Bigger Than the Three of Us

How To Add a Bucket and Pulley to a Playset

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Simple DIY Pulleys for kids can be so much fun! Use this tutorial to DIY a bucket and a pulley for a treehouse. Treehouse accessories can be super pricey, but this project won’t break the bank nor be a huge time investment. 

Add a bucket and pulley to a playset.

Special thanks to BLACK+DECKER for sponsoring this post and for introducing me to the AutoSense Drill with it’s automatic clutch. 

How To Add a Bucket and Pulley to a Playset

When we were thinking about treehouse ideas and potential add-ons for the treehouse, I was blown away by the prices of all the treehouse accessories. Seriously, most of the treehouse swings start around $100 and go up. I knew my little guy would love all those higher-priced accessories but I also knew that he would love a simple treehouse addition as well. I think Luke was the one to mention that we should just add a treehouse bucket pulley system. To be honest, when he mentioned it, I wasn’t even sure what a pulley was! So, first off… 

What is a Pulley and How Does a Pulley Work?

A pulley is basically a wheel with a cord (or chain) that goes around the wheel. A pulley lessens the amount of strength (or force) needed to raise a heavy object. They are often used with heavy objects but can be a super fun, simple DIY machine for kids to make and play with as well.

This project would totally work with a treehouse or even off a back deck. I think it’s just something that adds some fun and excitement no matter where you put it.  

Supplies needed to make your own bucket and pulley for an outdoor playlet

Supplies Needed For A Simple Rope Pulley

As far as tools go, you will only need a drill.  We used the BLACK+DECKER Autosense self-torquing drill. No more arm wobbling because of the weight of the drill. This baby is light and powerful!

How to Make a Simple Pulley For Kids

Start by deciding where you want your bucket to hang. For us, we wanted the bucket to be accessed from the top of the treehouse but safely without having to reach out too far to grab it. We determined that it would be best for ours to hang out on the side by the monkey rings. Our monkey rings extend off the back side of the treehouse on a separate arm of the play set. We wanted our little guy to be able to pull/lower the bucket without hitting anything and also be able to use the monkey rings while the bucket was down.

Next, you need to determine placement on your beam. We centered ours from top to bottom. Once you have determined placement, drill the holes for your hook. I’m sure you can find different hook attachments, but we went for a C-shaped hook that has bolts attached. You basically drill a hole through the beam in the treehouse that is the same diameter as the bolts of the C-shaped hook. 

Drilling holes for the pulley to make a bucket pulley on the playset

Using a Black and Decker drill to drill holes for pulley

Before you install your hook, you will want to place your pulley on the ring of the hook. Most pulleys that we looked at had a ring attachment at the top so all you need to do is slide the ring over the C hook. Then, install the hook into the drilled holes. Tighten up the bolts on the back of the C hook to fasten.

Adding a pulley to a treehouse for a bucket and pulley system.

Next, you need to make a knot in the rope around your carabiner. If you are new to making knots, here’s seven knot options that you could try. This knot isn’t going to be holding a person’s weight like in rock climbing, but you can still use the directions if you are new to making knots in ropes.

How to attach a rope to a carabiner to make a pulley

Once you have your knot made, hook your carabiner on to the bucket.

Treehouse ideas for kids that you can DIY

Thread the opposite end of the rope through your pulley and then burn the edges of the rope so that you don’t have any fraying.

How to keep your outdoor rope from fraying

Inside the playset, decide where you want your cleat to be (where your rope ties off). Make sure the place you choose is easily assessable for little hands/arms. The cleat is what is going to hold the excess rope when you have the bucket up. When the bucket is on the ground or being used closer to the ground, the cleat will not be holding any rope. 

Black and Decker Autosense Drill for adding a bucket and pulley to your playlet

Once you have determined where you want your cleat to be, screw the screws in to hold it in place.  So, the cool thing about the BLACK+DECKER 20V Max Lithium Drill is that it has an automatic clutch, meaning that you just set the drill to drive mode and it determines when your screw is flush/in. 


Black and Decker Drill
That’s it! This bucket and pulley project took us about an hour! I love inexpensive and fun kids’ projects! If you are looking for more simple projects for kids, we did a car light switch and also a firetruck lamp. 

Playset Bucket and Pulley How TO

Pin For Later: Bucket and Pulley DIY For Kids

Kids Pulley Project on Treehouse

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

How To Make Birdseed Balls

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What do you know, we made it to Friday! I wish there was a dancing girl emoji that I could put in this blog post. Does that exist for a blog? Please share if it does. My blog posts could get that much cooler. =-) Anyways, today I wanted to share a super simple yet fun craft that I did last week… Birdseed balls. Do you know what those are? Have you ever made them?

We have lots of birds in our yard still and I got to thinking about them. During the summer months, they all gather at our fountain and fly right into our windows (seriously, I hear a crash every week)! But during the winter months, what are they doing around here? It’s cold, dreary and wet. I picked up some birdseed and decided to use some things in our pantry to make birdseed balls.

Did you know that making birdseed balls was super easy? Use this tutorial to make some for all the birds in your yard!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

How To Clean Siding Without A Power Washer!

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Sorry for the radio silence lately. With my trip to NYC last week and the flooring… it’s just been a crazy few weeks. There’s a few projects that we’ve completed or are almost complete and I can’t wait to photograph and share those. So, be on the lookout for some new fun projects – one includes an adorable outside planter table and another is a feather art piece. Today though I wanted to share a project that we HAD to do because of how embarrassing it was… How to Clean Siding Without A Power Washer!

Sometimes, you have to have the right tool to for the job. Actually, lots of times you have to have the right tool for the job. For example, a wet saw is needed when you are tiling a space or a hammer is needed to hang a picture. Some projects you can make do without having the perfect tool. For example, when we built the closet loft we didn’t have a table saw. We still don’t have a table saw and have been making it work with a circular saw, miter saw and jig saw. Things would be much easier if we had every tool that was perfect for each job but the reality of it is that we can’t invest in every single tool on the market. That’s where this project comes into play.

How to Clean Siding Without A Power Washer

How embarrassing is our moss and mildew covered shed? Oh and just so you are clear, we do live on a hill but this is highly visible from the street. Yes, our neighbors have loved that we have let this go for 9+ months.

You can clean your siding without a power washer! It's not hard - click to find out exactly how clean siding without a power washer!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

Tips for Creating a Shade Lover’s Garden with Monrovia Plants

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We are taking a quick break from sprucing up the patio this week. I still have a few things that I want to share with you guys out in the back but I wanted to jump right in on planting season first. Now, that it’s warmed up a bit in April we are so excited to get a bit more interest in our yard. Today, let’s jump to the front yard where we focused our attention over the weekend. We live in a unique area and most of our yard is pretty shady. We kinda have a wetland area on one side of our yard but it’s interesting because it’s also on a slope. So today I want to chat with you about Monrovia plants and, specifically, focus on Tips for Creating a Shade Lover’s Garden with Monrovia Plants.

You might think I’m crazy to say this, but I had NO idea that there were plants meant for shade, plants meant for sun, plants that liked wet areas or plants that liked drought. Seriously, when we first moved into this house – all of that was new to us. Over the past few years, we have started to figure out what plants work well in our zone (we are zone 6 here in Missouri) an which plants work for what areas within our yard.

Besides not knowing about our zone or what types of plants work well in our yard, we were just picking plants based on size and price. We had no idea that  the quality of your plant would matter. We have had so many plants not make it due to all of these reasons.

You can be assured that when you buy a Monrovia plant, you are buying a high-quality, healthy plant from a trusted grower. Everything from the fun plant varieties to the custom-blended soil – it’s all well thought out and lots of work has gone into creating a long-lasting beautiful plant.

Now that Luke and I are better educated on what types of plants to buy, we’ve definitely had more fun with gardening and sprucing up areas. This time around, we decided to just focus on one small area in the ‘wetland’ part of our yard.

Sprucing up a shade lovers garden

It’s a bit hard to see but right above the rock bed (on the bottom of the picture) is a small flower bed that’s completely overgrown. I say small, but it’s about 4ft by 12ft.

The first thing we did was head to our local garden center that has Monrovia plants. You can locate your closest garden center here. Monrovia plants are available at local garden centers as well as Lowe’s across the country.

I knew that I wanted perennials and I knew that I wanted a bit of color. I found this Winter Jewels’ Amethyst Gem Lenten Rose and totally fell in love.

Shade Lovers Garden

I love the look of ferns so I picked up a gorgeous fern as well.
Picking out plants for a Shade Lovers Garden

To prepare the area, we raked out the random sticks and mulch. Once we had the area clear, we dug up random weeds and green onions (those suckers grow like crazy over there).

Shade-Lovers-Garden-with-Monrovia-Plants-4

Next we rolled out some landscape weed barrier.

Shade-Lovers-Garden-with-Monrovia-Plants-6

Luke rolled out the landscape barrier and placed it under the rocks.

I grabbed our beautiful, outdoor hammer (LOL!) and hammered in the staples around all the edges.

Shade-Lovers-Garden-with-Monrovia-Plants-5

Within the cleared space, we cut a hole in the landscape barrier where we wanted our plants to be and dug larger holes.

Creating a Shade Lovers Garden

*Tip: Each plant comes with care instructions that tell you how large the plant will be, when to water and how to plant it. We followed the directions on each plant.

Tips for Creating A Shade Lovers Garden

It looks a bit sunny in this next picture because the leaves haven’t filled in yet. Soon though, this will be a lush-green area.

Shade-Lovers-Garden-with-Monrovia-Plants-9

After watering the two plants, we spread mulch back over the area.

How to Create A Shade Lover's Garden

How to Create A Shade Lover's Garden

Gardening and maintaining healthy and aesthetically pleasing green spaces can be quite easy if you follow a few basic principles. Monrovia is available to help provide you with healthy plants and growing tips.

I can’t wait to see these two plants thrive.

Have you planted anything this year? What are your thoughts about your garden?

 

 

 

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

DIY Plywood Plant Stand On Wheels

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It’s the second week of patio spruce-up on a budget. Check out the first week of patio spruce-up if you missed it. Today, I want to share a much needed but SIMPLE project – a DIY Plywood Plant Stand On Wheels. We have a few larger planter pots and need to be able to move them around a bit on the patio. Those suckers are heavy, so we needed a rollable plant stand. If you’ve been a reader since last year, then you know that we created this DIY Plant Stand:

DIY This Heavy-Duty Rolling Plant Stand out of A Tree Stump!

Today’s project has the same idea but is made using scrap wood. We tend to have scrap plywood around and I was curious to see if I could solve a problem and use some of it. The outcome isn’t quite as cute as the DIY stump roller, but it’s functional and definitely more heavy-duty than the plant stand rollers that you find at the hardware stores.

Ready to see?

DIY Scrap Wood Plant Stand

Before we get into the tutorial, how sad is our money tree? I could never find a good home for it over the winter and it just lost more and more leaves. I’m hoping it will perk up over the summer.

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.

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