My home office desk is a build consisting of
- -a 3’X6′ top I slapped together from (mostly) scrap about 17 years ago.
- -four legs made of (average) better than 10″ diameter sycamore logs from deadfalls off our trees from The Great Ice Storm of 2007, with
- -oak 2X4 (from old pallets) and sycamore limb bracing
- -and a 2’X3′ “keyboard drawer” made from a piece of castoff formica counter and the only purchased item, a heavy-duty drawer glide.
Why is this such a blessing, apart from the fact that it was built for about $12? Oh, well, when I stumbled and fell on the extended “keyboard drawer” a few minutes ago, I broke one of the free oak pieces I used to attach the drawer glides to the desktop, along with the drawer glides.
Cost to repair? Maybe $10. (I can get better, heavier-duty glides now for less at one of my fav “fell-off-the-truck-pricing” stores. *heh*) I have plenty of pieces of oak 2X4, so since I’ll recycle the 3″ brass screws, I’ll need only the drawer glides. Sweet. Heck, I’ve been meaning to replace these now worn (over 10 years old) drawer glides, anyway, what with all the wear I’ve given them using my keyboard drawer as a footrest… 🙂
But… broke the oak support. Man, I have to lose a few pounds… 🙂
Oh, and when the “drawer” fell, I also broke my plastic trash can. S’all right. Pulled it out of a dumpster almost 10 years ago, along with its companion paper shredder (which I repaired and used for five years until it died again… and was replaced by another dumpster paper shredder). I have more such freebies with which to replace the trash can.
I tell ya. Folks toss out the most useful stuff. (I’m about to use a discarded horizontal file cabinet as a “build-in” to a full room height bookcase. What was wrong with it that it was discarded? Oh, the back–cheap, thin mahogany plywood–had been broken. I replaced it with better: a peg board on which things can be hung behind the horizontal file drawers! It was brand new but “broken” in transport. Thrown out. Asked the business owner, and he appreciated the removal.)
OK, this is more than just an “I broke my desk, but I don’t really care” post. Catching wise? Don’t need to be a hoarder, but why just throw out stuff? Put it on Craigslist or something if it doesn’t sell in a garage sale! Here are some Craigslist listings just today for a locale near me:
- Free firewood pic
- A Bunch Of Stuff – Couch, Lamps, Gardening Stuff And More
- puppy
- Golden Retriever pic
- FREE Wooden Treehouse/swing playset
- Car/Truck Hood
- 36 In. Screen Door pic
- WOODEN SHOP TABLE
- Free 20+ inch TV
Think what a blessing some of your junk might be either to someone in need or just some tightwad like me. *heh*
Still, didn’t even shake the desk. Just tore off the keybd drawer. My lap and a lil side table are working fine as keyboard rest and mousing surface for my wireless input devices. I frequently use ’em that way anyway when I have my feet up and am leaned back, comfortably “computing” from about a 5′-6′ distance from my monitor. Now, it’s reduced a tad, cos my feet are on the desk proper. I’m amazed i can find room for ’em there, though. The thing holds an awful lot of junk…
You should post a picture of your desk, perhaps as a challenge to others.
I wanted one of those fancy oak desks a long time ago and convinced Lucy we could afford one. We went to a place on the other side of town and found one that matched what was in my head, the perfect oak desk for our bedroom.
Only one problem, when they delivered this house sized desk it would only get past the front door of our house, no further. The desk was bigger than the openings for any interior door so they left it in the entry way for when I got home from work.
I ended up having to remove the door, trim and one two by four in the wall to get the desk into our bedroom and then rebuilt it. I did the same to get it out when we moved to our current house, a house which has double French doors that lead to the outside.
Yeh, TF, one of the nice things about this desk is… pop some plugs (screw covers), unscrew screws: top off. Move legs; move top; reassemble. 3’X6′ is just about right for a desktop space for me… although I do have an old (ca. 1910–hey! it’s an antique now! :-)) dining table set beside my desk for “overflow”, now. But, w/o leaves, it’s just 3’X5′. *heh* Still, the table matches the buffet on the other side of the room… that I also use for computer junk storage.