FAREWELL TO THE LAST OF THE MUSTY TWINS: a guest room glow-up

If you’ve been around here long enough, you know Perkins Place has a long and storied history - mostly involving humidity, questionable furniture, and my ongoing attempts to keep both from defeating me. When my grandparents bought the place back in 1972, it came partially furnished, which is real‑estate speak for Here, take these old things we didn’t feel like moving. Among those treasures were two matching white dressers: Sturdy, charming, and already smelling faintly like they’d lived through several presidential administrations.

Fast‑forward a few decades and Florida’s humidity - also known as The Silent Killer of Wooden Furniture - finally claimed its first victim. About three years ago, I dragged one of the dressers to the curb, where it crumbled like a saltine in soup. The second dresser, the one with the stronger musty aroma (think: “vintage attic meets abandoned pirate ship”), has been living in my garage for the past three weeks. This weekend, it too will make its final pilgrimage to the curb. I may say a few words. I may not.

As you know, everything I do around here is done on a budget so tight it squeaks. Enter Amazon, my enabler, my confidante, my source of affordable furniture that arrives in a suspiciously small box. For a mere $200, I bought a cute little dresser that promised to be both functional and not smell like the inside of a forgotten trunk.

Dresser available on Amazon at  https://amzn.to/415F6EQ

And let me tell you, assembling it was a dream. One breezy Sunday afternoon, armed with an screwdriver and a level of confidence I did not deserve, I put that baby together. It slid into the guest room like it had always belonged there.

To really seal the deal - and to erase any lingering memory of its musty predecessors - I lined the drawers with lavender‑scented liners. Now the whole room smells like a spa that also occasionally hosts my relatives.

Available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/415F6EQ

It is amazing what swapping out one piece of furniture can do. The guest room looks fresher, feels brighter, and no longer carries the faint aroma of 1972 called and wants its dresser back.”