Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Rebecca, Day 10


Day 10:
Seriously, that's a LOT of rubber bands.Get rid of the big items. There’s tons of little clutter in our lives, but if you start with the big items, you’ll simplify your life quickly and in a big way. Read more.
I feel kind of "eh" about this one. Suggestions from the "read more" link leave me cold. I don't have "big things" lying around to get rid of. Eg: "TACTIC: If you rent storage space because you can't fit all your stuff in your home, recognize this as God's way of telling you that you have too much stuff." Rent storage space? Heck, no! I would never waste money on storage space indefinitely. We have only rented space for a month or two at a time, during moves, on an as-needed basis.

"TACTIC: Get rid of unused major appliances, furniture, and vehicles as soon as possible." Unused major appliances or vehicles? Um, no, we have exactly what we need. Furniture? Sure, as we became parents and turned the guest room into a nursery, etc., we have had some furniture to get rid of--but we've kept mostly on top of it with summer yard sales (and the occasional Craigslist ad). I DO have some antique guest bedroom furniture in the basement that I need to sell, but it's taken me three years to resign myself to doing so. It's so pretty; I'd rather keep it. But the housing market being what it is, we're not moving anytime soon, which is the only way a guest bedroom might possibly be in the realm of possibility. So, yes, that is a good reminder. I need to orchestrate getting it out of the basement (it's heavy) to be photographed and posted for sale online.

"
TACTIC: Question the need to have a car." Actually, we experimented with this last summer. Our older car needed some costly repairs, so before doing them, we spent three months as a single-car family. We realized that we could reduce to one car if needed, but as our older car has been reliable and is completely paid off, our answer to that question is that the costs of routine maintenance, inexpensive insurance, and occasional repairs are worth the added convenience to our family.

"TACTIC: Reconsider the need for a vacation home or property." I would LOVE to have a vacation home, but alas, I do not. (I am clearly not a member of the author's target audience for these tactics.) If I did, though, I would be very careful to choose someplace that could generate rental income to cover expenses.

"TACTIC: Ask yourself if you really need sport boats, vehicles, and other large pieces of equipment." Hahahaha. No, I definitely don't. That's why I don't have any! Silly.

1 comment:

  1. We don't, but I think a lot of people do which is why it's included. (Plus 72 items leaves a lot of topics to cover, heh.) I think I do have some furniture that needs to go or be moved - for example, P.'s changing table is going to become a basement shelf for cats to pee pee on. But even though her changer is just sitting upstairs, I feel SO weird about doing anything else with it because I changed her on it... which is silly, because I changed her on the bed, the floor, etc., too. THE SACRED DIAPER FLOOR!

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