Lately I have REALLY been wanting new bedding.
I'm bored with my comforter and curtains. They're fine. Nothing is actually wrong with them. The comforter cover is fading from being washed, but not in bad condition. But blah. I'm bored.
The down comforter is not the highest quality, and it's sort of lumpy. Not as think as I would like. Also, it's kind of...dirty. I use a cover, but you know, it's been used for several years now.
My sheets could stand to be replaced. The pillowcases are faded from a face wash I used to use, along with the effects of being washed and used every night for a year. The bottom sheet seems sort of stretched out...it doesn't lay perfectly flat.
My mattress pad has a few small tears in it, and it keeps coming off of the mattress, so it looks lumpy.
Despite all the strikes against my bedding, so far, I'm holding out. I really need to buckle down on my spending, and I am getting back into my frugal, gazelle-like ways. That means no going shopping for new bedding just because I'm bored and it's imperfect.
Here's how I'm trying to sooth the bedding blues.
Yesterday BF took all the bedding (including down comforter) to the laundry mat and washed all of it. While he was gone, I used my brush attachment on the vacuum to clean the actual mattress. That made me feel better about it.
When he came home, I pulled my other duvet cover out of my drawer. It's gray and white, and from Crate and Barrel, so it's a higher quality fabric than my blue one. I originally got a new one to brighten up the room, since gray and white with white walls is a little blah. But, I'm realizing I can use colored sheets to brighten things up, so the blue sheets work. Just having a different cover was an improvement, even if it's an old cover.
Each night I've been spraying a lavender linen spray (that I bought at a candle party years ago) on my sheets. This makes climbing into bed a more pleasant experience.
I am trying to make the bed more often, which hides the stretched out nature of the sheets and makes the bed more attractive in general.
All of these things make me feel much better about my bedding. My plan is to wait until after my birthday or Christmas to use gift funds to buy a new set of sheets. A friend says she's found great deals at the swap meet and at TJ Maxx. I think new sheets would definitely do the trick, but I am waiting a few more months to make that happen.
All of my tips to feel better about my bedding basically come down to taking care of what I have. By taking some time and effort to clean and make my items look their best, I am much happier with them. I think this is true of all of my possessions. When I take care of them, it improves my quality of life.
What dingy/old items could you take better care of in order to increase your contentment with them? How do you breathe new life into your home?
Great post! I find that like you said, the best thing to do is just take care of your belongings. Sometimes changing the things around you already own & adding in small new touches, can add a lot!
ReplyDeleteI've been on a mission all summer to make little improvements to my home using the stuff I already have. I did a slap-dash reupholstery of a chair, painted and decoupaged the small shelving unit that holds my dvds, and moved around some knick-nacks to make the space look more open. I also bought some new frames at Marshall's Home Goods for really cheap. I also ended up having to replace a few items when they were shattered in the DC earthquake, but that wasn't part of the original plan...
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I did spend some actual money on, though, was new sheets and a new duvet cover. I have to say I really think it was money well spent; the duvet cover was about $50 and the sheets were about $30 and they totally brightened up my bedroom.
But honestly just purging some of my crappy old stuff and moving the nice old stuff around a bit has really helped make my apartment look brand new. Now if only I could shake off my desire to buy the new couch I want from West Elm....