Frugal Finds and Fixes: Moving In Edition

Welcome to the first apartment-sized installment of Frugal Finds and Fixes.

Moving, of itself, is not a frugal thing to do, unless maybe you pack everything into free grocery store boxes (if you can find any) and stuff it all into the back of your car. (Or borrow Grandpa's hauling-stuff trailer, as my parents used to do.) The last time we moved, it was with a station wagon and the help of friends. This time around, we went with a moving company for the furniture and heaviest boxes, which did not save money but did save time, aggravation, and thrown-out backs. Because we had early access to the new place, we did pre-move what we could manage by ourselves.

The frugal part of moving, for us, was taking the opportunity to size down, to sell and donate (and trash) the things we no longer needed, and to make better use of what remained. You've probably all had the experience of moving a somewhat-ignored picture or a piece of furniture to a different spot, and all of a sudden you notice it again? Moving house is like that, only multiplied.

Scaling down does not have to mean bare walls and futons. It doesn't mean having an apartment that looks like nobody lives there.

Sometimes it means big things, like going from three bedrooms to two, and no longer having a rec room and the rest of the basement. Sometimes it means little improvements that accommodate personal needs, like a stepladder in the kitchen.

Or sticking the kitchen scissors on a round fridge magnet. (Only a very strong one will work, though.)

Or finding a home for kitchen clothespins in what used to be a magnetic laundry-room stray-button/coin catcher.

Or resurrecting the grandparents' kitchen table, which had gone to the workshop when we bought the green table which is now in our dining room.

Or putting the guinea pig in the centre of life. (Muffin says the meal service is much improved. He is already tuned in to the sound of the fridge door opening.)

Frugal Finds and Fixes: the Packing to Downsize Edition

What have we done lately that's a frugal find or a fix?

Umm....we found an an affordable apartment, to which we will be transferring such of our accumulated possessions as we are choosing to take with us.

Notice I did not say as many as we possibly can jam in.

The apartment itself came up quickly (we signed the lease less than a week ago), but we've been "un-jamming" for quite awhile now. I won't say that moving is easy, but at least we have a pretty good idea of what will fit. And what won't.

{Current Treehouse living room)

We are trying to "shop our house" as much as possible, rather than buying new things. Even in a small apartment, there are surprises, and places where we can try out things that didn't work in the Treehouse. Small example: the kitchen cupboards here go all the way up to the ceiling. In the apartment, there is about a foot of space above the cupboards. So a couple of nice almost-forgotten baskets are probably going to go up there.

Another example: there's a perfect corner for Muffin the Guinea Pig, right near the kitchen.

Another example: we bought a deacon's bench years ago, in our first house, but in this house it's always been in someone's bedroom. The apartment entrance has a niche for it, right by the door.

Our current kitchen table and chairs will take over as dining room furniture.

Our new bedroom is a bit smaller than the one we have now, and we need to use the shorter of our two dressers as a nightstand. But the only way that worked, with the way the door opens, was for Mr. Fixit's dresser to be on my side of the bed. We both saw the obvious answer at the same time:  let's trade (dressers).

I am very happy about the fact that we will have not just one, but two bookcases in our dining area. Plus the china cabinet, in which I just recently managed to get the dishes arranged nicely. Plus the cool retro-style glass-fronted cabinet that Mr. Fixit's grandpa made.

The nice thing about having come this far, in adulthood and family life, is that I know what we really use, and what, contrary to popular advice, should come along.  I know which combination of serving bowls we use for a "Sunday dinner." I know that we have rarely used the cups that came with our everyday dinner set (we almost always use drinking glasses or larger coffee mugs), and have NEVER used the saucers that go with those cups. So they went.

Our microwave is several years old, and we won't be taking it with us; we'll have to retrain ourselves to be microwave-less. The toaster oven is still working well (after the struggle with bad models that we had a few years ago), so it's a keeper. The blender and two slow cookers (big and small) are necessities. I'm also taking a couple of the more frivolous appliances: the bread machine and the hot air popcorn popper. I would miss being able to make pizza dough, potato rolls, and popcorn, more than I care about being able to reheat a plate of food. (We will probably go through less plastic wrap as well.)

Finally, a frugal fix: Mr. Fixit spray-painted a big biscuit tin brown, to hide some ugly printing; and that's going to hold my drawerful of spice jars. There are only a few drawers in the new kitchen, and they're all going to be needed for other things (like forks), so the jars will have to sit somewhere else, and the tin will corral them.

Stay tuned for more Treehouse moving fun over the next few weeks.