Sunday, November 30, 2008

home improvement

In the past several months, like many people, I've been trying to buy less stuff. In fact, shopping has become a hassle, and I've begun to dread it. As I've gotten smaller, I've had to constantly replace clothing. This is expensive and frustrating, and I wish I could just press pause. It's one thing to drop a couple hundred bucks a month toward building a wardrobe, but it's quite another to do the same to maintain the bare minimum amount of clothing that won't fall off and will look sort of presentable at work. Lather, rinse, repeat. And then I have to remember not to fall in love with anything, because I'm just going to have to get rid of it shortly.

But purchases for the home are different. I finally replaced my dead vacuum cleaner. I'd been holding out for no good reason, so when I was due to host Thanksgiving I realized I actually couldn't have people over to a house cleaned only with dustbuster. So I finally broke down and got one, and my life has improved.

The second purchase I made was a cast iron skillet. I've fallen in love with my enameled cast iron dutch oven, and cook everything in it, even though it's too big for most stuff. So I just went ahead and bought one. The thing cost $17, so it's not like I was needing to save up for it. For some reason it's been on my mental wish list for a year and I hadn't done anything about it. Tonight, I used it to cook up some leftover turkey and gravy.

Finally, I bought a new shower head. The one I had was terrible--it leaked and was clogged and rusted and barely allowed a trickle of water through. For months I've hated every shower I've taken, shivering because the warm water didn't come close to covering all of me at once, and more than once realizing too late that I didn't get all the shampoo out of my hair. Again, there was no good reason I couldn't get a new one, but I didn't until tonight. And you know what? I took an amazing, warm, comforting shower and can't wait to do it again in the morning.

Maybe one of these days I'll replace my folding chairs with real dining room furniture.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you for getting a few new pieces for your home. Hope you keep enjoying them. It is amazing what a difference a few little things can do to make your home more enjoyable.

For new chairs you'll find lots of options out there and the prices will be dropping drastically now that we are in a recession. Great time to buy and upgrade.

There are many things that you can do to upgrade your place. Some are cheap and easy to do and others are time consuming and costly. But, I have found that we can dramatically change the look and feel of a room with just a few changes such as new paint, different lighting (dimmers) or a new piece of furniture or a plant.

The possibilities are endless.

Cheers,
Robin

jess said...

I love buying new stuff for the kitchen! Jealouse of the cast iron skillet, that may have to go on the Christmas list. I just bought my first set of silicone bakeware, looking forward to checking out the difference between silicone and the old fashioned metal.

Kaijsa said...

The cast iron is the bomb, totally. You'll have to tell me how you like the silicone. I borrowed a cupcake pan and it was FAIL. That could have been user error, though.