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The little things in life are so worth it

I’ve been thinking lately about how little I’m actually doing to optimise my financial life on a micro level. Like, if I really wanted to hold on to every possible cent of my money, we would never buy produce at the supermarket. I would have my savings accounts organised differently to take advantage of the absolute best interest rate (still pretty abysmal, in today’s low rate environment). I would have a more complicated credit card set up to maximise rewards. I would catch the bus more to take advantage of bus ride mystery shops.

I don’t. And I’m okay with that. I’m choosing to focus my headspace on the bigger picture and the choices that result in larger returns. Realistically, I can’t do both right now, and given the choice between macro and micro, I’m at the stage where it’s a no brainer to put time and energy toward the macro.

I may not be optimising every single dollar these days, but I am trying to optimise my home life, even if it means spending some money.

Seriously, I’ve been sweating the small stuff on some things that I really just need to get over. Sometimes it’s little things that make life so much more efficient and enjoyable. Yet it’s taken me over six months to suck it up and buy:

Forks

We’ve got enough knives and spoons to manage comfortably but for some reason, we’ve been getting by with only 3 forks. Finally, a 60% sale at The Warehouse prompted me to remedy this. And seriously, $6 for a bunch of new forks has been so worth it.

Toilet roll storage rack

I feel like such a grown up now. For real. Until now, they sat up on the windowsill – bit rugged, really.

Coat rack

Okay, this one isn’t quite done. Needs a little help from a friend (we don’t own a drill) so it’s still sitting on the dining table. But I got so sick of leaving jackets lying around everywhere, it was a no brainer!




Still on the list of things I need, though:

Shower caddy/rack

Having bottles sitting on the floor isn’t ideal. But it’s just so clearly a want rather than an absolute need, I could keep putting this off indefinitely!

Bedside lamps

So I can stay up and read for a bit before bed without needing to have the full blown overhead light on.

Photo montage frames

I’ve still got a bunch more photos I need to get printed and stick on the wall … but they also need frames to go in.

What little things improve your home environment?

3 thoughts on “The little things in life are so worth it

  • Reply Leigh December 8, 2016 at 09:32

    I resonated with this so much – the little things matter SO much. This is sometimes a fault of mine that unless the little things are in order, I am not going to be productive. This is hard because my husband doesn’t notice the little things.

    We did a complete 180 on our living room furniture this year, which isn’t a little thing in itself, but every little bit of decluttering has gone a really long way to improving my happiness. Getting a smaller coffee table was helpful in decluttering as the large one we had before would just collect SO much stuff.

    Right now only one of our bathroom sinks has a working plug which is driving me crazy for getting Anu handwashing of clothes done, ugh.

  • Reply Sense December 8, 2016 at 21:30

    I couldn’t live without a bedside lamp!! It is literally the first things I buy/make sure I have when moving to a new place.

    Forks are commonly scarce everywhere, it seems. My workplace has about 4 for my whole floor to share. I guess they are the dryer-eaten single socks of the utensil world.

    Maybe if I bought a toilet roll storage rack and put it in plain sight (we currently keep a few extra rolls in the below-sink cupboard, and have a huge, plentiful stash downstairs where there is more room), it would entice my flatmates to replenish the stock when the last roll is gone?!! I swear I am the only one doing certain (very important!!) things in this house!

  • Reply Little Miss Moneybags December 10, 2016 at 11:04

    Peanut has been interested in the home automation trend for a long time and picked up a few things at Black Friday sales. It seems silly but some of the things (motion sensor or timed lights, alerts from appliances, and location-based actions) have really made an improvement in our daily lives. It’s an expensive hobby so we won’t be having the refrigerator automatically add things to the shopping list anytime soon but it’s way more worth it than I thought it’d be.

    Oh, also – remote start for our car. Ah-mazing.

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