I made this from an old pallet

Have you seen that Pin?

I’ve stayed far, far away from building with pallets because what I know of old pallets is that they are full of rusty surprises and slivers. And they need to be pried apart in order to build new stuff out of them.

But I acquired a pallet this spring and I had to deal with it. So I started prying pieces apart and got this far.

Within minutes of getting my tools out I had shards of dried out, crusty, useless wood flying everywhere.

At one point I had a hammer, a pry bar, and my left hand stuck between rotten pieces of pine and was swearing profusely. By the time I got my hand and the tools out of the pallet I was so pissed off I threw them in the toolbox and stormed inside. There may have been gin.

I let the pallet think about its actions a few days and went at it from a new angle: jig saw. I jigged the crap out of that pallet and salvaged a few boards without the typical incidents.

Then I started building. And building. And now I get why people think they need new crappy boxes made out of crappy, dirty wood.

Then I grabbed new wood and started a new set of boxes because I was sick of getting splinters every time I fired the nail gun.

–Side note: while working on this round of boxes I attached one to my thumb. My tetanus is up to date – I checked.–

This is where I ended up: two long, skinny boxes (one pallet crap, one new), two square boxes, one big square (from crap pallet), and a random triangle attempt that has already been converted to scrap. That’s the one that may or may not have my blood on it.

My cousin grows and sells succulents at farmers markets around the metro and she’s selling these bad boys with cool plants in them. Hint: check out HenandChicks_MN on Instagram. Pretty!

My question for you is this: what do people do with boxes made out of crappy, slivery, dirty pallets? I seriously don’t have a place in my house for one.