Jan 18, 2023 3 min read

Another week, another DIY (do it yourself) project. This item actually should go on the “another year, another project” list since it’s been on my “to-do” list for five years. Back then, I got the bright idea to put up faux wood blinds in my bedrooms, bathroom, and closet room. The helpful expert at the store put them into a fancy huge machine and cut them to my exact window width. Brilliant! I managed to get them all installed (two per room), then started to tackle the issue with length. They only sold one very long length, but I could remove the excess slats. Easier said than done! After a few hours and a lot of swearing, I finally managed to shorten the bathroom blind. It was so exhausting and annoying that I put off doing the other blinds for five years.

The problem with DIY is that by the time I master a certain skill, I’ve finished that task and will likely never have to do it again.

Watching instructional videos often takes more time than just reading instructions. The well-intentioned folks doing internet tutorials on everything from curling your hair to changing lawnmower oil spend way too much time talking about themselves, why they’re on the internet and what exactly it is they’re going to be showing us. Next thing you know, you’re five minutes in and they haven’t taught you a thing. I usually end up yelling, “Just get on with it!” then trying to figure everything out on my own.

In this case, I watched three different videos. You have to keep pausing the video or going back and watching it 20 times before you can get the step-by-step order correct. Of course, if I had watched the CORRECT video for my brand of blinds, it would have been better. But when you have two different brands of blinds and you’ve watched three different videos, one can easily get confused.

The blinds have one cord that controls up and down and the other to open and close. One video told me to untie the vertical cord. Don’t believe them! I let go and it shot up into the top bar like a rubber band. I wound up having to take apart the entire mechanism to thread it back through. Long story short, that blind is now shorter but won’t stay up (though it still opens and closes). My husband heard all the swearing, just shook his head, and wisely retreated. Finally, I found the correct video for my brand and realized all I had to do was literally break off the excess slats then untie the open/close strings (NOT the vertical cord!) It only took me about a half-hour to do the last four blinds. Now, I am the zen master of shortening faux wood blinds. Maybe I should make a short video tutorial!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.