It’s not really a good thing when the only thing holding up a shelf of stuff .. is the stuff.

In an effort to actually use all the space I pay for (i.e. no longer use my “spare” bedroom as a dumping ground for all things that don’t belong somewhere else) I started by reorganizing the closet so I could get more stuff in it and off of the various surfaces of the room.

Except no sooner did I take all the things1 off the shelf when the shelf support nicely lifted away from the wall, taking the shelf and clothes bar with it and leaving me awkwardly holding onto it all so my downstairs neighbour wouldn’t think I had died under an avalanche.2

1When I say “all the things” I really mean a desk fan, three small boxes and a rubbermaid container of fabric odds and ends. So really, all that stuff was not all that much. And certainly should not have caused the downfall of the shelf.

2When I first moved in, I was setting up a shelving unit only to have it fall down, breaking one of the shelves and causing quite a ruckus. In the midst of cleaning all of the this up and cursing my luck, I heard a bang on my balcony and a small voice drift up “Are you all right up there?” Poor man. My crash scared him. Ever since then, whenever I or my cats knock something over, I think of this old man. And of how he must be cursing me now, thinking how much quieter his life would be if I *hadn’t* been all right on that hot summer day.

My cats knock over alot of things.