Changes

Yesterday I rearranged furniture: not your usual vacation activity, but...you see, we have this place in San Diego, and, every now and then, when we visit, I get inspired. This time, it was just plain irritation that got me started.

The back bedroom has always been a trial: the result of too much furniture trucked from back east, and too little space for it all. When we moved our truckload of furniture out here, it arrived the afternoon before we had to leave. We were lucky to get it all inside, much less satisfactorily situated. Over the past five years or so, we've come and gone, but the back bedroom remained cramped and crowded--a double bed (a very tall double bed with an impressive walnut head and footboard), a Victorian dresser and a shorter, squatter dresser--and a rug (8x10, Oriental, too good to dispose of) all  in one secondary bedroom with two closets, a bathroom, and one window. That translates to ONE blank wall, one wall with a window, and two walls with two doors each.  A decorator's nightmare. The bed (have I mentioned that it's solid walnut and heavy as hell?) was placed lengthwise tight against the window wall, making it impossible to change sheets without literally lifting the bed (or else I'd screw up the rug..) Also impossible: opening the window or manipulating the shade that covered it, turning on or off the sconce on the wall, which provides much-needed light.

So this visit, while waiting for an HVAC technician for some five hours, I thought and I puzzled till my puzzler was sore; then I thought of something I hadn't before. The closet. A long, wide closet that we'd been storing junk in. I cleared it out.

Then, I measured and figured and measured some more, decided on a sequence of action: very important when you have a room that' s difficult to turn around in. I disassembled the big walnut bed, and took all the pieces into the hall. I rolled up the rug. I swept, I mopped, I Murphy-Oil-Soaped the floor. I wiped the baseboards. I herded the dust buffaloes (my daughter's designation for things MUCH larger than dust bunnies ) out of the room. I slid the squat dresser (O, the genius!) into the closet. I slid the tall Victorian dresser and mirror to another wall. I assembled a smaller, lighter cherry spindle bed ( previously stored in the closet) perpendicular to the window wall, next to the window. I swiped an Oriental-style area rug from the hall bathroom (I know, I know--but it fit so well in there!) In one morning, I solved all the room's problems. I can access the bed on three sides, no longer having to fling myself across it to make it up, no longer having to climb onto the bed to raise the shade or turn on the light. I re- hung JC's grandparents' high school diplomas--and even had room to add a chair, and a nightstand..and was able to bring a tall, skinny glass lamp out of hiding and place it near the bed. It made me happy. Pictured, top to bottom: the BEFORE pic, then the same wall AFTER with dresser and chair, then the same window AFTER moving stuff around.

And, you say, is there a point to this lengthy tale of furniture moving? Why, yes, there is. Every time I walk into that room now (and I make a point to do it frequently) I feel inexplicably happy. A morning of small labors did that. And the point is -- little things add up to big ones. The elimination of that pile of irritations has changed me, perhaps only in a small way, perhaps only for a short time. But, if I can change my attitude, my outlook, my state of mind by tackling irritations head-on, maybe I can improve on life in general. Think how happy we could all be if we could root out those burrs under our respective saddles, whether those burrs are political or personal or job-related; think of all we could accomplish, one small victory, one small, cramped room at a time.