Shelves... and sometimes, it's the little things...

So, I know I'd been talking about the reason why we've switched from custom shelves over to standard shelf sizes (maybe not on here, but to people who've asked), and what it basically boiled down to was this -- I could never have anything "in stock" because everything was custom.  Which is fine, of course, but that meant, 7 days a week, I was tending to be cutting wood, and just like everyone else... I don't like that feeling of sawdust down my back and in my bra.  Sorry, but at the end of the day... it's itchy.  Not a fan.

So, I switched to standard sized shelves.  There's still the circular perch, perch shelf, corner shelf, and then we go to 6", 10", 12", 18" and 23".  Plenty of options for the average person wanting to deck out their cage.  These shelves are made from 8" kiln dried pine.  I suppose if you want a custom shelf made out of wood OTHER than 8" pine, I've custom cut a few of those lately.  But in general... the above are the sizes I will have, and will continue to have, in the foreseeable future.  That's my shelf sizes, you get to pick where the bolts go.

That said... to have shelves like that, and for the purpose of them actually being "in stock" -- that means that I need somewhere to store them.

Let's rewind to a little bit ago.  I went to Walmart, and bought this beige sterilite chest of drawers type thing (specifically, Sterilite 4 Drawer Unit), which I used to replace my unsightly garbage bags full of packaging supplies (bubble wrap, air bubbles, packing paper, etc).  I purchased the beige one, as this was going in my wood shop, and sawdust is... oh yeah... beige-ish in color.  The other available color, being dark grey, would look dirty and dusty very quickly.

So, naturally, I get it home, and go onto walmart.com to find another walmart that has the beige one in stock.  The website tells me... no local walmarts have them in stock.  Great.

So, I looked on Sterilite's website... they did not have the beige one on their product listing, meaning... they were discontinued.  Well, crud.

I searched online for them, thinking SOMEPLACE had to have them, if Walmart sells them, surely someplace else does.  Oh sure... Amazon currently does (color is technically called "platinum," but it's beige in real life, come on) -- here -- from another seller -- for $374.99!!!  Holy crap.  Mind you, these things new at Walmart were like $59.99 + tax.  Also, mind you, last week Amazon had one or two for about $180... that was more reasonable, but still, way too much to pay for one.  I like it... but not THAT much.

So, I kept checking Walmarts.  I had friends checking walmarts, in their travels.  I figured, just like I found a walmart that had one, surely there was another walmart out there that had one of these beige ones, and inventory just wasn't quite correct, and there'd be another beige one out there.

Well, a month or two went by, hadn't found one, and I was starting to get to the point where I was telling myself, ok, if I absolutely have to, I will move the beige one in the garage and buy two of the dark grey ones for the shop.  It would irk me to have two different colored ones next to each other, so putting the beige elsewhere and getting the dark grey for the shop would have to work.

Then one day, I thought, I'll check craigslist.  Hallelujah!!!  I FOUND ONE!!!  It was an hour from home, and the main pic the guy had of the item (the pic that shows up first) was a pic of the box that the chest of drawers came in.  So I figured, the only reason this thing wasn't gone yet, was because people didn't realize what it was (see pic of box below), but further pictures showed... my beige cabinet!

It was NEW IN BOX for $40!!!  SCORE!!!

Lookie this!!!

... isn't it awesome?!??

Now, the left one has my packing supplies, and the right one has shelves in it.  Not many, but I plan to cut more so that when someone needs a shelf, it's just a matter of getting it out and putting the bolts in, rather than actually having to cut it.

Oh and this totally made my week.  I sent the-above-picture to several of my friends and they were like awesome! cause they'd heard me going on about how I was trying to find the stinking thing.  Sometimes, it's the little things...