#97: What We Learned From The Shopping Ban

Our month-long shopping hiatus came to a close last week, so today we are sharing our results! What was the most difficult part? How did it change our habits? What were we dying to buy first after it ended? And – most importantly – how did it impact our bank account? We are sharing all those details, along with some ideas for you to try if you are too nervous to commit to a full-on ban. Plus, there is a part of our house that we rarely show because we have been so ashamed of its state – but not anymore! Find out what we did to fix it without spending any money. We also brought in some straightforward organization at the beach house… and those dreaded water meter issues came back to haunt us again.

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What is New

• Above is the “before” of our garage, which had gotten chaotic sufficient over the last few months that we kinda stopped bothering to put anything back where it belonged. It felt nearly impossible to get to one thing without having to move four or five other things first.
• But by doing what we described in the episode – including pulling every last thing out, donating/selling things we no longer need/use, and putting others away where they in fact go (all tools in the shed for example) – we got it feeling SO MUCH better. I know it is still not much to look at, but we have gained a ton of floor space back.

• Here is another before shot of it from the door to the house. Literally things would pointer over and we would not even take a second to stand them back up.

• Here is that same view now (taken with the good camera this time).

• And if you are curious, here is the little corner I mentioned where I simply brought in some nails and screws to the wall to hang things up. I even used some scrap boards to make slots between studs to hold additional poles and stuff. Again, not fairly – but the update cost me zero dollars.

• This was not our first instance of a garage getting away from us. We made this time lapse of us clearing out the mess in our first garage all the way back in 2009.

• Our basement workshop got similarly trash in our last house (and I detailed the whole mess on video), and then blogged about organizing our outdoor gear, and later tackling our Hands-on gear like tools and paint. Man, I kinda miss that workshop and its charming little seven foot ceilings. Memories!

• Also, if you did not get the “Monica’s Closet” reference…

• If you missed our FIRST water meter drama in Cape Charles (which Sherry believes could have been made into a major motion picture), we talked about it back in Episode #59.

Shopping Ban Results

• Not to sound too much like a broken record in these show notes, but if you’ve missed our previous conversations about the shopping ban:
  • You can hear our first discussions of The Year of Less (the book that inspired it) in Episode #89
  • We announced the start of own month-long shopping ban in Episode #93…
  • … and gave an initial update in Episode #94.
  • Last week, in Episode #96, we spoke with Cait Flanders, the author of The Year Of Less.
• Now that the ban is over, I got to make my broom purchase last week too. Who said shopping cannot be lively?!

We are Digging

• That is how you last saw our “mudroom cabinet” in the laundry room at the beach house, with all of our brooms and stuff leaning in there like a bunch of pickup sticks (and that is in fact how it looked in its “tidied up to be photographed” stage – ha!). I still need to grab a couple more hooks, but here is how I got things attached securely to the side of the Ikea cabinet using low-cost things like 3M Command hooks and those fancy little broom grippers (aka: robot hands).

• I forgot to take a picture of the black metal hook after I hung it, but you can see it in my pile below.

• Lastly, if you wanna check out Sherry’s latest read, it was called Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris. And if anyone else has more “decor thrillers” to recommend, we are all ears!

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Agility Bed for sponsoring this episode. Remember, through May 29th you can get $200 off your order with gthe code MEMORIAL at AgilityBed.com. After the Memorial Day promotion has ended – do not worry: the code YHL150 will still get you $150 off your order for the rest of the year!

Thanks for listening, folks!

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