I love looking around my house and knowing that each piece of furniture has a story. I love when someone comments on my rocking chair and I can tell the story of my grandma rocking my dad in it. And the office chair that my old old pastor used to sit and, and that he inscribed underneath. And the trunk I got for college- everything has a history and brings me a smile when I look at it.
I guess when people say curbside I think of stuff that has been sitting in the rain that has been put out for garbage pickup. I do have allergies and molds are a killer.
You are right with most wood items, they can be stripped, sanded and stained. I did have an old chest of drawers once that I had inherited and had to get rid of. They had used mothballs in it. I tried every concoction known to man to get rid of the smell and it still reeked. But for the most part good, sturdy wooden items are salvageable.
You make a valid point about 2nd-hand furniture. Most interior designers swear by the rule that you should never buy or take a 2nd-hand mattress. Others claim that anything upoholstered (sofa, couch) is too nasty to consider getting used. While I think it depends on the circumstances (most of my "second-hand" furniture is actually from the "curb" of family members), you need to stay safe from things like bed bugs and foul odors.
Wood furniture is almost always safe (but check for things like termites, first!)
I agree whole heartedly about really ugly furniture. I aslo will go without until I can afford what I want. I do have quite a few antique pieces: great grandma's mirrored dresser, grandma's bedroom set. I also have a nightstand my hubby made in 1976 woodshop class. When we were first married and he was finishing up school we could not afford new furniture, and all I waited for was the time I could replace that nightstand. Guess what, I love that thing now. We bought a bedroom set 10 years ago, I made sure it went with the nightstand. The nightstand that came with the set is in our guest bedroom. I guess after 25 years I am attached to it, just like I am to him.
I do have to say, I could never, ever have furniture that was put out on someone's curb left for free. I guess I have a phobia about bugs, smells etc. Sorry, that is too nasty to me. I could never sit on it or lay on it. I have a friend who does this and if I go to her house I sit on the floor.
Multiply this by five. When the whole family goes out to eat, we just enjoy the free water with our meal. My kids don't even try to go for the pop or milk choice (unless it goes with the meal and even then they forget and order water)
Oftentimes it is better to work with the manufacturer directly rather than getting a lemon law attorney firm involved. Some manufacturers will trade you out of your old vehicle and into a new one but won't do that if you are working with an attorney. It is also faster and you get more money if you work with the manufacturer as the attorney takes a portion of your award. If you don't like the manufacturer's response or you need help you can go through the BBB Auto Line program. It is free and most manufacturers participate.
Did you read the post at all? He clearly stated at the beginning not to get upset that yes, he is eating. It is coffee, tea, juices etc that he gave up.
BTW - My "I agree. Life is too short" post was in Reply to Shanel Yang's post: "If it's really ugly to me, then, sorry, but I don't agree." I clicked "Reply" to her post but this blog doesn't list it as a reply....
I agree. Life is too short to "make do" with things that you don't love. I'd rather not have something at all than have something cluttering my life that I don't really enjoy looking at and using. That being said, I also don't buy things I can't afford. If I really want something -- and let's face it, pretty much everything we own we don't really NEED, we WANT. I don't NEED a mattress. I WANT it because it makes my life better by allowing me to have a better night's sleep -- I buy the best quality I can afford. If at any time I want something but I can only afford one of low quality, then I won't buy it until I've saved up enough to buy something of quality.
If you are more into functionality than form, then an old ugly dresser will do you just fine. I personally need both and if I can't get both then I'll just do without. That's why there are no ugly dressers in my house -- free or otherwise. I'll stack my clothes in a closet before accepting a free dresser that I can't stand to use or look at.
It's funny, but I've found over the years that if I really like something, even if I pick it off the curb, it all goes together. It might be a color or shape or time period, but it "works". Even things we purchase second hand (or the two things bought new) are comfortable with one another. Peacefully eclectic is much more fun than matched sets.
Shanel #17 - You do make a valid point. I agree that having very ugly furniture can detract from living in your home peacefully. (Which is why I'm 100% for refurnishing and covering things up) I always love when home decor magazines give you ideas for a facelift rather than reinvesting in new. (Country Living was good at this before they went under... )
Margaret #23 - No offense on calling them "ugly", but in my case, there are a few pieces that are just that! I am so excited to finally have some time to refinish the older, more horrid pieces. Many of them have so much potential (but a few are currently covered in tacky layers of latex paint.) I guess we should be careful in judging a wonderful piece based on its outside appearance alone.
Well this just happened to us. We got the eviction notice on our door. Mind you it said "2nd Notice". We were like what happened to the first notice. We had been receiving in the mail all these notices to help you avoid foreclosure addressed to tenant/owner. We called the property manager and was told that the owner had "plenty" of money and that we had nothing to worry about. This was in Nov.2008. We kept receiving the notices (while paying our rent mind you) and were told the same thing. Not to worry. Well in Feb is when we got that eviction notice... taped to our door.. for all of our neighbors to see.. Of course we called the property manager who then told us she would call us back and that she thought she received a TRO on the property. What a TRO was we didn't know so we looked it up. Its a Temporary Restaining Order. We didn't pay the rent because we felt like we had to move and really didn't know what was going on and wasn't sure how temporary this TRO was. We were offered the cash for keys from the bank to move and managed to negoitate a time to move out. We told them about the TRO and they said they would look into it and get back with us. Mind you we still hadn't received a call back from the property manager, so my husband called her back. She then said that we needed to pay the rent or be evicted. We were like what proof do we have that the home wasn't in foreclosure and she said because of her verbal, that should be proof enough. Well as we were trying to verify this TRO, we got evicted by the owner and now we are going to court. Talk about stressful.
When we got a "new to us" car with some dings and dents already in it, yeah I was a bit irked when my partner hit a pillar in the Target parking lot, but now I think "meh, whatever." It's paid for, it runs, and I care a lot less about that "new" ding because it fits in with all the others. :-)
My brother was, and is still, king of the 'leftover sandwich'. Place slice of bread in bowl. Top with heated leftovers (Beans, veg & gravy, soup, spaghetti & sauce, casserole, whatever), top with second piece of bread. Eat with utensils, you can't pick this sandwich up!
I don't know why you have to call it ugly. You could call it "antique" or even "shabby chic" although I hate that term also.
All of my furniture is second-hand, some of it found on the street. I think it is beautiful. My point is that you shouldn't think of yourself as sacrificing something you want, like "nice" furniture, because you can easily find well-made furniture at thrift stores and on ebay, or inherited, it only takes a little love to make them look great.
You can be even more old fashioned about it: you've heard of Yorkshire pudding? (If you haven't, it's a puffy, non-sweet, pancake like food cooked in the drippings of a roast). Traditionally, the pudding is served before the meat. Partly cause it is at it's best when fresh & hot, partly becuase a big helping of carby, gravy covered goodness BEFORE the meat is served lets Mum serve smaller servings of meat.
In France, a pot roast type meal is served as two courses: first the broth from the pot as a soup, with or without the vegetables. With bread though. Then the meat with veg if they weren't in the soup. If Mere really wants to stretch the meal, it might even be soup (w/bread), veg (w/bread) and finally the meat. Before the soup, the family is highly likely to have had a starter involving yet more veg. Note: when I say first course, second course, I mean that item is served and finished before the next item is served. The French, they eat very slowly.
Both these methods mean the family is filled with their non-meat nutrition first, as well as slowing the meal down so the body knows it's full.
I have a sofa-bed that I bought at Salvation Army for $20, I love it and my 6'5" cousin can sleep on it comfortably. It has a slipcover but I proudly tell people what I paid for it.
I remember as a small child my mother would lament the "old" furniture that we had. When my parents got married (and I came along within the year) they had no money and furnished their home with things from their parents basement.
Well, you know what, those "old" pieces of furniture have been refinished by my mom and are now very valuable antiques. There was some very beautiful furniture under all those layers of ugly paint.
Great post. When you stop and think about it people do consume a large volume of calories and gunk via the liquids they drink. You also don't feel like you ate if you drank 300 calories of something. It is a huge amount of cash. Even if you just make water your main drink and those other drinks more as treats you will be way ahead. Go one step further and shun the expensive bottled water for filtered or distilled water from home.
Call me crazy but I prefer all that old furniture. Well at least the items that are sturdy and long lasting. I lost me love of shiny new furniture. I saw one of those huge 4 poster beds at Marshal Fields. It was some huge dollar amount, about enough to buy a decent used car. A few weeks later we were looking through a furniture liquidation warehouse. I saw the identical bed there. But it had a chunk taken out of the headboard. You could see the construction. It was MDF board inside with a very nice plastic veneer that was the wood finish. It was an amazing fake, it really did look like wood. But it was an expensive piece of throw away furniture. That totally turned me off to most of the new furniture out there even if I really like the style. Instead we look for older pieces with real construction that we like the style of and fix them to fit what we need. Between thrift stores and antique stores we find quite a bit. Oh and our $2000 brand new Lane leather sofa we bought had vinyl on the sides of the cushions. It started disintegrating right after the 1 year warranty on the coverings expired. The vinyl was a great fake too.
I love looking around my house and knowing that each piece of furniture has a story. I love when someone comments on my rocking chair and I can tell the story of my grandma rocking my dad in it. And the office chair that my old old pastor used to sit and, and that he inscribed underneath. And the trunk I got for college- everything has a history and brings me a smile when I look at it.
I guess when people say curbside I think of stuff that has been sitting in the rain that has been put out for garbage pickup. I do have allergies and molds are a killer.
You are right with most wood items, they can be stripped, sanded and stained. I did have an old chest of drawers once that I had inherited and had to get rid of. They had used mothballs in it. I tried every concoction known to man to get rid of the smell and it still reeked. But for the most part good, sturdy wooden items are salvageable.
Even if the author were doing a water only fast, there is a lot of medical and scientific evidence that going without food for a period of time (days or weeks) can be very healthful for many people and has been shown to cure disease.
http://www.drbenkim.com/fasting.html
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-dr-fuhrman-on-fasting....
http://www.healthpromoting.com/
You make a valid point about 2nd-hand furniture. Most interior designers swear by the rule that you should never buy or take a 2nd-hand mattress. Others claim that anything upoholstered (sofa, couch) is too nasty to consider getting used. While I think it depends on the circumstances (most of my "second-hand" furniture is actually from the "curb" of family members), you need to stay safe from things like bed bugs and foul odors.
Wood furniture is almost always safe (but check for things like termites, first!)
Linsey Knerl
Aw, I think I live at Kitchenette 67 1/2 on Broke Boulevard with you! I love your writing. :)
I agree whole heartedly about really ugly furniture. I aslo will go without until I can afford what I want. I do have quite a few antique pieces: great grandma's mirrored dresser, grandma's bedroom set. I also have a nightstand my hubby made in 1976 woodshop class. When we were first married and he was finishing up school we could not afford new furniture, and all I waited for was the time I could replace that nightstand. Guess what, I love that thing now. We bought a bedroom set 10 years ago, I made sure it went with the nightstand. The nightstand that came with the set is in our guest bedroom. I guess after 25 years I am attached to it, just like I am to him.
I do have to say, I could never, ever have furniture that was put out on someone's curb left for free. I guess I have a phobia about bugs, smells etc. Sorry, that is too nasty to me. I could never sit on it or lay on it. I have a friend who does this and if I go to her house I sit on the floor.
Multiply this by five. When the whole family goes out to eat, we just enjoy the free water with our meal. My kids don't even try to go for the pop or milk choice (unless it goes with the meal and even then they forget and order water)
Oftentimes it is better to work with the manufacturer directly rather than getting a lemon law attorney firm involved. Some manufacturers will trade you out of your old vehicle and into a new one but won't do that if you are working with an attorney. It is also faster and you get more money if you work with the manufacturer as the attorney takes a portion of your award. If you don't like the manufacturer's response or you need help you can go through the BBB Auto Line program. It is free and most manufacturers participate.
Did you read the post at all? He clearly stated at the beginning not to get upset that yes, he is eating. It is coffee, tea, juices etc that he gave up.
BTW - My "I agree. Life is too short" post was in Reply to Shanel Yang's post: "If it's really ugly to me, then, sorry, but I don't agree." I clicked "Reply" to her post but this blog doesn't list it as a reply....
I agree. Life is too short to "make do" with things that you don't love. I'd rather not have something at all than have something cluttering my life that I don't really enjoy looking at and using. That being said, I also don't buy things I can't afford. If I really want something -- and let's face it, pretty much everything we own we don't really NEED, we WANT. I don't NEED a mattress. I WANT it because it makes my life better by allowing me to have a better night's sleep -- I buy the best quality I can afford. If at any time I want something but I can only afford one of low quality, then I won't buy it until I've saved up enough to buy something of quality.
If you are more into functionality than form, then an old ugly dresser will do you just fine. I personally need both and if I can't get both then I'll just do without. That's why there are no ugly dressers in my house -- free or otherwise. I'll stack my clothes in a closet before accepting a free dresser that I can't stand to use or look at.
It's funny, but I've found over the years that if I really like something, even if I pick it off the curb, it all goes together. It might be a color or shape or time period, but it "works". Even things we purchase second hand (or the two things bought new) are comfortable with one another. Peacefully eclectic is much more fun than matched sets.
I would keep it ;) No sense in buying new stuff. If it breaks, then maybe.
Money is better saved.
Shanel #17 - You do make a valid point. I agree that having very ugly furniture can detract from living in your home peacefully. (Which is why I'm 100% for refurnishing and covering things up) I always love when home decor magazines give you ideas for a facelift rather than reinvesting in new. (Country Living was good at this before they went under... )
Margaret #23 - No offense on calling them "ugly", but in my case, there are a few pieces that are just that! I am so excited to finally have some time to refinish the older, more horrid pieces. Many of them have so much potential (but a few are currently covered in tacky layers of latex paint.) I guess we should be careful in judging a wonderful piece based on its outside appearance alone.
Thanks!
Linsey Knerl
Well this just happened to us. We got the eviction notice on our door. Mind you it said "2nd Notice". We were like what happened to the first notice. We had been receiving in the mail all these notices to help you avoid foreclosure addressed to tenant/owner. We called the property manager and was told that the owner had "plenty" of money and that we had nothing to worry about. This was in Nov.2008. We kept receiving the notices (while paying our rent mind you) and were told the same thing. Not to worry. Well in Feb is when we got that eviction notice... taped to our door.. for all of our neighbors to see.. Of course we called the property manager who then told us she would call us back and that she thought she received a TRO on the property. What a TRO was we didn't know so we looked it up. Its a Temporary Restaining Order. We didn't pay the rent because we felt like we had to move and really didn't know what was going on and wasn't sure how temporary this TRO was. We were offered the cash for keys from the bank to move and managed to negoitate a time to move out. We told them about the TRO and they said they would look into it and get back with us. Mind you we still hadn't received a call back from the property manager, so my husband called her back. She then said that we needed to pay the rent or be evicted. We were like what proof do we have that the home wasn't in foreclosure and she said because of her verbal, that should be proof enough. Well as we were trying to verify this TRO, we got evicted by the owner and now we are going to court. Talk about stressful.
This is why I love older cars!
When we got a "new to us" car with some dings and dents already in it, yeah I was a bit irked when my partner hit a pillar in the Target parking lot, but now I think "meh, whatever." It's paid for, it runs, and I care a lot less about that "new" ding because it fits in with all the others. :-)
Thanks for sharing this really nice article, it is very interesting!
My brother was, and is still, king of the 'leftover sandwich'. Place slice of bread in bowl. Top with heated leftovers (Beans, veg & gravy, soup, spaghetti & sauce, casserole, whatever), top with second piece of bread. Eat with utensils, you can't pick this sandwich up!
I don't know why you have to call it ugly. You could call it "antique" or even "shabby chic" although I hate that term also.
All of my furniture is second-hand, some of it found on the street. I think it is beautiful. My point is that you shouldn't think of yourself as sacrificing something you want, like "nice" furniture, because you can easily find well-made furniture at thrift stores and on ebay, or inherited, it only takes a little love to make them look great.
You can be even more old fashioned about it: you've heard of Yorkshire pudding? (If you haven't, it's a puffy, non-sweet, pancake like food cooked in the drippings of a roast). Traditionally, the pudding is served before the meat. Partly cause it is at it's best when fresh & hot, partly becuase a big helping of carby, gravy covered goodness BEFORE the meat is served lets Mum serve smaller servings of meat.
In France, a pot roast type meal is served as two courses: first the broth from the pot as a soup, with or without the vegetables. With bread though. Then the meat with veg if they weren't in the soup. If Mere really wants to stretch the meal, it might even be soup (w/bread), veg (w/bread) and finally the meat. Before the soup, the family is highly likely to have had a starter involving yet more veg. Note: when I say first course, second course, I mean that item is served and finished before the next item is served. The French, they eat very slowly.
Both these methods mean the family is filled with their non-meat nutrition first, as well as slowing the meal down so the body knows it's full.
I have a sofa-bed that I bought at Salvation Army for $20, I love it and my 6'5" cousin can sleep on it comfortably. It has a slipcover but I proudly tell people what I paid for it.
I remember as a small child my mother would lament the "old" furniture that we had. When my parents got married (and I came along within the year) they had no money and furnished their home with things from their parents basement.
Well, you know what, those "old" pieces of furniture have been refinished by my mom and are now very valuable antiques. There was some very beautiful furniture under all those layers of ugly paint.
Great post. When you stop and think about it people do consume a large volume of calories and gunk via the liquids they drink. You also don't feel like you ate if you drank 300 calories of something. It is a huge amount of cash. Even if you just make water your main drink and those other drinks more as treats you will be way ahead. Go one step further and shun the expensive bottled water for filtered or distilled water from home.
Call me crazy but I prefer all that old furniture. Well at least the items that are sturdy and long lasting. I lost me love of shiny new furniture. I saw one of those huge 4 poster beds at Marshal Fields. It was some huge dollar amount, about enough to buy a decent used car. A few weeks later we were looking through a furniture liquidation warehouse. I saw the identical bed there. But it had a chunk taken out of the headboard. You could see the construction. It was MDF board inside with a very nice plastic veneer that was the wood finish. It was an amazing fake, it really did look like wood. But it was an expensive piece of throw away furniture. That totally turned me off to most of the new furniture out there even if I really like the style. Instead we look for older pieces with real construction that we like the style of and fix them to fit what we need. Between thrift stores and antique stores we find quite a bit. Oh and our $2000 brand new Lane leather sofa we bought had vinyl on the sides of the cushions. It started disintegrating right after the 1 year warranty on the coverings expired. The vinyl was a great fake too.
Keep going!
Here are some ideas to add some variety to your water:
http://divorceddadfrugaldad.com/2008/08/20/12-ways-to-flavor-water.aspx