What to do with the STUFF?

Well THANK YOU for all of your sweet comments and thoughts on my last post! I’m so excited about the kitchen redo! I’m pretty sure I’ve been to Home Depot nine times in the last three days, so they should know me by name soon.  ;)
I hope to get our sink and faucet installed this week, but it’s not an easy job I know, so we’ll see. I’m being patient. Being patient. Being patient. (If I keep saying that, it will be true, right?)
So I wanted to talk about a topic I get emails about ALL the time – and I figured it’s about time I do a post on it! The question is – when you do all that decrapifying that I KNOW you all are doing, (ahem), what do you do with all of the stuff you want to get rid of? 
There are many options available -- some will make you some money, some will make you a tax deduction. ;)
The first option is probably the most obvious:

The majority of my stuff goes to Goodwill – like new, nice or just OK condition. I find it’s the most convenient option for me, but that’s mostly because I’m insanely impatient. And I can’t stand crap. So when the crap sits around, it drives me mad. Even if it’s something nice, I’d rather just drop it off to Goodwill, get it out of our house, and move on.
That being said, I’ve had a Goodwill pile in our foyer for three weeks now. The good thing about that is friends stop over and take most of the stuff in the pile, so I have less to lug to the drop off.  ;) (Thanks K!)
There are other options as far as donation goes – Dress for Success is a program for women who are trying to find jobs and need professional clothing. I know there are other similar programs out there as well.
When I did the major decluttering of our basement earlier this year (I still need to finish up a few things and show you!), I took a TON – and I. mean. a. TON. – of stuff to a local women’s shelter. (Two SUV’s full!) It was a lot of baby gadgets and clothing, and I just felt like the shelter was the best place for them. The battered women who stay there often leave home with very little for their kids or themselves and need to start over – so it felt good to donate so many things I knew they could use.
And of course there’s ways to make money while getting rid of crapola, which is a total win-win. A biggie this time of year is the garage sale, of course!:

I have to tell you, I’ve never been a huge fan of hosting garage sales. It may or may not have to do with the fact that I have to be up at 7 a.m. on a weekend to get it accomplished – which is just absurd. I mean, really. I sleep.
Secondly, I hate the haggling. I mean, you should see me in NYC’s Chinatown – I’ll go after a price with the best of them. But something about going back and forth about $2 just rubs me the wrong way.
And it’s usually hot.
And early.
Oh, I mentioned that. :)
Instead of hosting my own, I prefer to take a carload of my crap to a friend’s house for their garage sale, and let them get up at the crack o dawn and sit in the sun all morning. Works for me!!
When it comes to home decor items, I’ve had GREAT success with consignment shops:

They are shops filled with great stuff people don’t want anymore that you see and you totally didn’t know you wanted (but you do). You’ll find furniture, dishware, art, light fixtures, accessories – it’s a treasure trove!
The shop I use goes through my items when I bring them in (this depends on the shop – you have to make an appointment at some places), picks out what they want, then keeps a record of my items. When they sell, I get a percentage of each item, and then I get a fun little check in the mail every month.
Or…I may or may not go in and check my balance and then spend said balance in the shop. Maybe.
I always make more than I would at a garage sale. And I have to do very little make that cash. Awesome. Some shops will give you money when you drop off items – they’ll determine what they would sell it for and give you your percentage up front.
There are also consignment shops for men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and baby gear. I find these are much better to shop at than to sell at – I just don’t get the same return that I do at the home decor shop. But that could be because I spend $4 on Wal-Mart t-shirt and call it done.  :)
The Web is another option for making money off your items – eBay is one site of course. I used to sell junk great stuff on there all the time and made good money. The fees seemed to get higher though, and all of the buying shipping supplies, finding boxes and packaging items just became too much.
There’s another option I know many folks use – craigslist:

Something about craigslist has always given me the heebies. I just have never felt comfortable having complete strangers come to my house. The few times I have sold items on it I have been a nervous wreck the whole time – and I don’t use my name, a email with my name in it, I don’t give out my cell number – and it still makes me queasy.
I have only had two buyers come to our house – one picked up the items from the front porch and left the cash under the mat. The other came in because I had called her and talked to her for days and felt comfortable with her coming in. And even then I still regretted it when she left. Every other time I have met folks at a public location to give them their item.
It’s a personal thing – I’m a freak, as you know, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. ;) I know many who have made great money and found some fantastic items through craigslist!
I tried out one final option a couple months ago and absolutely, positively loved it. I hosted a swap for a few friends – everyone brought their goodies and we piled them up:

Obviously, we ran out of room. ;) Next time, I’m borrowing a bunch of tables!
I prepared a few snacks, some drinks, and we had fun just hanging out. Because there weren’t many of us, we just kind of had at it and grabbed what caught our eye:

There was very little hair pulling and just a bit of pushing.  :) Nahhhh…we all behaved. But I expect the number of attendees will grow next time I host this, so we may have to draw numbers in the future. I’m considering a “holiday” swap as well – just for Christmas decor. Wouldn’t that be festive?
I highly recommend the swap – I can’t tell you how fun it was! I got a fab find from my friend Beckie – I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it though. I have to sit on things for a while. And leave them in my foyer. Yes…it’s still there, two months later.
So did I forget anything? Any other options for donating or selling that stuff you don’t need anymore? You know I’ll keep harassing you to decrap your place, so you might as well get to it. Seriously. I can be very irritating persuasive.

Kitchen redo: Week three!

HELLO! So are you tired of hearing about the kitchen redo yet? Yes? Too bad. I’m back for more. :)
Thanks to American Express, I am redoing our kitchen using Membership Reward Points – and this week they asked me to use the remainder of the points – 150,000! If you have an Amex and you use the points to shop, you know that’s A LOT of  points.
Still pinching myself. :)
I told you in my last post how I took my first trip to IKEA to get a butcher block countertop that will replace our island counter. I love the look of butcher block and love the idea of changing up the counters just a tad – the different textures and tones will look great! (Um, I HOPE.)
This part of our redo is out of pocket, so I was obviously trying to keep the cost down, and a 73 by 40 inch board from IKEA was $195:

I’ll have to get it cut to size to fit the island, but I couldn’t resist that price! It’s oak (the darkest wood they had), and I’ll be sanding it down a bit and staining it an even darker tone. Not sure what the tone will be, but it will be dark and rich and luscious! :)
While I was at IKEA (twice!), I found a few more items for the kitchen that were must haves.
The little spice jars and racks were too cute to pass up:

I see some apple green in it’s future. :) Still not sure where they are going though. (By the way, I think I got four of those jars for $3 I think? I have spent almost $2 for ONE at Hobby Lobby!)
Because I took down our pot rack above the island (it made the room feel twice as big!!), I was on the lookout for cookware storage:
   
LOVE these!!! I have a little rig up my sleeve for the one on the right to make it even easier to access. I’ll let you know how it goes. :)
This strainer was a lot for IKEA -- $25 – but I loved it!:

Another example of unbelievably inexpensive (I want to say cheap, but that just sounds cheap. But…it’s cheap.) this stuff is – I able lost it when I saw the woven chargers for only $5 each!:

I think the cheapest I’ve seen these is $15 each. Score! Because so many of you told me to check out the “as is” section at IKEA, we strolled in before we checked out and found the green plates and bowls (that I had almost just bought on the floor!) for a buck each! They are in perfect condition, so I have no idea why they were as is? I’ve washed them already and so far so good!
I knew I wanted to bring the white/cream and yellow I’m using in the kitchen onto the table, so I looked online at a place I’ve never ever bought one item – Williams Sonoma.
It’s usually WAY over my head price-wise. But because I could use points, when I saw those lemon napkins above, I was HOOKED. They are adorable! And the price really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – $7 a napkin. Usually I spend about that much on four, but it really wasn’t bad.  :)
So I used some points to print out a WS gift certificate, and there I was buying those napkins, and some perfectly perfect matching wash cloths:

I have to tell you it feels incredibly weird to shop at places like Williams Sonoma. Like, “I have money to shop here” kind of places. When I soooo do not have money to shop there.  :)
It’s been a bit surreal. And VERY fun. This is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. :)
I’ve gone to Pottery Barn for a few accessories as well, and guess what I see online after I get home from buying my cutie little lemon napkins?:

Argh! Those are too cute too!
The white salad plates in the place settings above are from Pottery Barn, and I found these awesome napkin rings there as well:

But I think they’re too much with the chargers so they’re going back. :) They were only $4.50 each, not too shabby! Aren’t they so fun? I bet they would be easy to make – just braid some thick jute rope together!
I showed you the new light from Home Depot here. I got the round rug from Target ($80 I think?) last year:

And have loved it there. For those who have asked, I LOVE having a rug under the table!! I swear clean up is so much easier than the hard floors. My trick is to let food dry a bit and then vacuum it up – no cleaning of the rug (usually) required!
Anyhoo, because the kitchen will have a new color scheme, the rug just won’t work anymore. And it’s not the best quality. It has a kind of haze of fuzz on the top that just doesn’t go away. You don’t notice it at all far away, but it bugs me up close.
Enter a round Pottery Barn rug:

It’s an outdoor rug made to look like jute. I love jute but it’s usually super thick and I knew that would be an issue with our kitchen chairs. I want the chairs to easily be pulled in and out from the table, so this was a perfect option!
I hope. We’ll see when it gets here.  ;) Hopefully it will make our kitchen look something like this:

Complete with a pool. ;)
By the way, Stink Eye Sister, you owe me BIG for all this awesome stuff I’m passing your way for your new house. BIG TIME.
It has been SO EASY to use these Membership Reward Points from Amex! At first I was thinking I would have to wait weeks to get started on anything, waiting for gift cards to be mailed to us.
But I was giddy when I realized they have many options for egift cards:

    

You just order them and an email is sent within about 20 minutes or so. All I have to do is print them out and go! It’s been fantastic!! If you’ve done any size renovation in your house, you know it’s hard to plan when you’ll need to make one more trip to Home Depot. :) This has been great because I’ve been able to print them as I need them – awesome!!
Speaking of Home Depot, did you know they are affiliated with Home Decorators? I had no idea! When I realized that, I picked out this cutie console table for behind the sofa:

But when I went to buy it, I found out you can only use the Home Depot credit card – not a gift card. It was then (at midnight) that I realized I must go back to IKEA to get this one instead:

And I’m SO glad I did!!
I made a change to the Bub’s chalkboard this week and absolutely positively LOVE it:

I used to have it framed out with thin molding I had stained dark, but when I saw Katie’s chunky green frame around her chalkboard, I was in luuurve! So I beefed it up and it is AWESOME.
Cause I like em big. And chunky. (Sorry. I will use that movie quote every time the word chunky is ever used. You’ve been warned.)
I got a new fabric for the window treatments at Joann’s last week that I have fallen in LOVE with:

Ack! It’s gorg! I still have to decide on the type of treatments I’m going to do. I can’t decide between my no sew roman shades:

Or something a bit simpler like cornice, maybe with just a hint of curve to it?:
I can’t decide! I got a bamboo roman shade for the window above the sink at Home Depot today, so I’ll have to get that up before I decide. Hmmm…
So I need your help once more! I’ve been keeping a dirty little secret from you. I painted my beadboard kitchen island. Well, not the whole thing. Just one side. To decide if I like it.
And I do. :) (I did this about three months ago – it’s been sitting like that all this time.) It is going to be a cream color – a bit darker than the new backsplash I think.
My original plan was to paint the island and the base of the kitchen table cream, then stain the tops (butcher block and the kitchen table top) both the same tone:

THIS look is exactly what I had in mind for the island:

But I’m wondering if that’s too much cream and brown, cream and brown. I LOVE at least one black piece in a room to “ground” it. I still really want to do the island in cream, so I’m wondering if I should perhaps paint the base of the table black, then stain the tops the same?
I’ve been worried that a cream base on the table is asking for hives – I can’t even imagine all the scuffs from shoes, etc.
What do you think? Black on the table base? Since the rug will be lighter, I think it will pop off of that and look great.
Or do I match the island and the table and do cream on both bases? Decisions decisions!!
What do you think Oh Brilliant Ones? Please share!! And thanks again in advance!

TDC is one of five blogs picked to promote the Amex Membership Rewards program.
I have received reward points to use as I wish to redo a room in our home.

Thank you to this week’s sponsor!:

My craft “room”

 Well, it’s not really a room. There’s no real flooring, and zero drywall…but it works and I lurve it! I created this “space” a couple years ago, but recently have been making changes to make it function better and look cuter– as cute as cement walls and floors can get. ;)
The space started out like this a few years ago:

That would be a dumping zone. This is the first space as you walk down our basement steps, and because of that – everything just landed here. Well, most everything. It’s a big basement. :) Once this space was full, I would keep moving the piles around.
Last year, I added a folding table and shelving to hold wrapping and craft supplies and tools:
A few weeks ago, when I started the massive decrapification of the basement (AGAIN), I made a few adjustments – I have learned the way I had things placed down here contributes to the crapifying of the space every year.
The first change was to move a shelf that had most of my decor items from the back of the basement to this area – I found having in the back corner of the basement made it rare that I would actually walk back there and put the stuff away.
So I moved it to this area. Then I realized how much decor STUFF I actually had, and ended up buying another new shelf to hold more. I did a lot of thinking about where I wanted everything else as well, and moved it all around to function better.
Once I had everything in the right spot, this is what I was left with:

Schnikeys. Ummm…this was better than the before before! WAY. Even though I had put the table and shelves in this area a couple years ago, it didn’t prevent it from becoming a dump zone. The table actually encouraged it really.
But, after some rearranging, a whole lotta decluttering, and some fun additions, this is what it looks like today:

Ack!! Isn’t it precious? Yes, I know, as precious as cement can get?!
After I moved the shelves around, I thought hard about where I wanted to put everything on them. I realized a while back that the reason the table became such a pit was because the shelf with my tools was on the back wall – and that’s the one I use the most.
So when I was done with a project – done mentally and physically mind you – the last thing I wanted to do is put all the tools away! It was so much easier to throw them on the table. Because of this, I moved all of my tools to the first shelf as you walk down the stairs:

Brilliant. It’s the simple things folks. Do you know how many cans of spray paint were usually thrown on the “craft” table? Because I didn’t walk the extra ten feet? I know, it’s only ten feet. But mentally, when you’re pooped -- it’s miles.
The two shelves of extra decor are next. It will make such a difference having these so accessible! I used to trek around to a dark corner of the basement to put this stuff away, so it eventually, it just ended up in piles. I’m a piler, yes I am.
I didn’t really need two sets of shelves, but I was determined to sort the decor stuff and make it easy to find everything. I purged and still have this much left! A lot of this used to be in bins – things like candles, frames, to-do projects. Having it all out in the open is SO much better!
I moved the shelves with the wrapping and craft supplies to the back wall. My goal is to USE the table to wrap or craft – so now they are right there where I need them!:

Last year I came up with a way to store my wrapping paper, and it’s worked out GREAT! I drilled holes into the shelving and hung the paper rolls with twine:

Wrapping paper drives me nutty – all the unraveling, rolling, bouncing around. Argh! This has worked awesome! I love that they are out of the way and still allow for items on the shelf.
When I want to wrap something, I just hold it up, determine how much I need, then cut the paper. If the item is too large to hold up, it usually just goes in a bag.  :)
Once I felt like everything was in it’s place on the shelves, I moved on to the fun stuff. Whoohoo!
I decided a long time ago this spot would be as girly as it wants to be. I’m the only one who uses it, and even though I’m not what you would call a typical girly girl, I really wanted a space to just have fun with! Fun colors, fun prints, fun textures. This was the perfect spot!
The table is a simple folding table – and it is U.G.L.Y. on top. Last year I got some striped fabric and put it over the top with hot glue. This year, I wanted to amp up the fun and color a bit, so I went with this fabric instead:

Shut the front door…adorable. Aren’t the colors FUN? As you can see, I added the “skirt” with hot glue as well, so you can’t see these:

One is a bin I keep gifts in, one is a tool box for extra crap junk stuff.
The table cover fabric is from Hob Lob and was $6 a yard, 30 percent off. I only needed two yards. The fabric holds up surprisingly well! If I spray something like spray adhesive, or am painting, I just cover the table with scrap paper. (Usually the stuff they wrap my purchases with at Hob Lob!)
I literally hot glued it under the edges of the table. The skirt is leftover drapery lining and I glued that on too:

I wanted a cutting board for this table foreva, and decided to treat myself to one when I was done decluttering this space. It was $23 at Joann’s, 40 percent off:

Now I can craft, glue, cut, whatever, and not worry about the table. And it’s bright and happy! See the little green flower shaped thingy? It’s a silicon pot holder from Pier 1 – I got it for our kitchen, but realized today it would be the perfect little spot to rest my glue gun.
I tried it and by golly, it works!! (Yep, I sure did just say “by golly.”) The hot glue literally wipes right off of it. How stinking cute is that?
All the sudden I was finding the most adorable little accessories that worked with the colors:

The little clips ($1) and pencils ($2) were from Michaels – the pencils MATCH. Dying!!
Check out the eraser ($1):

I. am. dying.
Then I found this little pin cushion at Joann’s and couldn’t resist it:
Hmmm…maybe I am a girly girl?  ;)
The organization of this space was HUGE part of this project. The color and little extras were fun to add. But the biggest change in this area was the lighting. As you can see from the first couple pictures above, there was just a single light fixture for the whole “room.”
Because my hubby often works down here during the summer (more on that spot later), we decided to add more outlets in the basement. Since the electrician was going to be here anyway, I asked him to add another light fixture in my craft area, and then a third light so I could swag a little fixture over the table.
I found a little brass beauty at the local ReStore last summer – it was spray painted and waiting in our garage all this time:

Let there be light!! It makes SUCH a difference to this area! It’s so bright and fun and now I can see what I’m doing when I work. Whoohoo!
I bought a glass lamp from Goodwill last summer as well. I took it apart and spray painted just the brassy parts with the same fun green:
The $4 lamp shade was dressed up with a strip of extra fabric and some hot glue.
Can I get a “CAAUUUUUTE?!” Say it with me Squeezies!
My husband walked downstairs tonight and when he got down there, yelled up the stairs to me -- “Honey! It looks so cute down here! I love it!”
And that is why I love him. :)
The before shot that was really the half way shot, that’s how bad it was:
And my girly, bright after:

So worth all that work. I’ve got a few spring project I’ll be working on down here this week –- if they work out I’ll show you soon. Heck, I’ll show you even if they don’t.  ;)

Thank you to my sponsor: