The Struggle of Flat Packs

I’m pretty sure this post isn’t going to say anything new, but flat packs are SO TRICKY. Usually, my dad whisks it away into the shed, and makes the thing, and I just get to use the thing. But the bookshelf my mum and I built was ours, and I’m actually not a child anymore, so I figured I could piece this together pretty easily.

Guys. It’s not that easy.

First problem; budget bookshelves mean budget bookshelf bits. A bent thing to hold the slats together, nails that bent stupidly easily, etc etc. For someone who has never built anything in 18 years of their life, I was struggling a lot with this. I managed to resist throwing anything across the room, but it was really a close thing. Of course a lot of the things that went wrong came from me, but good equipment probably would have helped me a lot.

Anyway, I persevered, being the great person that I am. Let’s just remind you that I’ve never done anything tool related like this before. Screwing the screws in was easy peasy, after I made a little mistake with the first one. You just turn the screwdriver around a bit

until it’s tight, you don’t need much skill. Hammering, though, is a whole different situation. The screws had a specific spot to go; the nails, not so much. This means, I first of all had to have a little panic, because I was obviously going to hammer my fingers and have them amputated (my mother has never laughed so hard at me). THEN, once I got over that, I couldn’t hammer them in straight for the life of me. So many jokes about not doing anything straight, blah blah blah, but there are actually cracks where the nail has come out the side of the bookshelf?? Someone explain, I really have no idea how I stuffed up that badly.

Let’s also remember my mum had ditched me to go do other jobs. I was just trying my best at this point, there was little to no skill involved.

Did I die though? Nope! I actually made a bookshelf. I’m stupidly proud of this. I made a thing, almost all on my own. I am a qualified builder, and definitely a qualified adult. Also, MORE BOOK SPACE!