Good Intentions

My main gift to Maya this Christmas was some closet organization. Her room has been a disaster for awhile now, and between trying to get to the closet through all of the shoes on the floor, and not being able to put anything in the closet due to NO ROOM in there, it’s a death trap.

Years ago, my local office moved from our town to Chicago (and then to Georgia a few years later), and rather than asking us to move, sent us all home to work remotely. I had a bunch of binders full of information that I used quite often for my work, so I brought them home with me. My office is in my bedroom, and there was no room in here for the binders, so I asked Maya if I could put a bookshelf in her closet, and keep them there. She had no problem with it, so in it went. When I left that job in 2016, the binders went too, but the bookshelf was still there. Well, Maya’s a working girl without a ton of expenses, so like most of us at that age, spends a good amount on clothes. So my plan was to get the book case OUT of the closet, buy some hanging sweater holder type things, and make some room. We did that, and then she gave her clothes a good going over, and came out with 7 or 8 bags of clothes to donate to Goodwill. I also got her a hanging shoe bag thing for the back of her bedroom door, and that cleaned up the shoe mess. Her room hasn’t looked this good in ages.

Well, a couple of Sundays ago, we were all out and about, Ted and I at a nice lunch party with some friends that I worked with in the early 90s and haven’t seen often since, Maya with some High School friends, and we came home to this.

The weight of the clothes, including the sweater hangers, overwhelmed the single bracket / plywood shelf combo, and it all had come crashing down. What a mess. Luckily we have a handyman on our speed dial, and he came by and looked at it. He said that 10 feet of shelf / clothing rod needs more than one little bracket to support it, should have had 3, and it was just a matter of time before it came down.

This is the bookcase, currently stacked with items that were previously on the shelf at the top of her closet. Ted’s cousin (the one who got married in September) has a big house, and a big truck, and she and her husband came and got that yesterday.

Here is the repaired bracket, MUCH sturdier, with a new shelf above that is wood instead of particle board.

And here’s a peek at the new, organized closet. Whew! SO much better, and nice to not have to worry about it. Our closet is longer than hers, but has 3 brackets already…though they are not as sturdy as this one. So we will have the handyman come out soon and replace them with stronger ones, so we can avoid a similar disaster in our bedroom.