Harper's indoor book for boys

by Joseph H. Adams

A Vegetable-bin

For a corner of the cellar, and where it is convenient to the staircase, a very useful vegetable-bin may be made from a few boards and slats (Fig. 14). The bin may be of any width and length, but for a house of the average size, it need not be more than six feet long and eighteen inches wide each compartment being from sixteen to eighteen inches wide.

The front, back, and ends are ten inches high, and two of the partitions are the same height. The partitions for the potato and turnip compartments should extend eighteen inches above the top of the bin, since these vegetables bulk largely. The bin rests on two battens nailed to the brick or stone foundation-walls of the cellar, two feet above the floor. At the exposed corner a foot, or leg, twenty-four inches long, supports it. The bottom of the bin is made of long slats nailed an inch apart, so that the dirt from the vegetables will fall through to the floor, from which it can be easily swept up. The ventilation from the slat bottom prevents the vegetables from decaying as quickly as they would in a box or barrel with a tight bottom.

Across the tops of the high partitions, and propped up at the exposed end of the bin, a shelf or ledge ten inches wide will accommodate cabbages, lettuce, bunches of carrots and beets, parsnips, and various other vegetables. In the illustration only five compartments are shown in the main part of the bin, but a bin of almost any length can be constructed according to the space available and the requirements of the family.

A Spoon-bar and Saucepan-rack

For the kitchen, a rack on which to hang spoons, ladles, saucepans, cups, and other small accessories to the culinary department is shown in Fig. 15.

It can be made to fit any wall space in a kitchen, but the brackets should be twenty inches high and ten inches wide at the top. They may be made from most any wood one and a half inches square, and put together with lap-joints. Three rails, seven-eighths by two inches, are attached to the inside of the front bracket-rails or supports, with long, slim screws or steel-wire nails. All the wood-work is painted two coats of white enamel, or any color to match the wood-work of the kitchen. Brass screws or galvanized nails are driven in the bars at regular distances apart, on which to hang the utensils, and the rack is then to be securely attached to the wall.

A Medicine-chest

Every house should contain a medicine-chest, where the necessary boxes and bottles containing the family medicines may always be found in time of need. Chests may be made in any size and shape, and adapted to the spaces they may occupy on a wall or in a bath-room closet.