IF you’re pressed for time, just read this: Don’t own things that end up owning you.
We spent 7 years owning a 7-foot wide humongous take-up-the-whole-wall kind of entertainment center that could only fit an old boxy style TV. When we decided its life here was done, it totally owned us. We first moved it to the basement, then the garage. Then we tried all the tricks to sell it, but with everyone upgrading to wider flat screens we were out of luck. That thing cost a fortune new (of course we bought it new from a furniture store, because we were young and didn’t shop around). We ended up giving it away to a young couple with a “please bless someone else however you can” clause attached. Later I worried I may have worded that wrong, and I hope often that monster of an entertainment center isn’t “owning” that young couple now.
We currently have a sweet lift TV cabinet that simply doesn’t fit our style any longer. We’ve had it for 3 years and while it’s a gorgeous and sturdy piece of furniture, it isn’t being put back in place after the remodel. Retail on this baby is well into the thousands. Thankfully we scored it in like-new condition off of Craigslist for $300! While it is a huge piece of furniture that we’re having trouble rehoming, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it became firewood some evening (hopefully not, but you get the idea, we didn’t go broke over it).
We’ve had light beige carpet in our home for 11 years. Well, I take that back, it was light beige for the first 9 or so years, and then it went downhill pretty fast. That carpet OWNED me… every.single.day. Let me explain, I have 3 children, we eat 95% of our meals at home, and we had a carpeted dining room. Need I say more? It was rough, people.
We’ve now replaced the carpet with the most stunning wood looking VINYL we could find. I will no longer be owned by those floors. We’ve had multiple spills already (mostly my fault) and they’ve each wiped up marvelously. This momma thinks that’s pretty amazing. Even though the vinyl ended up costing $4,000 (that we paid cash for- more on that another time) I no longer feel owned by my floors. It was worth the investment.
It’s so freeing to when you get the mindset that you aren’t going to let your things own you. However, I must warn you, it also makes shopping extremely difficult and just about takes all of the fun right out of it. It took us 2 years to pick the PERFECT flooring.
Sort of a bonus: I no longer have the desire to bring home every pretty thing I see; for fear that someday I’ll have trouble getting it out of here, or that I will have wasted our resources on something that wasn’t really meant for us.
If there’s something owning you right now, whether that be guilt, shame, a poor friendship, a crappy couch, hey maybe even a great couch that just doesn’t fit your life anymore, LET the dear thing go! You can thank it kindly for all that it’s done for you and then release it. Be Free!
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