When thinking about home furnishings, people often overlook the humble cart. This is a shame, as the cart is one of the most useful multipurpose items in the house. You can easily custom build your own carts to do a variety of functions. Below, we break down the uses of carts in several of your rooms, with tips on what kind of construction you will want to use.

 

Living Room

A small multipurpose cart in the living room can make the space more useful and productive. You can pull it in front of you and put your laptop computer on it, creating a mobile office. You can use it as a small spare table, so you can place food or drinks on it. You can even play card games on the surface. A good living room cart is probably not that big; consider calibrating its height to match the furniture in the living room, so you can know that you can work easily with it on your sofa or recliner.

 

Kitchen

During your everyday life, a kitchen cart can help you tote dishes to the dining room and move around heavy grocery sacks. But kitchen carts really shine when it is time to have your friends and family over for a gathering. Load your cart up with snacks and you have a mobile buffet, leaving your tables free for party games or present piles. If the party is of the adult variety, you may want to break out a variety of the kitchen cart called the bar cart — a wheeled conveyance for your finest liquors that lets you bring the party from room to room with you.

 

Laundry

Image via Flickr by Wicker Paradise

 

If you have a large family, or just don’t do the wash very often, laundry is a big chore. A laundry basket on wheels can help you schlep around your clothing and sheets, saving some wear and tear on your back. If you happen to have a laundry room in your home, this is a useful way to combine your laundry piles in one place and transport it to your appliances; if you build it to match the sitting height of your furniture, it can even help make the tedious process of folding less strenuous. If you go to a laundromat, you can still use a cart to help transport the wash from your house to the car.

 

Garage

Any mechanic worth their salt knows the value of a sturdy tool cart. In your garage, this item lets you keep all the most important tools for whatever project you are working on in one place, saving you the trouble of crisscrossing the garage when you need a new item while also helping prevent the loss of your valuable equipment. The cart can also help when you need to move heavy parts to and from the machines you are working on, and serve as a central place for shop rags and cleaning fluids.

Carts are an amazingly versatile item, serving many purposes in many rooms. Building your own carts lets you make sure they will serve your purposes perfectly. If you spend a little time on them now, you will find yourself astonished by the dividends they can pay later.