Have you been working on the last 10% of your projects? I have, and just to share that not everything needs to be a big deal, so I present to you the electrical outlets from my dining room.
All it took was turning off the electricity for the dining room, rubbing alcohol and elbow grease.
This has been bugging me for for the past 15 years, so yeah, I’m happy.
100% happy.
Have you been jumping on The Non-Consumer Advocate’s Last 10% Challenge bandwagon? Please share your projects in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Ahhhh… like scratching an itch.
I thought your post was going to be about finding an homage in your own home to the (botched) restoration of the 120-year-old Spanish fresco titled “Ecce Homo†by painter Elias Garcia Martinez. ( http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/art-world-rejoices-over-botched-restoration ). Frugal art may be the cutting edge trend. Or not.
‘Fraid not.
Katy
I thought the outlet looked like a very alarmed lumberjack. It was kind of cute! I can see why it took 15 years to erase that adorableness! 😉
“Very alarmed lumberjack?”
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Katy
I’ve got a couple “gunky” outlets in my kitchen — thanks for the motivation to clean them up!
Well I’m working on my 10% finally. That would be selling the random mismatched pieces of furniture around my house. You know, the ones that never look right or fit right despite trying over and over to give it chance. Its my 10% because I managed to declutter most things except the furniture. Tonight I listed five things on Craigslist, sold one thing within ONE HOUR (yay!) of my listing and I already have two other people interested in other items. Once this crapola is gone, it will be a huge weight off my shoulders!
That is awesome. I have a few things to sell on Craigslist and eBay.
Crap out of the house, money in!
Katy
I have finished two crocheted afghans, and about to finish a knitted baby blanket. Also went through and updated my house files (if it can fit in a manilla file folder, that’s where I store it!) and added new labels so all the files match. Something I’ve been putting off for a while. Thanks for the push, it worked!! The gigantic photo project will be started in a week. Got some other things going on now.
I am cleaning out rooms as I get ready for my Bunko group to come over. Instead of “hiding” things, I am actually dealing with them – putting them in their proper place or discarding them. Some of the stuff I just don’t want to deal with, but I have found that working on it in small spurts of time is the way to go. Thanks for the nudge!! Oh, and I am also dealing with everything coming in right now (bills, etc) 100% so it doesn’t stack up again.
Do you automate your bills at all? Paying electronically cut down on paper clutter, plus you never have to worry if your bills are paid on time.
Katy
This is a good place to bring up a VERY important safety issue about outlets/plug ins around the house:
Older outlets tend to loosen up over time, even to the point of breaking apart inside. If you notice any plug in that has loosened up ( we all know the trick of spreading the prongs on a cord to make it fit better and not fall out ) PLEASE look at replacing it or getting it replaced. When they loosen up inside, for whatever reason, the contact goes bad and causes them to create heat, sometimes to the point of a house fire.
This is a great tip, thank you. My husband rewired our house in 1996, so our electrical is all nice and new.
Katy
with the help of dh, i got 8 groups of items from bolts of fabric to a ruby rim punch bowl onto craigs list last nite, complete with pix. finally! the sewing studio is mid-annual scrub & tid upy. since i have a client this afternoon, i imagine i will manage to finish that this am. 🙂 that leaves the tear down of my little garden. since this is a townhouse, it’s less than 300 sq ft–but everytime i look at that jungle of tomato vines, asperagus and crunchie-bean-vines-on-strings, i just go do something else. all i have to do is NOT look out the back door and it disappears. 🙂 i really need a motivator for that job.
I finally sorted the past 6 years worth of kid memorabilia into file boxes for each kiddo. I had everything in one big bin and had file boxes and folders ready for at least 4 months before starting. The sorting really was the last ten percent because it took almost no time compared to getting everything in one spot and preparing the filing system. I also very cleverly got a file box all ready for the baby so I can just start out keeping his stuff in order. Next up is copying random scraps of paper with their funny sayings into their individual notebooks (with an extra notebook for baby ready to go…are you sensing a theme) and getting the photo books and digital photos in order. Baby is due in 11 weeks and I hope to be all caught up and stay caught up after he arrives. Now if only we could think of a name for the little man we’d be set!