There's two things that are the folly of every household:
1. All of your junk
2. Storage for all of your junk
You know I'm right.
There's nothing wrong with junk* and honestly, I say "junk" as a general term. Our homes are filled with all sorts of individual treasures and keepsakes.** However, you know as well as I do - finding a place for all of these one of a kind gems*** can be challenging.
*Unless of course you're a hoarder, then there can be something very wrong with Junk.
** & *** Same point. If you are a hoarder, maybe they're not all treasures, keepsakes or gems.
Being children of the 80's and 90's Dylan and I have a love affair with Compact Discs. We both happily embrace having digital and mobile copies of our favorite songs, sure. But the discs themselves, our collections, they're special in their own right. There are memories attached and feelings associated with the actual, tangible jewel encased entities. The smell of the liner notes, the lyrics available for you to study, that can't be replaced! Especially if its the disc. You know the one. That tattered busted case of one of your favorite bands/albums, the disc itself so dinged up the fact that it still manages to play is a miracle - that's not about the CD. It's about the feelings that come with listening to it. Digital can't replace that! I can't blame anyone for holding on to their CD collection. I will admit though, they tend to take up a lot of space.
Many moons ago, Dylan and I snagged a couple of basic, particle board cabinets for around $20 on Craigslist. (Is the act of Craigslist purchases a "child of the 90's" thing too?) We STUFFED one of them with all of our CD's and - it got the job done. Almost...
You see, while 90% of the time, the CD cabinet sat unopened - there's a few times of the year you need to get in there for your Holiday discs! In September/October: The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack and an All Hallows Eve compilation disc Cassandra and I made back in the day. In November/December: ALL THE CHRISTMAS CDs. Rat Pack, Boys II Men, South Park, Bad Religion (yup, they made a Christmas Album) and that cool Green Day one Manda got me. (See, I told you these things are special!) Anyway, here's the thing, holiday or not, even if you had to open the CD cabinet because you got a hankering for J-Pop - the discs would flop out from the sides like dominoes and land on the floor. Fun.
I tried shoving some cardboard in the doors to stop the flopping process - it kinda worked. Ultimately though, we knew we needed a more permanent solution. We window shopped some entirely new cabinets but never found anything we got very excited about. Then we toyed with the notion of refinishing them. Could be a fun DIY project, right? Except that - well it's us. And the pace in which we complete those fun DIY projects is ... worthy of it's own kind of award. But! Hope for refinishing was not lost, for I recalled a girlfriend of mine who shared her before & after projects on Facebook. She is ridiculously talented at this stuff! So, I shot her a message. We exchanged a few photos and lucky for me, she took the job! Whoo hoo!!
First step: Gotta empty the cabinets!
Which is, of course, impossible to accomplish without a couple of helpers
Plus some quality television to help pass the time ...
We arranged to meetup in a Costco parking lot to give her the cabinets so she could get started. The doors wouldn't shut (hinges wonked out after years of abuse) So Dylan whipped up a fix for transport. The cats helped with that, too.
Kathy sent me some progress shots and - these amazing pics when they were done before we arranged to meet again:
Look at them!! I can't believe it's the same cabinets. She changed the hardware, installed better hinges AND better magnets to keep the buggers shut. Last but not least, she installed lips on the shelves to solve that CD-Domino-effect issue we were having. GUH. They'reSoFantastic!!! Also, her beautifully styled home is a reflection of her exceptional talent and taste ;)
ooooh!
aaaaaahh!
Much better!
There you have it, folks. Maybe you're not super talented in anything other than ideas - but hey! That's when you enlist your talented friends and pay them for their AMAZING talents. It's win-win really. The other one moved into Dylan's office. And, well. Dylan's office is a feature for another post, another day... maybe. But, for now, it's been livened up with the addition of our cool re-finished furniture. Thanks for reading! See you guys next time!
