I have been thinking a lot about my time as a homemaker, lately. I’ve been feeling tired and dejected in my work. I try giving myself pep talks to get back on track, but they have not been working. I’m not as fast as I used to be when it comes to cleaning my house. I have arthritis in my left foot (caused by an injury last September 2021) and also have quite a bit of arthritis in my upper/middle back, just from living 5 decades on this earth. Both of these together have culminated into a lack of floor cleaning because standing for long periods of time or sweeping results in pain.
It is taking me longer and longer to get through my daily chores. Part of it, I think, is just getting older… the rest of it is overwhelm. An overwhelm of stuff. An overwhelm of too many undone chores. An overwhelm of unfinished projects. I have been trying to make my daily lists like I used to do, but I am not getting very far in marking off things as done. Pain makes me tired. I have been trying to figure out a new method of working so that I can get things done. The only thing I have come up with is having less things.
So, over the last couple of months, I purged a lot of BIG FURNITURE! I joined our local Buy Nothing group on Facebook. I didn’t want to have to try to move these items myself. I didn’t want to haggle with some stranger over the price. I didn’t want to wait around for no-shows…so I offered them for free on the Buy Nothing group. I have to say the Buy Nothing group is amazing! I have gifted many things to families who need these items we no longer need or use. Their usefulness to us has been completed and it’s time to let someone else be rewarded with a good sturdy piece of furniture.
The desk was the first thing to go. I used it for homeschooling Carter, my grandson, during the pandemic. Mike and I bought the desk in 1999! It started life as his desk, then each of our kids used it and last to use it was our grandson. Dang thing is heavy, we moved it three times. This time when it moved, it left the house to a young man going off to college. His mom was thrilled to have such a solid piece of furniture and we chatted about black paint to refresh the top and adding more shelves if necessary. They were thrilled to not have to pay a dime for it and I was thrilled that I didn’t have to dust or move it again.
The next thing to go was a medicine cabinet that was gifted to us from our daughter. She remodeled her bathroom and didn’t need it. I love the style but after fiddling with it for a few days, I determined it wouldn’t fit in either of our bathrooms where I wanted. It was gifting to a woman who moved from California to Missouri during the pandemic to care for her aging mother. She is on a fixed income herself and had purchased a tiny run-down home not too far from me and started remodeling it. Over the last year, we have become friends and I am glad that a medicine cabinet brought a nice person into my little realm.
A wooden filing cabinet. Super super heavy. I have a filing cabinet in the basement and this one was just redundant.
Next up was 4 dining chairs we no longer needed after we were gifted the huge dining room table and 4 large rolling chairs. I recovered these with a Japanese print. They were lovely, I just didn’t need them anymore.
A big comfy green chair found a new home. We don’t have room for it in our living room since we bought our first ever fully purchased by us brand new big boy/big girl sofa (new living room photos coming soon once I have the painting and decorating done).
Last but definitely not the least and most definitely the hardest to part with… my buffet. This was the very first piece of furniture my husband and I bought together. We bought it when we lived in the city in our very first home. Our neighbors, three doors down, had an estate sale and were moving into a retirement village with future assisted living homes. It wouldn’t fit in their new home. Mike and I talked about it and wrote our bid on a tiny slip of paper with our name and address. Pretty sure we were not going to be the high bidders on this lovely buffet. A day later, we were rolling this bad girl down the sidewalk to our house. It fit in every house we owned except the house we live in now. There isn’t a wall in the house where this beast will fit. It’s huge. I cried when it left. I am still a bit bitter but I knew/know it does not fit our home or our lifestyle now. She went to the home of a very young couple, much like us when we bought it. She is getting a third family to love her.
It still makes me sad to know that she is no longer mine. The photo below is our girl in our second home… where she fit the best but our family did not fit very well. Huge dining room… itty bitty everywhere else. LOL The rest of this dining room now belongs to my daughter.
So, lots of big things left here. There’s more space. More breathing room. The next few months will be me cleaning, rearranging, reorganizing and redecorating our home. I’ll update as I get things done! Slowly.
Exploring Tangents 