools for them. The third idea was a bit too simple which made me not as motivated to make it, and we didn’t think it was really useful. But the fourth idea sounded perfect! It was simple enough that I could make it with the tools I have, but complex enough that I would learn a lot from it. And it would be so useful! It’s something she would use every day.
And if you’re thinking “Why go through all this trouble to make a box just for
hair bows?” …then you aren’t married 
They are constantly getting lost,
but at the same time, they are everywhere! So, I guess this is really a project
for both of us This box will be a single location for them, and it
will be a nice decorative piece for our bedroom.
We collected all the hair bows we could find, formed them into a pile with our hands, and measured the diameter of the pile, which was 8 inches (20 cm). So, I decided to make the box an 8-inch cube! I also decided to use 3/4” (19 mm) plywood to get used to working with that thickness, since my intentions if I were to continue woodworking would be to make furniture for our house, such as cabinets.
Here is a picture of my initial thoughts on the design, which I’ll delve more into in my next article on this project:
This was a surprisingly difficult task to come up with a first woodworking project! Especially since I was trying to find a delicate balance of something that was simple enough to make with the tools I have, but complex enough that I would learn if I still enjoyed woodworking. And I think I found that balance with this project!
A lesson I learned through this experience is that it doesn’t have to be a
perfect idea. I just need a “good enough” idea to get me started, and I’ll
figure out the rest as I go 
Pixel