One more day of work and then I am off through next week. Eek! DH was wondering if we could just take our garbage can with us, since we are transferring service. They said yes and doing that will save a $7 fee to deliver a new can.
It pays to shop around for pricing. A couple weeks ago I went and got new flooring and countertop bids. The flooring was $2000 less than the other one, plus for some reason our builder put in his cost estimates $2500 more than was our first bid, so actually I am getting that flooring number down to actual by a total of $4500. The second granite place was $3000 less, so that is good savings too. The flooring guy also gave me a bid on materials for our master tiled shower. I talked with builder about labor costs and he thinks we should be able to get it done for $2500 lower than what he put in for a number. He put in $7500! The materials (I'm using the porcelain planks that look like wood) came to $1160. I can't imagine over $6000 in labor to put in tile?!!!! How long could it possibly take to install tile planks in a master shower?
I had a phone call with my boss this morning. Big changes coming at work, being announced at a company meeting on Monday (that I won't be going to, since I'm in the middle of moving). We are dropping our huge mfg we rep and going with a smaller one. I guess this has been in the works for a good 6 months or so. We rep numerous small companies and the one big conglomerate. This will be a shift in focus - to concentrate more of our sales on the smaller mfgs (that we make a much better profit from). We have been with this big mfg for 7 years or so but apparently in the last couple of years they have gotten more and more difficult to work with and difficult to fulfill our orders with. Our inside and outside sales people spend almost all of their time on just this mfg and dealing with all the issues that come up. Even my boss spends a good majority of her day on this mfg. All in all it sounds like it might be for the better. We've guaranteed a set monthly payment for the next 3 years in our contract with this new company and with being able to focus more time on sales from our higher profit/smaller mfgs, we should actually make more money in the long run. Plus this new mfg we will be partnering with uses the same system we use, so that part should be pretty seamless and we should start seeing a lot more efficiencies in our employees day to day work load, as they aren't having to use two different ordering systems and aren't spending all day working through all of the issues from this other company. I'm sure there will be some transition headaches. Always something to deal with. I'm just really happy I don't have to learn a new system again.
DH just verified he now has forklifts lined up on both ends for loading/unloading all his pallets of stuff. God, he has so much crap. He swears he's going to start getting rid of it, after he has the big shop to fully utilize (ie after house is built). He'd better, but I'm not holding my breath. He really is a hoarder, when all is said and done. A very organized hoarder, but a hoarder nonetheless. I have already given DD permission, that if I die before he dies, when he dies, she has permission to just unload it all, for nothing, if she has to. To not feel like she has to try and sell it off piece by piece, etc. Just dump it. I really don't get how people want to keep stuff they never use and can't even get to, since it's all stacked up and stored. Why not have space you can use and enjoy and money from the stuff stored, that you can use for something you can use and enjoy? Makes no sense to me.
If it is well-organized, I can see no problem with keeping stuff. Plus, if there is a chance anyone will need it, why not keep it? I cleaned up a whole room with the addition of one of the Butterick pattern cabinets and a bookshelf and plastic shoebox type boxes, only larger.
ReplyDeleteThen, over the years, I added more to the stash of everything. The bookcase held the boxes full of thread. Since I needed 3-5 spools of the same color at one time, the dozen boxes worked to organize.
The long dividers in the pattern cabinet each held a designated item, making everything easy to find. All this was in a sewing room about 17x19, leaving room for four machines and three chairs and a cutting table. NOTHING was cluttered or junky looking, yet I kept things for years before I used it.
Since I got rid of things all the time, I did not consider it hoarding at all. Now, I do not know how he keeps his stuff or when he uses it. Maybe he is a hoarder, don't know. If he cannot get to it, maybe.
He has so much stuff (hence the bigger shop than we had before)he cannot get to probably 85% of it. It's also stuff I don't see him using again. Race car bodies, engine, tons of parts. Stuff from when he had his business. Yes, it's all very organized and it will be in his new shop, but I'm pretty sure he won't do anything with most of it - ever. He complained at our old house, he's complained at this house we have how, that he doesn't have any room to even move in his shop and garage. We'll see how it goes in our new shop. If he's back to not even having any space to work on things, then I'm going to start pressuring him. Currently he has a 620 sq ft shop literally stuffed to the ceiling with a small path to walk through. Our garage is stuffed with just enough room for his pickup. Even though the shop will be about 600 sf bigger, I'm hoping he will want to keep it not looking so full and stacked with stuff and be ready to start parting with some of it. He could make quite a bit of money off the race stuff, for sure.
DeleteJust a guess, but it might be easier to sell things if he has room to pull things out and stage it to sell separate from the piles. I would block the view of the other stuff so he does not spend time with people wanting to plunder through it.
Deletehe's been promising me that once he has room to pull the stuff out he will start selling. I hope so!
DeleteI get the "hoarder" thing - well, my BIL is like that. He has so much shit in a big shed over at his house. I ask hubby why he keeps all that crap. "Who the hell knows!" He's single/never married, so no telling who will be left to clean up that mess. I say just torch the whole damn place! ha ha I'm with you - sell the crap that could bring in some good $$ and do something with it - put it towards a vacation or something FUN!
ReplyDeleteour old neighbor was definitely a hoarder, but not organized at all. He had a huge shop with living quarters upstairs. It was jam packed and the next thing he bought just piled on top of the last. At least DH is organized. He just can't ever seem to get rid of anything.
DeleteI keep telling dh that when he goes, we are going to have an ENORMOUS bonfire with his 50,000 photos he has in the garage.No rhyme, no reason, no order, no organization, just a MILLION photos of things.
ReplyDeletewow! I don't blame you.
DeleteIf he can fill that huge space up, I will send my mom over to help you. Lol! She is the queen of de-cluttering. Throws things without blinking the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is he is a great organizer and it's not cluttered. He just has trouble parting with stuff, but I know he'd feel so much better if he got rid of a lot of it and had room to enjoy his space.
DeleteMy DH encounters what I can only describe as panic over removing things from the home. Fortunately, he doesn't shop much, but once an item is in, boy oh boy! He is somewhat facile, however, and I can usually call him out on his nonsensical attachment to things--and I mean things like old furniture, computers from the 1990's, etc. Barring that, I purge out of his view. I know that won't work for most, but it helps keep me sane. But, again, fortunately, he's not one for having a lot of stuff.
ReplyDeletethat's kind of how my dh is. He doesn't shop a bunch, but once he owns something he has it for life! Fortunately I can keep his house stuff to a minimum so our house doesn't look like a storage unit.
DeleteHave your hubby look up "Swedish Death Cleaning". I've never been much of a hoarder (or even an organized one!) but even with that, am finding I do have stuff to get rid of. I'm sure my kids will thank me for it later.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way he could do that LOL.
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