Yesterday and today I've holed myself up in my room and tried to dig down to the floor. Dividing the room roughly in thirds: closet and floor between door, bed, and closet; 2 dressers and under the bed; and my side of the bed, 2 bookcases, and the third dresser. I've gotten most of the first third done. Only the nightstand remains to be cleaned up and out and under and behind. Oh, and my jewelry box needs to be wiped down but it's buried under a pile of things I found that need to be put away somewhere. The closet is in much better shape. I had Chris get a closet pole yesterday at the lumber store to mostly replace the lousy wire "system" that was in there. I'm not entirely sure that really helped much in the end...I'd be happier if it didn't sag so. I also got one dresser done. Emptied it and wiped it out, turned it on side and back and front and tried to bang it back into shape where pieces have shifted loose. It worked a little bit. I swept under and behind it and refilled it with Chris' things. I started pulling things out from under the bed, thought maybe I'd find Hoffa under there, and then moved on to other things. I've dusted corners for cobwebs, and I've dusted the ceiling fan, and I've cleared off a second dresser, and I've pulled out clothes to give away and store for next fall. All together I think I'm just over 1/3 done. I could wash and scrub and clean further in the areas I've gone through, but as much crap as I've had to sort through just to find the floor to sweep it, mopping and scrubbing can wait. Unfortunately, that was the easy 1/3.
I have 2 more dressers that need the usual emptying, moving, cleaning behind, and cleaning. Further, they also need pounding and restructuring to make them actually useful, and the one that I already did was the one that needed the least by far. It's this set of 3 antique Chinese dressers that belonged to my great-grandparents. They're great, carved, teak things, not very large by modern standards, but they'll do, if barely, if they're in proper working order. They're constructed entirely with fit and tension and dovetail joints, and over many decades, and many years of abuse in our house, many things have come apart. Some drawers are missing a bottom, or the slides are loose and the drawer falls out easily, or the whole thing has come wide and drawers and supports have come out altogether. There's a pair of nightstands that are the same way, too. On the positive side, the lack of mechanical joins means that in most cases a good walloping with a rubber mallet goes a long way toward returning the pieces to their proper placement. The down side is that I possess neither the skill nor strength to truly do the job properly. But something is usually better than nothing, so I'm going to tack a whack at it - literally - anyway.
There's also 2 bookcases on that side of the room. One of them is only missing a post or 2 for one of its shelves, so that's easily repaired. The other one...not so much. I was never able to put it together *quite* right, and the sides bow out just enough that the shelves can't stay on their pegs and many months ago....like almost 2 years?...the top 3 shelves fell down onto the 4th and it's just kind of sat there like a train wreck ever since.
There's also the disturbing amount of utter rubbish under the bed, that Chris moments ago was oh-so-helpful in attempting to force into the light of day. I'll be back to work in here more later tonight, but in the meantime, please excuse me while I go KILL HIM.
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