The Snowball Effect

Have you ever bought something you think is going to make your life so much easier only to have it turn out that you made it more complicated instead? Let me explain.

We moved into this house May 1, 2008. One of the last things to get carried in from the truck was an open backed ladder-type bookshelf. It was not the right aesthetic for the room but by then we had no more energy to negotiate boxes so we plunked it down on a small wall just to the left of our entryway with the intention of placing it elsewhere at a later date. We unpacked our boxes, mostly, but that shelf never got moved. Instead we put our stereo on one of the shelves, then some cd's above it, then a box of art supplies below it and then it was a random dumping spot for extra papers and mail and such, and here we are just over a year later.

We also have a small side table full of drawers that we call our diaper hutch that sits in the corner of our living room. It contains diapers, wipes and other baby paraphernalia as well more kids art supplies; mountains of crayons, dried markers, paints and colouring books. It is constantly too full and often the drawers don't close because a colouring book has fallen behind the drawer. In addition to this we have an antique-y cabinet in what is supposed to be for our bar area but which also houses puzzles, cards and other kid games.

Recently I decided rather than have all these kid things spread out what would make life easier is replacing that ladderish shelving unit with a 3-drawer dresser that could house it all. Then we get back our cabinet, then we get rid of the shelving unit that I've never liked in this room, then the drawers of our diaper hutch can hold cd's and actually close and then we can get our ugly stereo out of sight. This is the age old battle in our house: technology vs. design. Or, big huge ugly black TV versus pretty.

I measured the wall this answer-to-all-my-problems dresser would sit against and then checked out Kijiji. I emailed a couple of people but no one ever got back to me and so I sort of let it go. Wrapped into this story is the fact that Sebastian will be going into a big boy bed sooner rather than later, he's almost 2 if you can believe it! and when he does he'll take Ava's bed and share a room with Tristan, and Ava will get Sebastian's old room. The boys' room. My mouth feels strange shaping those words when for almost 5 years it has been "the babies' room" and then "the kids' room". And yes I know Sebastian is one of our kids too but we've never really referred to the other two as "the twins" so when Sebastian was born it became the Kids and Beesh (Which is what Ava nicknamed him days after coming home from the hospital.)

Anyway. Digress much? I've been slowly collecting things for when the kids are settled into their new sleeping arrangements and I can decorate accordingly. Awhile ago I had asked a couple of thrift-store savvy friends to keep an eye out for a vintage globe for the boys' room. Last week one of them facebooked me to say she had seen one at a local thrift shop called The Post. I went down to check it out and took my tape measure with me because you just never know what you'll find. The globe was fantastic and I also found the perfect with a capital "P" dresser. Needs new knobs and a bit of work so the drawers slide smoothly but has been authentically and fabulously aged. And everything in the store that day was 50% off because The Post was celebrating something. Can you say meant to be? The dresser fit perfectly in the back of my van and I nestled the globe into a carseat and drove home the happiest of all living creatures. Why does a good deal give me such a rush? It's like someone dumped a bucket of Pop Rocks candy over my head.

I got home and Hugh unloaded the dresser for me. When we got it through the front door we stopped and looked at each other. Since I wasn't expecting to go out for a globe and come back with a dresser the shelf, which hadn't been emptied and moved, was sitting in the spot the dresser was supposed to go. This is the exact moment I realized I had just made my life way more complicated.

In order for the dresser to have a home the shelf needed to be moved upstairs to our bedroom. In order to put the shelf in our bedroom I had to put in bins all the clothes the kids had grown out of over the last year that were piled on my floor. And in order to get to the bins so I could put the clothes in them the garage had to be cleaned out.

As a result of buying this dresser, the wood we've been meaning to take back since last summer that has been occupying one side of our garage has finally been returned, our garage is spotless and organized, the kids clothes are sorted and labeled, our bedroom is clutter free and our books are unpacked for the first time since we moved here nearly 4 years ago. Next project: clean out and fix the dresser so I can use it as originally intended and not as a clutter catcher.