As my 30th birthday steadily approaches I’ve been trying to make a lot of lifestyle changes. I’ve been trying to put away more money into savings (although birthday plans threaten to change that) and also pay off all that debt I managed to accumulate being typically irresponsible in my 20’s. The downside to both of those is that I’m now seeing so much in my house that I want to change and upgrade. I’ve been living on my own for almost a decade now and while most of my furniture has withstood the time and a move I’m seeing more and more I just want to get rid of. While I was in my condo everything seemed to fit just right and managed to reflect me.
Unfortunately as I’ve grown over the last few years that’s changed and I feel like most of my house is a bit of a disaster. It might have to do with moving into a bigger place and having the space to finally spread out and create a home for myself but I’ve made the decision that most of my furniture just needs to go. So I’ve decided to take things room by room and upgrade them one at a time. This way I’m not going to break the bank by going overboard and I’ll be able to save on interest fees on those items that I’ve got to buy with credit. After the bulk of that is done I’ll be able to focus my attention on the actual upgrades like kitchen cabinets, closet systems and the bathrooms.
One of the things that I’ve done is started using Ikea shopping lists to get everything I want for my different spaces sorted out. I’m not planning on turning my house into an Ikea show room but the shopping lists have been a big help on figuring out exactly what I’ll need and the styles that I’m looking for. Last year before Christmas I also created a registry at Bed Bath & Beyond for upgrading my kitchen. The registry is a bit of a hodge podge because I’m doing a combination of four colors for my new dishes and instead of just randomly picking accessory pieces by the color I added one of each to make it random in the event someone picks the item up and if I get two of the same thing I can always exchange it for something else on the list.
The first room I’m planning to start with is in the front of my house and currently serves as a guest bedroom and kind of a junk room for things I had no where else to put. Up until last Friday the room had an old kitchen table that’s belonged to my parents and my sister before it got dropped on me. While its an amazing piece of furniture, I just don’t have to room for it so its been moved out and into storage. It also has a futon that I bought when I first moved out and a wire shelf I’m using as my makeshift linen closet. All in all, its just not working.
My goal is to get a daybed with storage drawers, a linen cabinet and a nightstand for that room to begin with. Depending on how I decide to set the room up and if its needed I might add a matching wardrobe as well but that’s something that will come after working on the rest of the house. As for the shelf that’s in the room now, I plan to move that into the dinning room for pantry and appliance storage.
I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me but I’m really looking forward to the challenge as soon as I get past my 30th. We’ve got a lot planned for it but I’ll save that for later.
Mary Morelli
