Pallet Shoe Tree

I don't wanna say our house is small, but Google Earth didn't place an address on it because it assumed the house was a detached garage (badump bump, I'm here all week). Due to our diminutive dwelling, we have to be on constant clutter patrol. Our closet is only 6' x 2' and contains most of our clothes. Our shoes frequently pile up by the front door or spill outta the closet. Today I solved that with a small wooden shipping pallet I found lying next to a dumpster.

The pallet was too big to fit into the small area available so I had to take it apart and cut it down to 25"x33". Sounds simple enough. Right? I've taken pallets apart before, but never with the intent of preserving the wood. In the past it was more smashing and chopping until it would fit in the wood stove. I was unaware that they use 3" staples to put those things together. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have difficulty driving a 2" nail into meringue without bending it, I don't have a clue how you would drive a 3" staple into solid wood. It looks from the picture like I could be picking up Mexican (whoa oh) Radio with that staple.

I tried removing the first board with a pry bar and hammer. That resulted in three much smaller boards. So I grabbed my hack saw and began sawing through all of the staples. About 15 minutes and a bloody thumb later, I had dissembled the pallet.

I cut the pieces to the appropriate lengths and reassembled it to the specs I desired. I left a 3" gap at the bottom for boots or shoes that might get scratched by the wood. At the top I put a 1" gap for flippy floppies. The other three gaps are 2". I installed a board on the back to mount the shoe tree to the closet wall and left the middle board off of the front until it had been installed.

I installed it with a couple of dry wall hangers and put the last board in place. This took me about an hour and we now have our closet floor back.

In the last few days I've realized that the dollar has lost any realistic value. Recently several companies have sold for $1 billion. That's million with a 'B'. A phone app (Instagram), 53% of the Yellow Pages (Who even uses that anymore? Seriously?), and 800 of AOL's patents (be honest, did anyone really know AOL still existed? I mean really. There's probably one elderly couple in Kona who just got a CD in the mail and decided it's finally time they get on the interwebs. But other than that.. who uses AOL?) Each of these companies sold for $1 billion! Based on the value/usefulness ratio of those companies I have set the going price for my pallet shoe tree at $1 manillion.