Home Improvement : Child’s Hamper Helps to Spur Tidiness Habit

When children are old enough to climb out of their cribs, it is good to teach them to drop their soiled clothes into their own bedroom clothes hamper.

If you don’t already have one, here is a compact hamper--17 inches square and 32 inches high--that you can easily build in a weekend. You’ll notice that this isn’t the usual hamper; this one takes the shape of a happy bear.

Begin by laying out all the parts (as shown in Figure 1) on a 4-by-6-foot piece of APA-grade trademarked AB plywood one-half-inch thick, or you can use MDO (medium density overlay), which has the advantage of paper-covered sides and therefore is grain-free.

Make your cuts in order as indicated, separating the pieces. A bench or radial arm saw is best, but if you have only a portable electric saw or a saber saw, use a fence to make certain the cuts are straight.

With the individual pieces cut to size, trace the lines of the shaded sections and cut these with a saber saw. Use a fine-toothed blade to keep splintering to a minimum.

Sand all pieces and assemble with white glue and 1 1/4-inch wire brads (Figure 2). Since you will be end-nailing the pieces together, start by driving the brads at 4-inch intervals through the front piece until they just about break through the surface.

Then coat the edges of the two side pieces with white glue and nail the front in place. Repeat the procedure with the back. Use a square to make certain the corners are at 90 degrees. If you don’t have a square, measure the diagonals; once they are of equal length the assembly will be exactly square.

Allow the glue to dry and then glue in place the paw blocks (two for each front leg and one for each back leg) and the bear’s head and heart. Use 2-inch brass hinges for the top and drill a three-quarter-inch “finger” hole to make opening the top easy.

The hamper bag can be cut from just about any cloth.