Tuesday, July 29, 2008

When You Make A Mess, You Clean It Up

Yesterday disaster struck our house when we couldn't open the dresser/desk drawer with all of our important reciepts and such. I tried in the early morning hours (when I usually update our finances) and Hubby tried, but-nothing. During the day I tried shoving, breaking, anything, still-nothing. And, by the way, this certainly didn't help with my attitude (STRESS! AHH!) or my reactions to the kids.

The evening came, and Hubby came home with a plan. What was it you ask? Take the back off the dresser and reach in to push the offending party aside to open the drawer.

So, after the kids went to bed our plan went into action. Now you have to understand our "desk" is two dressers with a board in the middle attached with L-brackets. Silly you say? Practical I say. I get 8 feet of working room, plus 6 huge drawers (although one was out of commission-that's right I said "was," are you in suspense now?)

We had to take the board off and move the disaterous dresser forward. The back was held on with huge, long, scary staples which we pried off with a screwdiver.

Now, we were in position to unstick the drawer. I used a heavy wrench to push down the object blocking the drawer, while Roy pulled the drawer out. And...IT WORKED! The drawer came out!

The offender you ask?



Yes, that is our "out" box. The receipts and important papers that need to get filed away. Well, nothing has been filed for almost a year (due to the birth and business of #4). That procrastination led to this catastrophe.
The dresser was left an empty shell, which made me terribly sad. I grew up using these dressers after all, and since I was the last to leave home I got the possession of them. So if you are related to me and you are sentimentally attached to items you may need to turn away due to the graphic nature of this next photo.

Luckily, luckily Hubby is brilliant and wonderful and was able to replace the back of the dresser (with a little of my help I might add).

So the desk is back together, and in all its glory once more.

I can't say the same for me though. Injury count from the episode: Summer-2, Hubby-0. I got a scratched and bleeding wrist from reaching in the back of the drawer, and a very sore and bruised finger from the hammer (boy did I want to swear). I had to put ice on the thing for quite a while, and it still hurt this morning that I couldn't type with that finger. Even now it is tender.

Lesson to learn: file things right away from now on!


3 comments:

pinky said...

Never, when we purchased those dressers, did we dream of the joy they would bring! Or the sentimental attachment that would develop...glad the poor thing is on the mend. By now, most of that filing could be shredded...no? There must be some way of getting out of it. I've got it...scan them...that way they take up no space at all.

Bill said...

I've started scanning. I use Truecrypt to encrypt everything for privacy. But you need to be sure to backup too.

I scan as I go. Pay a bill, scan it, file it for a year. I have 12 folders in my filing cabinet. One for each month. I fill them (with bills, receipts, etc.) and rotate them. When the month comes back around, everything inside from last year goes through the shredder.

This is a new method for me and still experimental. I've been doing it for a little over a year now and I've still got very old piles from over a year ago that need to be organized/shredded. But at least nothing has gotten worse over the past year.

Welcome to Newman's World said...

your so funny.... Im glad you got it out.. I can just see you guys lol