“When in doubt, add a plant,” is my decorating mantra, but I’m not always 100% on top of watering my plants in out-of-the-way places. Sometimes I’m just a little too lazy to drag out a stool or chair and water the ones on high shelves. But I recently realized how easy it is to turn a pot into a self-watering planter, so I’m giving some of my top-shelf plants a little upgrade, and I thought I’d show you guys how to do it, too.

A couple of weeks ago I left town for a week, and needed a way to keep my maidenhair ferns from drying out and dying while I was gone. If you have ever tried to grow these picky divas, you know how demanding they are about water. Yes, I could have asked my catsitter to water them every few days, but the last time I did that with a different catsitter they got OVERwatered. So right before I left I hacked together some super quick self-watering planters, and when I came home my plants were still alive and happy.

And now, thanks to this self-watering planter, this spider plant on the top shelf in my kitchen will be slightly less-neglected.

Today I’m trying something totally new to me: a video tutorial! I’ve literally never done this before, so I just tried to keep it really simple and didn’t even do any editing (mainly because I don’t know how yet). Let me know what you think! If you have any constructive criticism or tips for video, your kind feedback would also be appreciated.

Honestly, I personally never watch videos unless they’re of cute animals, because I can always pick up information faster from text/pictures, but I’ve been told that other people prefer video? Where do you come down on it? I’ll be happy to make more videos if other people find that useful.