Back in the late 90’s, we bought a desk. It was easily the largest desk I’ve ever seen, and since it was made of particle board (we were freshly out of college and married) it weighed hundreds and hundreds of pounds. But its sheer bulk made it practically indestructible– I’m pretty sure we could’ve weathered a tornado or a nuclear blast underneath it. When we had a moving company transport our stuff to this house, the workers (who were all massive Tongan guys who carry stuff for a living) confirmed it was the largest, heaviest, most awkward desk they’d ever encountered.
It takes up the entire front room of our house (admittedly, it’s a pretty small room to begin with) and over the years Laralee’s accumulated quite a few things. The desk has so many drawers and cubbies that it’s easy to stash just about anything in it.
Well, the time had come to retire The Desk. Not only do we need to downsize our things a bit in preparation for our fall move, but I’m pretty tired of having my desk in the basement. Now that I’m approaching retirement, I don’t want to have to trudge downstairs, all by myself, whenever I want to use my computer. I’d rather share the office with La.
So I emptied out The Desk. I ended up with stacks and stacks of books, papers, office supplies, sewing materials (!), and who knows what else. It took up most of the space in our dining room.
This is what The Desk looked like afterward:
Then came the adventure of disposing of it. We decided we couldn’t give it away to a friend, because it’s literally so huge that no one would have space for it (without emptying an entire room of their house). We couldn’t just set it out on the front curb with a big “FREE” sign on it, because it literally weighs five hundred pounds or more and no one would be able to move it (plus, we’d need to disassemble it to get it out the door, then reassemble it on the curb). So we dismantled it into about fifty pieces, loaded everything into the van, and took it all to the dumpster at my office. Several of the larger pieces were too big for the dumpster and had to be cracked in half with strategic karate kicks. Fortunately particle board cracks pretty easily with enough concentrated pressure.
With the office empty, we set up a smaller desk for Laralee and moved my desk (just a solid-core door with two filing cabinets) up from the basement. Even with these much smaller desks, the office is still pretty cramped.
But we’ve accomplished our two goals: no more big desk to move, and I won’t be stuck down in the basement this summer. Yay!