submitted by Karen M.
I love to decorate my home and yard, and it's easy to come up with new 'must have' purchases in the process. A new trellis or planter for the garden, new pillows for the living room, etc.
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Before I allow myself to make any purchases for decorating the home or yard, I now make it a requirement for myself to first prepare that area or room and exhaust all available resources at my disposal.
That means, if I want a new planter for the flower garden, I must first completely weed and tidy the area and use whatever materials are available already to improve the area.
Last time, a check in the shed unearthed an old galvanized tub that worked as a clever planter, even more fun than the one I had in mind to purchase!
In the living room, before I could purchase the pillows, I had to clean the room top to bottom, and look for options already available.
I did find a pillow in a bedroom that I moved to the living room, and enough suitable fabric to cover one of the old throw pillows. So I sewed that up. I was still short two pillows, though. So now that the room was ready, I purchased the new pillows to coordinate with the one I had upcycled and covered.
Not only do I save a great deal of money with my process, I get things tidied and spruced up, too. So when I brought home those two new pillows (instead of four), I saved money, and I really appreciated them.
And they looked especially nice in the clean room!
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