The chest has finally been assembled, and the old one is out of the house. But this wasn't the simple thing that it sounds like.
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When we awoke this morning, I had to figure out a way to get the old chest into a place in the living room with enough space for me to slide the new chest in its place. This was not a task I was going to do as Marian, as I knew I was going to work up a sweat and ruin the nightie that I was given for Christmas. Instead, I put on the clothes I had worn a couple days before and then started my process.
First, I had already emptied the chest of things I wanted to keep which were previously stored inside. However, I still had to disconnect the TV that sat upon the old chest and place it in a safe place - my bed. And only then, could I extricate it from its space in my bedroom. As I pulled it out, it started falling apart, due to it being a cheap piece of furniture from 40+ years ago. Even worse, there was a lot of dust and cobwebs behind the chest that I had to clean out, as I might never go back there for several years.
Once I got the old chest in a safe place, it was time to slide the new chest in its place. The first problem I encountered was that the sliders didn't help me move the chest past the carpet protectors in my desk area. To deal with this, I tilted the new chest up, and asked RQS to put sliders back into places where they could again do their function. The next problem came soon enough. The new chest was slightly wider than the old chest, and I had to snug it against another chest and my air conditioner. AARGH! And this led to the third problem: I had to use a slider to left the adjacent chest 3/8", so that the decorative overhang on the top of the adjacent chest would not be pulled up from the body of that chest. Finally, the new chest was in place, and I began to transfer clothing from another chest to the new chest, giving RQS a place to put her clothes.
Now, I had one more task to take care of: Bringing the old chest down to the dumpster area to be picked up with the next bilk trash pickup. To do this, I had to lift the old chest over an end table, and then wedge it through the doorway and onto the top landing. While doing this, the old chest started falling apart, One crossbeam and a 3/8" laminate board came off the side, making the chest unusable for any scavenger that may come upon it in a dumpster dive. Other pieces came undone while I dragged the chest down the steps and over to the dumpster area. A little later, RQS took the drawers and placed them by the (now) destroyed chest. Sadly, if this chest was as solid as the inexpensive Ikea chest that replaced it, it would still be in my apartment.
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Did I really need to deal with replacing this chest now? Probably not. But since the old chest's drawer glides were broken, I could no longer use the chest to store anything I wanted to get at on a regular basis. Now, I can get to my lingerie and some of my feminine wardrobe without problem. Maybe now, I can go shopping in my dresser and closet again, and not buy things to only end up in a donation bag several years later.
