I’ve assembled my fair share of IKEA furniture. Flat-packed pre-drilled particle boards with picture-only instructions have sucked tens of hours out of my life. The thought of assembling the IKEA Kura Reversible Bed again fills me with more dread than waiting in a long porta-potty line while suffering from gastro-intestinal issues.

Today, I lost 3 hours of my life unpacking and assemblying the Nantucket Natural Pantry for mom. I should have deduced that furniture arriving in boxes requires assembly—a lot of assembly. It took almost 30 minutes just to unpack and unwrap all the pieces. The assembly featured some backward steps on my part after realizing I had locked in the carcass without some key boards.

Nevertheless, I managed to wrangle this beast. I will admit there was a decent sense of fulfillment in converting pre-drilled boards and hardware into storage furniture. Most importantly, mom liked the result.