Thought I didn't need a level for hanging shelves until I eyeballed it in my garage

I was one of those people who swore a level was for amateurs, and I hung 3 shelves in my hallway by just stepping back and looking. They looked fine from the floor but after a week I noticed all my picture frames kept sliding off to one side. Finally borrowed a 24-inch level from my neighbor and every single shelf was off by at least a quarter inch. Has anyone else fought against using a simple tool only to find out you were making your life harder?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyattrobinson25d ago

Did you at least fix them after that? I had the same thing with shelves in my laundry room. I figured my eyes were good enough, but after a month I noticed things were slowly sliding. Grabbed a bubble level from the dollar store and it was a mess. That quarter inch adds up fast when you stack stuff on top. Now I feel dumb for not just spending the five bucks upfront instead of redoing the whole thing. A level is one of those tools that pays for itself in saved aggravation.

hart.cora25d ago

Right, because nothing says "good enough" like watching your laundry basket slowly migrate across the room like it's trying to escape. I swear that quarter inch is the universe's way of teaching us that "eyeballing it" is the adult version of "I'll fix it later." So now I just pretend the level is a critical part of my personality and whip it out for everything, even hanging a paper towel holder.

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