Lately, I’ve been on a kick to not buy anything for the house. Sometime I get so fed up with “stuff” that I just want to boycott every store. It’s so easy to get caught up in new pillows, new curtains, new couch, vases, light fixture and on and on. I love having pretty things, and a comfortable house that is styled like “me”, but I hate when I get in a cycle of what do I need now. So many times I tell Caleb, I wish we could sell everything and go live on the beach, no utility payments, cell phones, or new clothes. Just swimsuits and each other. Oh how I crave a simpler life some days.
That brings me to a personal challenge I’ve bestowed up myself recently.
30 DAYS OF NO HOME PURCHASES
I’m currently on day 5, I started July 1. So far so good! Now I’m being pretty strict on myself and refusing to allow myself things like paint, brushes, ribbon, hardware. I’m doing like Tim Gunn says and making it work. It’s really a challenge to get me to think differently. Rather than going out to buy something, I force myself to think “how can I make this work with what I already have?”
Plus, I have a TON of stuff purchased for projects that I haven’t gotten around to. It’s about high time I start crossing off things from the list instead of adding to it. I’m excited about this month and what I may come up with and finish. It’s already been a wildly successful weekend with kaboodles of things done. I’m feeling good.
One of the best things about this is house shopping, taking something from another room or closet didn’t work where it was and giving it a new place to be appreciated. I did plenty of house shopping this weekend and can’t wait to share.
Sometimes I get these sparks. It’s a brief flash of an idea, sometime so quick that if I don’t act impulsively it may be lost in the deep recesses of my mind buried under lots of other ideas never to be realized or thought of again. So I acted quickly. I think I had laundry in my arms that may or may not have immediately dropped to the floor as I briskly paced to get the paintings I had stashed away in the armoire. They used to be above the giant gray box in the living room, but never really felt right. That spark told me to stack them and put it in the bathroom.
I did, and I love it! I’m actually jealous that Caleb gets to see them when he goes to the bathroom and I don’t. Sometimes I walk into the bathroom only to peak around the corner to look at my paintings. For me, it seems like these paintings were meant to be stacked together. Love love love.
Here’s the breakdown:
I laid out the canvases and figured out my favorite arrangement. It didn’t take long before I settled on a a favorite.
Then flipped them around to attach them.
Staple, staple, staple. Try not to get any fingers.
I did a few on the sides because it was bowing and I wanted it to be perfectly straight. It worked! Success.
It’s hard to take pictures in this tiny little corner. Please ignore my cracked and glued toilet lid. Kthanks.
A Little Paint 
(As instructed, I’m ignoring your cracked and glued toilet lid to instead say) Good for you!! Something like this must take a ton of willpower. I am also guilty of adding to the list of projects instead of focusing on just one. Somehow things get done so much faster when I don’t have decorating ADD. :P Good luck with your mission…looking forward to seeing the other ways you “shop your home” (fun paintings, by the way!) :)
I appreciate you following instructions! 30 days is really a long time, and I have no clue how I’ll actually do. I’m really rooting for myself to succeed but maybe I should admit here that I have a week long vacation coming up soon that may help distract me from buying new things! I have already swapped out so many things in my house, it feels so good!
They are beautiful all together! Did you paint them?
Thank you! Yes, I painted them about 3 years ago, it was something I did for our apartment, so it never felt like it fit in our house until now.
I once had a similar challenge but with clothing… It was hard, but so worth it. Good luck!
~lena
It’s been almost a week, and it’s amazing the stuff I find in my own home rather than going out immediately to buy something. In a way, it’s kind of liberating.
I’m impressed. Don’t tell my husband about this..he’ll thinks it’s a great idea…
I like the arrangement of your paintings…looks great against the wall color!! And what toilet??
Don’t worry I won’t be tellin nobody! For me, it’s more of a challenge to get me to think differently rather than saving money. That is definitely a perk though!
I agree on the painting against that color, but not to sound snooty. I was an inch away from repainting the bathroom because I didn’t like the color, but really it just needs like right friends, aka accessories and whatnot.
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