wow, i really hit a soft spot with this post. thank you for all your kind and thoughtful comments. this blog community truly is amazing!
the kids and i are headed out of town for a few days with my mom, to visit my maternal grandmother for her 90th birthday. i will be back next week. in the meantime, here's a long post with loads of links and food for frugal home thought. be well!come with me on a tour of my house and see how we are pulling it together as economically as we can...
a frugal household is one that is able to accept free items, sort,
store,
plan ahead, and organize what one has. when you do this, it is so much easier to save money.
most of what we have was given to us (gifts (wedding included), freecycle, local list, bartering. in turn, we give and we pass along when we are done). we have filled in around the edges with used purchases (antique, thrift store, craigslist),
homemade, and honestly, for the rest, IKEA has often filled in the cracks. the dollar amount you see in parentheses next to the room names (below) is the total spent to furnish the room.
i have posted a
home tour before, but here is a briefer, updated photo tour, with some tips to go along with them.
- pick storage solutions that are versatile and compact. although i love baskets, they take a lot of room when not in use. instead, i have come to love large canvas bags and collapsible boxes.
- don't like it? cover it up! we received a like-new couch (years ago, it is time for couch shopping, actually), but didn't like the faded pattern. now, with kids, i love having a slipcovered couch. (the couch serves double duty as a pull out guest bed, too.) i have made covers for kitchen appliances (added bonus of keeping them kitchen-grease-free) and curtains for open cupboards.
- less really is more. we just passed our 5th anniversary as homeowners. we bought this home after renting it, so have actually lived here for nearly 9 years. i have spent chunks of time over the past 5 years (once we realized we weren't moving and wouldn't be forced to purge in the process), decluttering, collecting, purging, organizing, and starting the process all over again. i could have happily spent that time doing something else. it is too easy to acquire stuff, so try to be discerning about what you bring into your home. accept what is given to you, but if something better comes along, then pass the first item on immediately. it shocks me to think back on how little we owned when we moved in. now we have too much stuff for our small space!
- freecycle hints: 1) set your membership to accept individual emails, then set your email box to sort freecycle emails into their own email. this way, you get ALL the freecycle emails, but they aren't mixed in with your regular, personal emails. 2) post offers. people like to give to other people who gives. we have two stokke-style chairs (one handmade by someone else, one original stokke) from freecycle, because the people offering recognized my name out of all the respondents due to all the offers i had made. 3) participate in as many freecycle groups in your area as you are able, but out of courtesy, post to one at a time. participating in several allows you to view more offereds and have a greater pool of people interested in items you have to give. 4) be polite! don't reply to an offer with "i want this." seriously, people do this to me, i laugh, and hit delete. although some people do first come first served, i try and be fair and give enough people a chance to reply, then i pick randomly or i pick the nicest reply. a little niceness goes a long way.
at the top of the post, our dining room ($185). the floor was carpet when we bought it. we ripped it out, matched a missing section of floorboards (a fire damaged the floors before we moved in and is why we still have carpet in the living room), and refinished the floor.
you've seen
our entry way ($20), our
living room ($70) arranged like the last 2 photos, but now, with no baby gating around the fireplace!), and
downstairs "plus" room ($130) now with floor in front of the door and improved sewing nook).
our bathroom ($20) has not changed from my original posting, but the kids' room ($120) certainly has. all the furniture you see below was free, with the exception of the crib, which we bought used (and i have since seen free many times over), and the mattress we put in it, which we bought new for health reasons. extras, like the hanging toy holder, baskets, and the rug were all from IKEA ($25). the bed (which has a matching bunk for when the kids are ready), belonged to mike and his brother as kids and was gifted to us by his parents. (the mattress came from my parents.) the quilt was made for lala, by my parents, as a birth present (more on this in a later post). one of my favorite items in their room is the metal cabinet, a curbside find.
our bedroom ($100). you saw our handmade night tables in
this post. that colorful dresser is a super cheapie that used to house yarn for my mom's weaving business. it is soon to be moved for storage elsewhere, as mike's mom has a quality shaker-style dresser to give us. it is worn, but then again, she has had it since she was 3! again, a favorite in here is the metal cabinet, this one a thrift shop find. leaning against the wall is a door-turned-mirror. mike replaced the glass with mirror. the kids share a room, so the pack n' play is used daily for naps.
our kitchen ($300 for a fridge i detest) is a bit of an embarrassment, but i am showing it in all of its normal (not cleaned for a photo) glory, because i took these as "before" photos. we finally decided that a kitchen renovation is not financially possible for long enough that painting it would, indeed, be worth the effort to enjoy in the meantime. so here is the
before. (the next photos you see will be the same kitchen with a fresh new look...hopefully before new year's!) the second photo below, while dark, shows the portable dishwasher we bought used (best new-mamma present i got, but i have since joined freecycle and seen dozens of these offered up for free), the edge of
the stove our neighbor gave us, and a view out to the deck, which was the best unfrugal money we have spent in years. the deck was not cheap, but has vastly expanded and improved our living space.
for those of you wanting more info on economizing, i have labeled all relevant posts with "
frugality." i also did a
weekly frugal friday series for a couple months last year. additionally, we are trying not to buy anything new, so their are posts with a
" no buying new" label as well as each
month, in review of how we have done.
have a lovely week's end!
one of her favorite meditations: art
a happy moment. invited to sit in the pilot's seat in the cockpit of a 737. photo credit: my mom!
taking a photo of a barrel cactus. happy with the camera immediately following a fuss. photo credit: my mom!
