Flat-packs: Do I really need to read the instructions?

Flat-packs, why are they always so difficult? Photo / Getty

LIFESTYLE OPINION

While I was strolling through my favourite hardware store the other day, I spied a pizza oven on wheels. Perfect, I had been wanting one for ages and this was going to do the job, great size, and easy to use, the only downside was it came as a flat pack.

So, I put on my big girl trousers and purchased the pizza oven on wheels and thought, yes, I can build this!

So last weekend when the rain was coming down in buckets, I thought, what a great day for a spot of flat pack building. Not thinking to check that when it was built, it was going to fit through the door.

I must admit, I find flat-pack diagrams so boring, and I always think I can work them out without instructions. You would have thought I would have learned from the first time I tried building a flat pack to check all the pieces were there and to read the instructions, even just a glance, but oh no!

I just went for it in my usual go-to style, no crescent to tighten nuts, no instructions read, let’s say I built it to look like the picture on the box. For days, a large piece of the build sat on my dining table, I couldn’t work out how it attached. Turns out it was to catch the burnt and used charcoal.

I always find by leaving my build in a place where I keep tripping over it, usually makes something happen to my thinking and hey presto it worked, and I attached the random piece and proudly took photos which I sent off to all my friends.

Back came the messages, send a pic of your pizza, so I made some pizza dough, lit the charcoal, and popped in the pizza stone to heat up. Now, I never read the instructions on the pizza stone box, and I never really took much notice of the stainless-steel tray which I thought was just for serving.

Anyone for pizza?

On to the hot stone went the pizza . . . what a disaster, the bottom was black, the cheese ran all over the stone and the pizza was fed to the chooks who I might add were not at all impressed.

So, the following weekend I decided to give the pizza oven another try. I decided to read the instructions on the pizza stone box. It said, make your pizza, put it on to a stainless tray, and place tray on a heated stone. . . Oh so that is where I went wrong with my first attempt.

I now see how important it is to read the instructions and so what if I end up with a few spare nuts and bolts from my flat pack. I mastered the art of flat-pack making and my pizzas are pretty good.

Those big girl pants really did work, but if I don’t stop making pizzas, those big girl pants really will come in handy!