How not to fight with your partner while assembling furniture

If you just dropped most of your savings on the down payment for a house, you may not have much extra cash to spend on fancy, solid furniture that experts assemble and deliver. (Of course, you could always make a smaller down payment and reserve some of those savings for furnishings!)

These tips have been honed over years of bookshelves, office chairs, futons, a fancy light fixture, an outdoor fire pit, the contents of an entire craft room and one particularly wretched kitchen cabinet – all assembled with the same dude. (Reader, I married him – and this was AFTER we assembled all that stupid furniture.)

Remember, your enemy in this situation is the bookshelf itself. You and your partner are a team, so don’t let the bookshelf divide and conquer you.

Whenever you want to say something salty to your partner, instead say, “You’re doing a great job!” or even, “I love you.” Even if your partner just dropped his end of whatever needs to be tightened (but only partially!) for the fifth time.