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Pictured at left is the antique crib in which I slept until I was six months old or so. (I’m guessing – but that’s the age at which most of my friends’ babies could roll over and begin to pull themselves up; I can only assume my mother wouldn’t have knowingly left me in what would at that point be a death trap…though perhaps she at times wished she had.)
The crib is in my study/shop, and it’s taking up valuable storage space (look closely and you’ll see the brad nailer “stored” next to my poor, decrepit teddy bear). It sits exactly where I want to put my tool chest, which would fit perfectly. But there’s no other room in my house in which the crib makes sense or can fit (actually, it doesn’t make sense where it is, either), and because of the tight turn and narrow stairs up to my third floor, I can’t move it to my “room where all things go to die” (500+ CDs of which I can’t seem to divest myself, an old, non-functional sewing machine, two Victorian chairs I’ve been hauling around and not using for 24 years…).
I asked my mom if she wanted the crib back, but she has even less room than do I for another piece of furniture. I’ve tried to sell it on Craigslist as a decorative item, but found no takers.
It’s in need of repairs: the two of the fretwork panels are loose, the headboard moulding lifts right off, two legs are a bit bockety…. Plus the latches on the front panel are a joke (there’s a backup hook-and-eye closure…because sharp bits are awesome in cribs). There is no way I’d put a kid in this thing; I’m pretty sure it would be considered child endangerment under today’s statutes. I use it for storing blankets (on which my cats like to sleep, so the blankets have to be washed before I can use them on the guest beds). So basically, my baby crib now serves as an ineffectual blanket chest that holds little, protects nothing and takes up a lot of much-needed space.
So I’m thinking of breaking it up for parts (or just cutting off the posts so I can maneuver it up to the third floor – just because I feel as though I should keep it). If I cut it apart entirely, I could incorporate the fretwork panels into the doors of an as-yet-to-be-designed cabinet. The headboard could…hang on the wall? The turnings could become the legs of a bedside table. But will they? And would I regret cutting up this antique piece that has been with me since literally days after I was born? And if I do, will the parts end up on the third floor, never to be used? This crib is nothing special – but it feels as if it ought to be.
What would you do?
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