Don't Save it for a Rainy Day

Did any of you grown up in a house where you only used certain items for special occasions? Dishes, towels, even fancy little soaps were often only for holidays or guests coming to visit at our house. My mom was raised by my Depression-era grandma, being taught the value in every-last-bit of everything. That mindset itself isn’t a bad thing, but it can lead to us holding on to certain items to only be used once in a great while, when there’s a reason to—often for company visiting. Being my mother’s daughter, I’ve lived like that for a long time. I’ve really been trying to break out of that mindset in the last few years, though. After all, it’s only stuff…and it’s important to treat yo’self!

Seriously, though, we only get one spin in this life, so let’s make the most of it! I’m not telling you to only buy the most expensive of everything all the time, but for the items that you use the most, make them special, only buy what you need, and get rid of the rest! I’m very slowly working on this throughout our house. One of the first spots I’ve hit up on my clean-out is our kitchen. I realized one day that I had a stack of beautiful wooden cutting boards that sat on a shelf, collecting dust, but I still only reached for my plastic ones to make use of. So, Goodwill got a donation of cutting boards and my pretty wooden ones (both gifts) get used almost every day—no longer dust collectors!

The next purge, you may have heard me talk about before—measuring cups and spoons. Isn’t it weird how we somehow end up with several styles and sizes of these little guys?! They pile up in a drawer that we wade through hoping to find the right size, but you have to put on your detective’s cap to figure out if they’re the correct size because the writing has usually been worn off in the dishwasher. Well, a local swap page rescued me from this life of frustration and confusion when someone posted a pretty set of The Pioneer Woman’s measuring scoops and spoons. They’re now mine and another load of old plasticness went to the Goodwill!

Everyone I’ve talked to lately has heard me say that we want to move in the next couple of years. Part of that process means I need to clear out everything extra in the house! So, my little kitchen experiment has moved to our closet and will hopefully be making a clean sweep of the entire house soon. I want to be surrounded by the good stuff, use the good stuff, and only the good stuff. If you want the cute charging cord for your phone, get it (if you can afford it)—make sure the other uggo-buggo cords get donated or tossed, though. Don’t save the pretty notecards for some unforeseen occasion—drop one in the mail to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while! And please…please don’t save the yummy perfume you’ve been squirreling away—spray that stuff everywhere! YOLO!

My kitchen pretties just waiting to be used!