I have a corner desk that is connected to a second, straight desk, which looks really cool, but is a pain (literally) to use. While it offers me enough space for two desktop computer setups: a necessarily sloppy-looking windows laptop-and-monitor setup for work, and a more streamlined Mac mini-and-monitor setup for home, it causes a lot of problems. The desktop is so high that it puts pressure on my forearms when I use the keyboard, which leads to wrist pain. The desktop on the Mac side is not level and there is no way to adjust it, so the monitor is always tilted slightly, which drives me crazy. The desk drawer and keyboard tray are too low and bang into the top of my legs. Lastly, the keyboard tray, when open, blocks the desk draw, which is super annoying.

There’s a lot more to it than just the desk setup. There are low cabinets and high bookshelves stretching across two walls of my office, all connected into a big L. You can see that it is made up of many different components, but they are all stuck together with no space between the seams. For the past eleven years I thought it was glued together by the house’s prior owners, but my father-in-law pointed out to me tonight that I was mistaken. The furniture is screwed together; it was designed to attach. Therefore, it will be a straightforward (though physically demanding) process to separate it and get it out of my house. I could even keep the bookcases and low cabinets that aren’t bothering me especially, to make room for a new, completely separate desk.

I am relieved to know that something can be done that falls short of hiring a demolition crew to break all this stuff apart and haul it away. I can get rid of the desk portions only, which I didn’t know was possible. That would leave me with 68 inches of space for a new desk. It will be more difficult to figure out how to accommodate both my Mac and PC setups, with all the USB peripherals and so on, but that is a problem that technology and money can probably solve.