Desk Drama

As I was raised poor (and by grandparents who grew up during the Depression), I am always loathe to throw anything away if it is still functional. I'd rather repurpose it, store it, or give it away. At the same time, I don't want to be a hoarder. In fact, I worry about hoarding a lot, especially once I found out that hoarders can get this mental condition  to where they just don't see all the piles of junk building up in their house. With that in mind, I try my best to occasionally purge the house of stuff we don't need. Still, if something is useful, I will keep it until it just absolutely breaks beyond repair. Just as an example, I have a plastic laundry basket that I got in 1992. It's still functional, so I still have it.

Also back in the 90s, though towards the later end of them, I bought a computer desk. I wanted a strong one that could store a lot of stuff. And back then, of course, they needed to be strong because computers (and especially monitors) weighed a ton. The desk had a hutch on it that held cds and extra books (or paper, if you needed it to). It had a keyboard tray, but over that was a slanted board to hold papers or books you might need as reference as you typed. It had a shelf for the printer, a shelf for a scanner, a compartment for the pc, and room to spare.

In other words, it was big, bulky, cumbersome, and dominated most spaces. In my 20s, I kind of loved it for that. These days, I was tired of it taking up so much space.

We put the desk in the front part of the living room, with the hope of creating a printing hub/office space in that part of the room. The desk housed a computer, a fucked up printer, an ancient scanner, and whatever cat happened to decide to hide on it. Because the desk was so thick, it wasn't really possible to leave an office chair in front of it. Because it had no chair and to get one to it was annoying, the computer on it never really got messed with or updated.  After a few years, the computer on it was fairly much a relic.

Recently, we decided to remove some stuff from the valuable space that is the living room area. The things in the living room should be both functional and useful to us. All of the outdated computer stuff on the desk needed to be removed from the room to make way for craft/art supply storage. The desk also needed to go. And while this was a wonderful thing because that damned desk is a pain in everyone's ass, it also bothered me on a moral level. I hated it, but it was still functional . . . I just couldn't stand the thought of throwing it away.

We debated about this for days, going over possible ways to repurpose or give away or do something with that desk. I suggested it become a habitat for the outdoor cats, but my roommate pointed out that it would warp in the weather and then be even harder to take apart. We asked some people if they needed a desk, but found no takers. We thought about just breaking it down and storing it flat, but realized we didn't have the room and it would be almost impossible to try and put it back together. This morning, as it is the day we take out trash, we knew we had no choice. The desk had to be disassembled, scavenged for parts, and the rest thrown away.

It's funny how inspiration hits you. I think it's always a good idea to really keep an open mind whenever a scenario like this happens. Stay calm, because creativity and insight hit you the most when you're calm.

My roommate removed the slanted piece that hid the keyboard. He stepped back to look at the desk and I remarked how much better it looked,even with just that one piece gone. And as I said that, I suddenly saw the new purpose of this old desk. With that piece gone, it was the right height, open enough, and strong enough to function as a sewing table.

The desk is now out of the living room. A bookshelf sits in its place, waiting to house art supplies. And in my room, I now have a sewing table. All the sewing supplies and the sewing machines have been taken out of storage. They sit on the shelves of the desk, ready for use whenever we need to sew something.

I am so thrilled about this! For one thing, supplies that have been neglected due to their inconvenient placement are now easily accessed. For another thing, space that was just kind of used in a blah way is now used in a far more functional way. And most of all, because I am so opposed to discarding stuff that still works, I am beyond happy that the desk has found a new purpose. It has a new life as a sewing station. And all the villagers rejoiced.