Anyone that has ever hoarded stuff, whether intentionally or not, knows this is the rule when you are cleaning out the hoard. If you buy something new you have to remove something you already have.
I like to keep my home maintained, I like it clean and I do not like clutter but sometimes I have clutter, mostly paper clutter and my house gets nasty but the thing with maintaining it is that you have to buy new and get rid of the old.
I do not recall what month but I had to replace the mini blinds in the dining room, they were beginning to bust up with just a bump while opening them daily.
The next room was the kitchen, same deal. I swatted at a fly on the closed blind and one of the slats broke. I got the tape and taped it back together and forgot about it for a while.
I realized these mini blinds are seven years old, already, and that is why they were becoming brittle. Another thing I noticed was they smelled! Since this is now a non smoking house I can smell that gross smell left behind from before he quit smoking, I guess I was used to that smell until recently.
This month I decided it was time to start replacing the mini blinds. I went through the house and counted them, knowing I would not buy all of them at one, so to know how many I needed and to price them.
I ended up buying half of what I need, I replaced all the mini blinds in the kitchen, living room and my bathroom for under $35.
I had set a budget for $50 and that was it, spend no more. So since I had a little money left over I decided that it is time for a new shower curtain liner, I usually replace them about every year anyways.
The main bathroom gets cleaned more than mine does and I am often changing the shower curtain, I do have several I bought and a couple that looked new that was left behind by tenants. I have several colors of bathroom rugs that I also change out often.
This is what I did.
I picked the oldest, but still looks great, shower curtain I own, its tri-color green on top, blue in the middle and purple at the end, and I hung that one with the new liner. I have a green and blue bath mat but no purple. I bought a $10 purple bath mat and a new liner. Both with tax included was $12.20.
With the mini blinds and the bathroom stuff I still came in under the $50 mark.
Now I am at the point I have to chose what goes out, or already went.
Its a no brainer that all those old blinds went into the trash as well as the old shower curtain liner but what will I get rid of for the new bathroom rug I bought?
Last night I changed the cats bedding and I tossed in a few older bath towels. No I do not wash the old ones that smell like cat urine, the boy cats mark their area. Today I am giving my beagle dog a bathroom rug, for the winter, in his dog house. I also took all the little plastic things I saved from buying fruit to the recycle bin, I was going to sell produce and use those but something had to go.
Okay, maybe I bring in one thing and take out two,but that`ll work!
As far as cleaning I still have dust on the furniture and I need to vacuum but preping the rest of the taxes will come first.
How was your week past?
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By Andria Perry
Photo By Andria Perry
It not always easy and I have realized after 11 years in the same place. I really need to go through everything and get rid of stuff.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it, I did not know I was a hoarder till I moved out of a house I lived in for 23 years. Took me a year to get rid of all the stuff.
DeleteNo. I usually just chuck stuff out. In 2015 I started with the 40-bags in 40 days and then I was really moving along donating and downsizing. I estimate I got rid of close to 40 tons of junk (yes, TONS) by the end of the year. We have really minimized our belongings. It's freeing and really puts into perspective at how much stuff is accumulated over the years.
ReplyDeleteI know! And then I think about the money wasted. I could have went on a nice vacation.
DeleteMy place is a wreck. I need to organize and clean. Due to being the main one who cleans the house, it wasn't getting done while I was down and out. I am still having breathing issues but am doing a little more. Just takes longer to do. I am working on catching up the past two weeks of laundry for three people and towels. Plus, washing linens. As I want too kill this virus.I think clean sheets and blankets will help with that.
ReplyDeleteYes and do not forget to wipe down ALL handles in the house and phones and keyboard. Things will be there when you get well, don`t over do it.
DeleteIf I replace something, the 'old' whatever either gets tossed or given away. More often than not, though, when we buy something, is it an item we've needed for some time, so it isn't a replacement. When we moved here 5-6 years ago, we left a lot of our stuff behind and still haven't replaced it yet. For instance, we bought a steam carpet cleaner. The one we had was left in Oregon. There is a qualifier, too. We've bought a few really good frying pans, second-hand, recently. In this instance, the old frying pans weren't tossed/given away. They went into a new camping box we are putting together and they will stay there.
ReplyDeleteI think, or feel, that if you home is kept nice with the broken things out then it tends to be taken care of better. That is one reason I always like to organize what I have so that its neat and not dumpy looking. I do not toss many pots and pans, like you I can use those somewhere else.
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