photograph of an assembled 12-cubby flatpack cabinet

We have decided that cubbies are a pathway for us to organize our complex lives into this tiny home. We got some flatpack cubby cabinets, and I spent this afternoon assembling one.

I have always kind of enjoyed assembling furniture. It’s tactile and feels useful. In spite of that, I often get frustrated at points in the process. Often, instructions are poorly written or just plain wrong (though in spite of the jokes, I find Ikea instructions generally very good). Sometimes parts are cheap, poorly made, misaligned, or just plain missing.

Today’s experience was a good one. The instructions were decent and all the parts were present, but stuff is definitely low-end. I wouldn’t expect this piece to stand up to any serious abuse, but without children around, I think it’s likely to survive.

What really made the difference, though, was being retired. I wasn’t constantly stressed about all the patient-related issues I needed to get to so when a mis-aligned part or poor instructions added time to the task, I could just slow down and work around it. It was a better experience.

—2p

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