There’s not a lot of room for extra things when living in the dorms. But there are still things that are good to have on hand. Business casual clothes are worn quite often and most ironing boards are big and clunky. Why not make a smaller ironing board yourself out of a TV tray? It’s portable, it folds flat and it’s easy to make.

“Eat your vegetables!” cry moms everywhere. Here’s an easy and quick way to be able to tell your parents that you ate a vegetable today. It works with sweet potatoes, russets, Idaho and just about any potato you can think of. You can also switch it up and use other vegetables like zucchini or beets (which taste much better in salted chip form).

Ironing board

Tools:

Wooden TV tray

Marker

Scissors

Ruler

Heat resistant batting

? yard cotton fabric

Craft glue (I used wood glue)

Light weight staple gun and staples

Step 1: Lay the TV tray over the batting (I had low lift batting and folded it so I could use four layers. If you use high lift batting, you’ll only need two layers.)

Use the marker to make an outline of the tray on the batting. Cut the batting right inside the line that you drew.

Step 2:

Lay the batting on top of the cotton fabric. Use the ruler to mark the fabric 3 inches out from the batting. This will leave plenty of room to fold the fabric down to the bottom of the tray. Cut out the measured fabric.

Step 3:

Put a little bit of glue along the corners of the TV tray and a couple lines in the middle. Place the batting you cut out on top of the TV tray. The glue will hold the batting in place while you attach the cotton fabric.

Step 4:

Place the cotton fabric you cut out right side down. In the middle of the cutout, place the TV tray upside down.

Step 5:

Fold the fabric over so the edge is on the underside of the tray. Glue a couple spots to keep it in place. Then use the staple gun to staple along all sides of the tray, making sure to pull the fabric tightly around the tray.

Chips

Ingredients:

1 potato

Non-stick spray

Salt and pepper

Knife and cutting board (or a mandolin)

Step 1:

Very thinly slice the potatoes with a knife.

Step 2:

Put the slices onto a microwaveable plate. Spread them out and spray with non-stick spray so they don’t stick to each other.

Step 3:

Sprinkle the slices with salt and pepper.

Step 4:

Microwave for approximately 2 minutes or until crispy and cooked liked a chip.

Be sure to let it cool so you don’t burn your tongue like I did!