confessions of a thriftoholic

I mentioned before that when we purchased our home, the previous owner left some no-longer wanted-by-her-family items. This included side tables, dressers, tv, a cubby-cabinet-thing, two couches and some other little nic-nacs. What am I supposed to do with all this stuff? Well some of I used until I replaced it with my own, others we donated to someone who needed it more.  However, some pieces I sold. I mean why not make some money off these items that I don't want. A lot of it was not my style. Aside from the main structure of the house, most of what was found inside the house was not my style.
When we first walked into this home, which was very cute from the outside, I gasped at the interior decorating.
Recently Fritz and I went to an open house for another house that had the same cookie cutter shape as our little war home. We wanted to see what changes and improvements were made there that we could possibly do also. The representative told us that about 90% of buyers look at the interior decorating of the home. It is very true that the way you home is set, will affect it's ability to sell. home buyers want to know how the home will look when neatly decorated. If someone had an option between a large, well structured home that was cluttered and poorly displayed, and a small, less well structured home that had neatly arranged well matched furniture and nice paint colours, the buyer is likely to choose the home that is better presented. The first thing most people will notice is clutter. However, there are people out there, like myself who are potential seekers.

When we first bought  out house, there was forest green carpet in the living room, a gross neutral colour on the wall, it wasn't even a nice neutral...it looked like the skin colour of a naked Caucasian. the office had a gross carpet with burn stains and wax drips all over it, the bedroom had navy blue and peach walls and a dirty beige carpet. The kitchen cupboards were filled with random nic-nacs and santa clauses, the backroom's pantries we poorly constructed and falling apart. The house looked like it hadn't seen improvements since the 1970's. and to top it all off, there was fake fruit and fake birds everywhere...I'm still finding them in random spots in the gardens, and we've lived here a year and a half!
So anyways this wasn't what I was planning to blog about at all. so I will get back to the main part. I bought this rug at Ikea  that they were selling at 1/2 price for that week. I paid $30 for it. However after 6 months, I decided that the rug was too dark for our small house. I told Fritz I was unhappy with the rug and that I wanted to buy a new one.
He said to me "if you want a new rug, you can have a new rug. But you need to sell this one first"

"okay" I said, and immediately got on Kijiji, and posted the rug. I sold it for $40.00 that same day which is $10 less than the current price at Ikea. I went out and purchased a new rug. My living room is much brighter now.
On top of that rug was an Ikea lack. Those cheap coffee tables you can get there. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to replace someday with a better quality one, but better quality doesn't come right away. Not long ago, maybe three weeks or so, I was at Value Village and I noticed this coffee table in the furniture section. There was a woman sitting on it who wasn't exactly petite, so I know it was sturdy. (and i am not being offensive. The woman even said to me " you Know it's sturdy if it can hold me") It was a beautiful table, solid wood, not sure what kind, I'm not a wood expert, and none of those tacky 1990's features. the table was selling for $30.00 so I didn't even hesitate to find a sales person to put a sold sticker on it for me. As soon as I got home, I went right onto kijiji again and sold my other coffee table for $20.00. After the math, I bought a beautiful solid wood table for $10.00 What a Deal! and it looks so much better with my new rug!

This is my new table and rug. in the background, on the right
side, you can see the old Ikea table, which of course got  sold.