This past year, my goal was to reduce the seven filing cabinet drawers of paperwork for stuff here down to “fewer.” All the drawers were in my office, so it would be nice to not have all that paper and perhaps use some drawers for other stuff. After a lot–and I mean a lot–of scanning work, I succeeded, but as a result, the two-drawer unit closest to my desk became a problem–the now-empty drawers were deep and dark inside, meaning things were immediately lost into the abyss, and the unit protruded and I was constantly banging my right knee on the corner.
I got tired of the bruises and the sub-optimal storage, so in November, after way too much time searching online, I found an alternative. Only problem–it was ugly and not on wheels. My solution: different drawer pulls (repurposed trackballs and a random bit from an old cookie press), casters (had to use MDF to make them work), and lots of stickers from my stash. I also found a super-cute acrylic storage thing to either sit on top OR if I want to flop up the drop-leaf wings to have a second desk area, I just move the display box to sit on my photo printer.
Once I was done putting casters and stickers on the wee table, I felt inspired. So I took scrap paper and made pretty labels for my metal drawer unit–it was Grandfather’s and originally used for all his fly-fishing stuff.
Pics below: the old beige drawer unit, some of the new gussied up unit, and one of all my drawers. The pink filing cabinet in the center was also emptied out as part of my scanning project, and now I use it to store large things like my endoscope, Dremels, soldering irons, etc–all of which took up needed space on my big bookshelf. The giant lateral FireKing on the right is now the only place in the house that contains paper files. The top drawer has ranch-related stuff; the middle drawer holds stuff that used to be on my bookshelf but didn’t fit very well (sheet music, paper craft supplies, etc.); and the bottom drawer houses a bunch of keepsakes and such. One of my goals for this winter is to go through the contents of the FireKing’s bottom drawer to free up some more space.
I’m really digging the acrylic cabinet I found. I ended up moving a lot of tiny knickknacks that were scattered about my office into it. Now they don’t get dusty, but are still enjoyed. That little collection even includes the bucket and thumb from a kid’s toy that I found that washed up on the beach on Cayman Brac. Below is a pic of it when I found it. I had plans to take a pic of it next to Bambi, but never got around to it as things are always just too busy here.
