My cousin from Portland told me to stop using a level for everything

We were putting up some shelves in my kitchen last weekend, and I kept checking every single bracket with my 4-foot Stanley level. He finally said, 'You know, a lot of old houses aren't perfectly square, right? You're fighting the walls.' I spent the next hour just eyeballing it and using shims, and the shelves look way better. Why do we get so stuck on the 'right' way to do things? Has anyone else had a tool habit they had to break?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviabarnes15d ago

Right? We do this with recipes too, following them exactly when we should just taste and adjust.

keith94315d ago

Isn't it just a fear of getting it wrong? We follow instructions to the letter because we're scared to trust our own judgment. It's a recipe for bland food and a boring life.