It's a family project to reclaim our house from chaos. We're not there yet but I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon and have plans to start Flylady maintenance in the future. Oh how happy I will be when my home is only 15 minutes messy. It's getting closer.
We have a garage sale date set and half of our garage is slowly being filled with things we've decided to boogie. What we don't sell is getting dropped off at a charity immediately afterwards.
I'm getting excited about a few little decorating projects that I had given up hope of ever doing.
I've got curtains, shelves, stenciling materials, etc. that I have bought just sitting around unused.
I will be overjoyed when I finally feel like this weird box of a house starts to resemble something I created for our family. I can imagine a haven instead of a house. It gives me pleasure to think about it.
On a completely different note, I've been thinking lately how my stockpiling, hoarding and overbuying leaves me feeling kind of spoiled and irresponsible. On one hand I like getting things we need for the least amount of money so we have it when we need it. On the other hand I am tired of always having excess stuff and spending my husband's hard earned dollars on things we might not need for six months. Am I being of a good steward of our finances by buying too much now for the possibility of saving later? I don't know what the answer is but I am ready to clean out some cabinets and pantry space and buy only what we need.
It reminds me of a novel by Dorothy Allison that I read a few years ago called "Cavedweller". In the novel there's a young mother who mistakenly thinks she's dying so she takes to buying two and three of everything so that her family won't be faced with lack when they are dealing with her loss. She spends her days calculating their list of needs and shopping for them and spending more than her husband makes so that she can feel safe that she's leaving them well provided for.
Am I doing the same thing by hoarding bottles of shampoo, boxes of pop tarts, and kleenex?
I think I'm ready to start running out of things on purpose.
I hear my husband marshaling my children to their chores. I must get back to it also. We work and we play together as a family. And that feels good.
2 comments:
I liked this post Jenny. I'm glad that you're slowly getting back on track!
I agree about the stockpiling. It's easy, when you find something really cheap that you know you'll use, to buy a lot. The problem is that it can easily get out of control. I set limits for myself. When I can no longer fit anything in my designated surplus storage areas, I stop buying. Then we usually do a "pantry challenge," trying purposely to live only on what we already have.
Right now, my basement pantry shelves are virtually empty. I guess puking 5 times a day and being too sick to shop is another way to go (though I wouldn't recommend it :)
Stockpiling is such a strange issue. I see the value but found using the CVS extrabucks plan, I was spending plenty out of pocket still so I now only keep 1 or 2 on hand and watch for another great sale when I am down to my last one of something.
I now only stock up on things I really will use and only if it is free or next to free or a really super savings. For example, I really am pained to spend 3.99-4.99 for morningstar farms products so I stocked up last week when I got them for about $1.50/box (plus a $10 rebate coming to me). I probably have 20 boxes/bags in the freezer but I saved at least 50% on a budget buster. That is the exception more than the rule now though.
I won't buy things we just won't use no matter how good the price.
Good post and good for you for reviewing your spending habits.
Good luck on the yard sale.
Andrea
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