a tale of two dressers

 As part of my new business, Organize Me!, I am always on the lookout for free stuff. Dressers have been a hot seller, so when I saw two dressers posted "FREE" online last week, I knew I had to grab them up! It's not often that I find one with a mirror, nevermind a matching pair of antiques. Yes, they looked like they needed some work. Yes, they needed new hardware, but with a little paint, I figured I could work some magic, and collect a tidy profit.

So, armed with my mom's trusty Ford, I set off Saturday morning to pick these beauties up. Little did I know, it was only the beginning of a very crazy adventure.

I collected my dressers without incident, and proceeded to run some errands in town with my dressers loaded on the back of the truck. After an uneventful visit to the bookstore, thrift store, and grocery store, I drove my dressers home, already planning what I would do to fix them up. 

So imagine my surprise and chagrin when upon unloading them, I noticed one of the drawers was missing! 

I searched the truck high and low, but the drawer was nowhere to be found. Could the original owner have forgotten to tell me about a lost drawer. No, the photo posted online had all the parts there. Could I have loaded them and not noticed a missing drawer? I was quite certain I had not. Could they have blown off the truck? Impossible! I had loaded the dressers without removing the drawers, and had them facing each other so that the drawers could only roll in towards each other.

My only conclusion was that someone had climbed on to the back of the truck while I was doing my errands, pulled out a drawer, and walked away with it. Crazy as it seemed, it was the only logical option.

I was quite furious at this point. Who would do such a thing? I had driven halfway across the County to pick these up only to have some punk swipe one of the drawers! 

So, what to do? I needed that drawer! There as no way I could get a good price for a dresser with a missing drawer!  

Enter the world of Facebook technology. I went back on to the Facebook group where the original ad was posted, and posted a "LOST DRAWER" ad. Several hours later, sightings of a lonely dresser drawer lying in a parking lot in town began to filter in. It happened to be a lot not far from where I had parked that day. I called several of the businesses nearby to see if it was still around, but no one saw anything. My brother drove through the area without spotting anything. Sadly, it looked like my drawer was gone for good, and I was out of luck. 

The next morning, I logged on to Facebook, and to my surprise and delight I learned that some Good Samaritan had seen my ad, spotted the drawer, picked it up, and put it in her car for safekeeping. And so, two days later, I was happily reunited with my long-lost dresser drawer.

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

BEFORE

I have since spent the week, repairing, painting, and installing new hardware on both pieces. I am pleased to report that both dressers are finally finished and have been posted for re-sale. Hopefully the new owners will appreciate the story behind them, and all the trouble I went through!

On a side note, I picked up another free dresser off the side of the road yesterday. It made it home without incident.