. I spent a wonderfully productive couple of hours this afternoon organizing my kitchen to be more attractive to a prospective home buyer. Suddenly, a layout that worked for 30 years seemed cluttered and unattractive.
I only made a few little tweaks, but what a difference. Remembering how positively meticulous and clean the homes at every open house I've attended looked, that boxy oversized toaster oven that was my mother's, stuck in a corner next to the stove, was too much. I mainly use it to bake salmon, but decided I can do that in a frying pan, stovetop. Once in a great while I roast garlic in it. I liked using it because it used less energy than my full size electric stove, but it's been a few years since I used it to cook raw oats for my homemade granola or toast nuts and I cook sweet potatoes in the microwave, I have less and less use for it. And I really don't eat much toasted bread.
I cleaned it up as best I could and offered it on Buy Nothing and had a quick request for it. Done! The cute set of 4 Pottery Barn ceramic pumpkin plates that I got myself on Buy Nothing but never really used, I decided to offer on Buy Nothing and got about 10 people vying for them. Perfect timing and great for kids.
The other big appliance taking up counter space was my microwave. It's a smaller size, and believe me, smaller than the one I used to have, but still, not especially attractive on the counter. I have a large kitchen cabinet which curiously has an electrical outlet on the back wall inside it; there must've been a remodel at some point. Anyway, my fairly compact microwave fits in there perfectly, and voila! I don't have to look at it on the counter. And with some further organizing, I was able to fit all my food items back in this cabinet, which I remember the listing agent laughably called a "pantry." I composted an ancient jar of corn starch, a smaller jar of garlic powder that expired a year ago and set aside an unopened jar of fake maple syrup for my friend's mother.
This was just a spontaneous thing I started doing when I got home from a gym workout. I really like tackling little corners or rooms of the house like this...so it doesn't seem so overwhelming when the time gets near to list it.
In other news, I ordered a navy blue , la t-shirt off Amazon that i planned on wearing while marching in the parade Monday, but I somehow ordered a men's size x lg and it's way too big on me; they don't want the return but refunded me for the purchase, so I plan on bringing it with me and offering it to someone else in our group who may want to wear it for the parade and then just keep it.
I'm down to just $1,000 ($1900 as of Sept 2 after monthly annuity payment), which has to last me til my CD matures Sept. 12. I'm not expecting any more big credit card bills, so I should be okay. That CD is $12K, and I plan to make that cover all my income needs for the remaining 4 months of the year, along with my annuity. So that's about $4k a month, doable.
September 1st, 2024 at 12:00 am 1725148807
September 1st, 2024 at 12:00 am 1725148829
But good job on getting rid of excess stuff in a sustainable fashion.
I must have missed a prior post about whatever parade it is you are talking about.
And $1,000/$1,900 from now to 9/12 should be fine especially since if you need to, you can charge things on a credit card that won't need to be paid until after your CD matures.
September 1st, 2024 at 12:12 am 1725149551
If you remember, I made my presentation to the Rotary club about my other volunteer group and There is a man who is a member of both groups so he invited me to join them in the parade. Since I had such a fun experience the last time I marched in the parade probably 15 years ago, I was happy to say yes.
Not sure if they will have a float or if all of us will be walking with the banners and signs but either way it should be fun.
September 1st, 2024 at 12:28 am 1725150533
September 7th, 2024 at 09:44 am 1725702268
But what I really meant to say is, "HI HOW ARE YOU? Well, I hope. Glad you're still around."