On Assemble-it-yourself Furniture...

Moving is a very exciting time, but also a little stressful. During the first week we were in the house, my thoughts pingponged between "How am I going to fill all this space with stuff?" and "How am I going to cram all my crap in this house?" Finally, I came up with the answer: More furniture, of course.

Now, being that I'm a poor student, my home furnishings range from Sterilite containers and cardboard boxes to fine peices from Target and Ikea. One such new addition came into being this week, giving me one more reason to look forward to the day when I can purchase already-assembled furniture.

So I recruited Lawnmower and we hit the target, where I bought the things I needed, and some more things I didn't. The particular item in question was a bookshelf that Target had considerately marked down to sale price just at the time I wanted to buy it. Good Target. If you've never assembled something like this on your own, I'll walk you through it briefly. First, you need to make sure you have several items.

A screwdriver
A hammer
The intelligence of a baked potato.

Should you find yourself lacking any of these things, you can improvise. For example, when Sideshow built my dresser sans hammer, he used the back of the screwdriver to pound in the sides. And, as in my case this week, something like a power drill can supplement the apparent lack of IQ needed.

So I began.

This particular bookcase could be assembled one of two ways, depending on which side you wanted open, and this was the reason I wanted it. The instructions seemed simple, which is probably why it took me about an hour to put the thing together. First, I got all the shelves on, before realizing it wasn't in the right orientation. So I took it apart. Then I reversed it and got to the same point. The exact same point.

Then I left the room for a little while.

Then I came back and put it together correctly.

So, in summary, while Target gets a thumbs up for sale-timing, their directions really need to take into account people like me.