Sometimes, we can get so caught up with “stuff”. Wanting stuff, needing to have that stuff, this stuff, do this, do that… it gets tiring.
It’s so easy to go into someone’s newly built or renovated home, and wish your kitchen or bathroom had all those bells and whistles. You know what I mean…
But I’m loving what I have.
My home needs a lot of TLC, I do know that. It has needed TLC for a long time. We have cracked ceilings and walls that will be tended to this year. A possum living in our roof that goes out hunting for food every night at 9pm. Sections of wood flooring that were never sealed when the carpet was ripped out. Linoleum flooring in the kitchen that is broken away at the edges. An oven from the 1970s, all mission brown in its glory. Curtains hung from ribbons because I’m so short I can’t reach even on a ladder to screw the rods in! Doors that need repainting. Walls last painted in 1998 when I was into bold yellow, aqua and orange (ick!). Blinds that roll up all crooked so the edges of them are wrecked. A garden that has never been given the attention it needs. You get the idea, I think.
But at the same time, it’s a warm home. It’s cosy and comfortable. It’s lived in. It’s not precious or pretentious and it’s not worthy of gracing the pages of a magazine. So what?
We live the way we do because we do what we can afford. We could have all the bells and whistles, but then we wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. So we wait until we can do the things that need doing.
Content in the knowledge that we have a roof over our heads. Warm comfortable beds. An ugly oven that cooks roast chicken. An ugly kitchen floor that doesn’t mind chair scuff marks. Cracks in the walls that go in our blind spots. A healthy loving family to sleep in those beds, to eat those meals, to sit in those chairs and to look at those cracks.
We repurpose and recycle things. We have an old TV we’ll eventually replace, but it still works well, so why would we get rid of it yet? Just because it’s not a flat screen? It’s only in the bedroom. What does it matter?
We prioritise…. wait another year or two to work on the house, or go on a family holiday? Holiday wins! The house waited this long, it can wait a bit more!!! Family comes first.
It’s living within our means. It’s not settling for second best….
