From the time I was big/strong enough to move my bedroom furniture, I’ve enjoyed rearranging things. My mother would always tell me I was nesting – a tweak here, a change there – nothing done because it had to be, it was just what I enjoyed doing. I enjoy nesting even more as an adult, because now I have a whole house to play with.

The only down side is the chain reaction I cause whenever I move something significant. So, in addition to the clutter of my creative reuse, my family must endure the occasional upheaval of our belongings, as even the mildest feathering can cause enough of a mess to make it look like we just moved in.

Last week, I used the birthday money my older sister gave me to buy a small record cabinet at an estate sale. Did we need it? No. Do we have room for it?  Hell no. But it’s such a unique piece, and it adds some family history to our space (something a store-bought or pressed wood cabinet could never do).

My father worked in the record industry (Columbia and Playboy Records) when I was growing up, then managed a radio station, where my sisters and I each worked when we were in high school. My grandmother (his mother) was a record buyer for Venture (now Target), back when they had record departments, and my parents met when my father was working at a record store and she came in to order an album. So I’ll let this cabinet remind me of all of that, despite the fact that it won’t hold any LPs.

I love the hidden storage and the removable dividers, giving me options for what I can store in this over the years. It fits perfectly underneath the coat rack my husband made when we painted our kitchen earlier this year and is holding our boys’ lunch bags, hats, gloves and such. But, I’m curious, how would you use it?