Antes de abrir el cajón de abajo, me agacho porque la cómoda es muy baja.

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Breakdown of Antes de abrir el cajón de abajo, me agacho porque la cómoda es muy baja.

• ser: to be
• muy: very
• abrir: to open

Questions & Answers about Antes de abrir el cajón de abajo, me agacho porque la cómoda es muy baja.

Why is it antes de abrir and not something like antes de abro?

Because after antes de, Spanish normally uses an infinitive when the subject stays the same.

• Antes de abrir el cajón... = Before opening the drawer... / Before I open the drawer...
• You do not use a conjugated verb like abro after antes de in this structure.

A useful rule:

• antes de + infinitive → when the same person does both actions
• antes de que + subjunctive → when the subject changes

Examples:

• Antes de salir, apago la luz. = Before leaving, I turn off the light.
• Antes de que salgas, apago la luz. = Before you leave, I turn off the light.

Why does the sentence say me agacho? What does me do here?

Agacharse is a pronominal verb, so it is normally used with a reflexive-style pronoun:

• me agacho = I bend down / I crouch
• te agachas = you bend down
• se agacha = he/she bends down

Here, me does not literally mean myself in a strong way. It is simply part of how this verb is commonly used.

So:

• agacho by itself would sound incomplete or unnatural in this meaning
• me agacho is the normal form