Leah: 1 Ikea: 0

Do you recognize this funny looking guy?  

Well, if you do then you have assembled a lot of Ikea furniture just like me.  And let me tell you, being familiar with this strange Ikea Assembly Man is not always a good thing.  I have cursed at him MANY times for being so unclear.  

 

It all started when my best friend and I moved into our first apartment in Manhattan after college.  We insisted on building all of our furniture ourselves, despite both of our mothers telling us it wasn't a good idea.  Hours later, with tears in our eyes and blisters on our hands we admitted that maybe they were right.

Now, almost ten years later I am still putting together Ikea furniture and staring at the instruction booklet (that has NO WORDS!!) with a look of confusion.  But I am happy to say that yesterday I assembled a new freestanding wardrobe for my bedroom in record time.  Yay!  It was really great to be able to move some of my clothes out of the guest room and sort through the stuff I never wear.  

So, thank you Ikea Assembly Man.  It was nice working with ya (for once!). 

~Leah

My Filing Project

As you saw yesterday, I started a big filing project in my home office this weekend.  

It was LONG overdue... but I finally got the motivation to make it happen.

The first thing I did was get myself a new space for my files.

This storage bench from Ikea is actually in the kids' section, but works perfectly for files.  

I just added file frames (like these) and viola!  A cute bench becomes a functional office item.  

The next step was to add the files... now, this may seem like a simple task but there are so many different file folders out there.  But the ones from Pendaflex have become my favorite.  

They are so durable and even come in "extra capacity" sizes, perfect for those of us who stuff our files to the max!  I bought mine in blue and green, to match my business colors.  They also just make me feel serene and happy when I open the drawer.  

Seriously, who can say that they feel that way when they are filing?!  

Check back tomorrow for the scoop on how I finished the project.  

~Leah