Do you ever watch Property Virgins on HGTV? Back in the olden days when we actually paid a small fortune for cable, I was a die-hard fan of the original Property Virgins with Sandra Rinomato who hosted the show from 2006 to 2011.
I loved everything about that show. Sandra was spunky, she was very knowledgeable about real estate, it was a show about buying houses – what was not to love?
I have only seen a few episodes of the new version with Egypt Sherrod and I really didn’t care for the change, but like I said, we don’t shell out the money each month for cable anymore so I’m sure that HGTV does not give a hoot about my opinion.
Anywho, as I take more and more of our unwanted belongings to our local Salvation Army each week, I am finding a new side benefit. Not only can I breathe easier each time I take a car load of stuff away, and I can feel great about blessing another family with the abundance that we have, but I am really beginning to enjoy my home more. Everything, every. single. thing. in my house is beginning to have a home, a place that it belongs, and I can take it there immediately if its not in its place. And that makes me extremely happy. It also helps me to keep my house clean. Another benefit.
The reason that I bring up Sandra Rinomato, is she makes a statement that I am truly beginning to appreciate. Can you guess what it is yet?
Buy furniture for your new home, do not buy a home for your furniture.
I know many people, MANY people, who would wholeheartedly disagree with this statement. I may have been one of them at one time. But as I find a permanent place for all of the things that I truly love and want to keep in my home, I understand that it’s seriously okay to let things go that do not meet that criteria. Just because someone gifted us something 20 years ago does not mean that I have to hang onto it now. And I don’t have to run out and buy something new if I have something that will fit in another spot in my house.
We have a mid-century modern desk in our house that right now is serving as our TV stand in our den. Over fifteen years ago my home church was going to throw it away. Seriously, throw it away. Of course that offended my sense of everything can go somewhere besides the landfill, and it came home to our tiny house to become our computer desk. I surfed what would become the internet on that desk, paid bills on that desk and used it for those purpose’s for many years. This thing is built like a tank out of solid – uhmm, mahogany maybe? There is not one piece of mdf on it. It weighs like 600 pounds or at least it feels like it.
It then changed purposes and become my credenza in my upstairs living room for many years. And now its a beautiful display stand for our TV with amazing nickel legs and lot’s of storage. Similar to this, but with a pullout drawer at the top:
I love it, but when it stops being useful in our home or it doesn’t fit well in our home, it will go to our local Salvation Army store so that some other family can give themselves hernia’s taking it home to enjoy. And that’s perfectly okay with me now.
I have to admit that it could be a lot harder to justify kicking Aunt Hilda’s retro collection of incandescent orange side chairs to the curb:
But this is where for the past year I have a taken a page from Marie Kondo. Does it spark joy? Do you love it? Do you want it to live in your house? Do you have a space for it? No? Then you might, just might, want to consider hauling those raging orange chairs away to your local thrift store.
P. S. I don’t have an Aunt Hilda. But if you do and you want to get rid of those glowing hot orange chairs, please contact me, because I can recover them with a beautiful fabric and I have the perfect spot for them in my bedroom!
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