Thursday, January 13, 2011

I Don't Have to Live With Ugly

One of my Home Goals for this year is to learn to love my house. It really (really!) pains me to share this, but it is kinda hard to learn to love your house when you have to look at THE world's ugliest chair every day.
{yeah, that's laundry overflowing over there}

In all fairness, this chair is usually covered with a drapey slipcover thing, so the cat-barf-orange color isn't always visible when you are in the girls' room.

But I know it's there.

Yes, I spent some late nights and early early morning hours feeding Michaela Byrd in that chair. It's shockingly comfortable...sometimes I'd wake up holding the baby, wondering where in the heck I was. But it. is. uuuuuuugleeeeeee.

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one out there who keeps Ugly around for longer than is necessary, whether it's out of laziness, indecision, or lack of inspiration for something better. In my case, I think it's a bit of all three. There are some furniture pieces (including cat-barf-orange-ugly-chair) and accessories around here that I've held onto for too long.

Sure, I could recover the chair or even buy a new slipcover...but it's over 20 years old (my mom made me take it when I married T), we never sit in it, and I know me. I'd spend another 3 years debating the choice to recover it, and coming up with reasons why I hadn't done it yet.

Natalie and I took a nice load of items to the Salvation Army yesterday after ballet class, and that load included some home accessories that I'm not even sure why I kept. Maybe they were gifts. Maybe I forgot I had them. T loaded the hideous chair up in the back of his truck when we got home, and it felt so good to say good-bye.

The corner of the room is empty this morning, and I'm okay with that for now. I need a little time to decide how I want the girls' room to function. It's a wonder my babies can see after staring at that awful thing each and every day.

I won't miss the chair. I am happily holding on to the realization that I don't have to live with Ugly. I can make Pretty happen with some planning, effort, and determination!

{Are you living with Ugly right now?}


*Come back tomorrow to link your best post of the week up to the Weekend Bloggy Reading party. 

20 comments:

  1. Aww man! I was hoping you were going to re-cover it! I love seeing transformation from ugly to wow! But sometimes ugly just has too go:) I don't think I really have anything ugly that I am living with, though I would love to upgrade some not as pretty as they should be things!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course you don't have to live with ugly! Sometimes I wonder if we should all learn to do WITHOUT things rather than keep things that we really don't like. I think maybe some empty spaces would be good for all of us--perhaps the empty spaces would help us to think creatively about what would really work.

    "Cat barf orange." You know how to turn a phrase, girl!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ROFL! Happy trails to the orange chair! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. My husband had a terrible brown corduroy barkalounger when we got married. He wanted to store it, which I told him was fine as long as her stored it at Goodwill!

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOL...it is cat barf orange! Glad you have more breathing space. I think I have unloaded all of my super ugly (in the last move) so I am good!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yay it's gone! No, we don't have to live with ugly. I think now that the chair is actually gone, you will find a piece you really like. I think the ugly cat barf orange (HAHAHA!) chair was holding you back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That was on ugly chair for sure. Can't wait to see what you are going to do with the space now?!
    I have ugly in my guest bedroom and I am working on it. Soon it will be pretty again.
    Sigh!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

    ReplyDelete
  8. I so love that you just got rid of it and that you aren't guilty about it! yahoo!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post. And I think it really speaks to your blog title. I have a psychological need to be in a pretty, relaxing home. Seriously. And I can't live with ugly, either. (Although I have been for the last 3 years...this renovation is killing me!) So I am doing the same thing - using my resources (time, energy and money) to make things pretty! And it's making me feel so much better.

    And a big part of that is getting rid of things. It's such a great feeling!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't have so many uglies as I have "don't wants" so I loaded them up yesterday to take them to thrift shop and guess what? They were full and weren't taking any donations! What? Are you kidding me? So there they sit in my car waiting for the place to get un-full...guess a lot of people are de-cluttering like us this time of year.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The last 3 years, I've been going through things over and over and getting rid of what doesn't work any more. Hope you're feeling better without the ugliness!

    Thank you so much for the calendars, cards and catalog! I love everything!!! : )

    Have a great day!!!
    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good for you for getting rid of a chair that you didn't like and look at all of that empty space that you now have!

    I hated almost all of hubby's furniture that filled this house when we got married. Over the years I've managed to either get rid of most of it (thanks to Mama's beach rental) or relegate it to the basement. I HATE a futon that we have upstairs but he says we may need it one day. I could really use the space it takes up, but since I got rid of most of his other stuff, I guess I'll let this one slide. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. You know, someone is probably going to be thrilled to get the chair that you hate so much!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good for you, girl! I live with way too much ugly! Mainly because it's something functional and I don't have enough $$ to completely replace stuff. I live with a big ole ugly filing cabinet in my BEDROOM! It's AWFUL! I want a big wood lateral file that I could sort of make look like a table, but they're expensive, so I live with ugly. So happy for you!! WOO HOO! Don't ya feel liberated?!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yay! Goodbye to ugly. I'm working on purging thsoe things I don't LOVE, even if I did at one time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yes, but please don't tell him I said so (symbol clash). Just kidding.

    I'm glad you were able to get the ugly out of your home. Something just right will come along soon. I hated my breakfast nook table forever and my BFF found our new (old) table and chairs for $80. I love it!

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Haha good bye chair! I actually have an Ugly too, in fact almost the same shade of orange and mine doesn't look nearly as comfy as yours was. Besides now it has nasty stains from the kids spilling stuff on it. It has good bones though and would look SO good recovered. I dunno, maybe it's time to go too. I'll think about it :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. My nursing and rocking chair was ugly. It had been my grandma's. It was that 1970s tweedy fabric, kind of olive green. It did not go with the kids rooms. But it fit me and was totally comfortable for nursing. It rocked and swiveled and my feet touched the floor. So it stayed through 3 babies.
    It got donated after that.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh I am SO living with ugly! Have you not met my pink carpet? 'Nuff said.

    Glad you were able to get rid of ugly though!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Good for you for finally giving it the heave-ho! I wish I could do the same with our dining room set, but then we'd have no where to dine. :P Someday!

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear your feedback! Please feel free to leave comments...just don't send me spam asking me to buy stuff off your website! I've got three kids and no money to purchase your magic weight-loss pill or bust enhancement, or whatever else you might be selling. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you! :)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...