Grand Rapids Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Shelf Life
What is your "shelf Life" for the following, assuming the item is in fair/good shape. It doesn't have to be replaced. If you currently are not at the point of replacing any of items listed below, when do you think you will have had enough and be ready for a change.
Living Room Couch/chair
Comforter/bedding set
Kitchen Dishes
Wall Color
Car
Re: Shelf Life
Fun!
Living Room Couch/chair - Well we've had one of our couchs since November 2004 and I still love it. We have no plans on replacing that one. The other one we just bought a month or two ago.
Comforter/bedding set - We get a new one just about once per year, maybe slightly less often.
Kitchen Dishes - We've had the same "set" (if you can call it that..lol) since 2003.
Wall Color - I hate painting. For us, it depends on the room and the use of the room. We painted every room once at the old house, except for the nursery (got painted twice) and our bedroom (never painted).
Car - My first car I drove for 2 years. Second car I drove for 7 years. I plan on driving this one for at least 7 years. Haha...7 year itch.
Living Room Couch/chair I'd love to replace these. The cushions are so worn that there is a gap between them unless I stick a pillow at the end to shove them together. These will probably be replaced in a few years. Sooner if I get a good job this summer.
Comforter/bedding set My mom is making me a flannel blanket that will work for winter. And I have a few light blankets that work for summer. I'm happy with what we have.
Kitchen Dishes Our plates are currently from the Dollar Store, I'm OK with that since they are nice. We need new bowls and silverware. We may buy these with our income tax return. Nothing real nice though, just something to replace the stuff I've had since college.
Wall Color Won't be an option till we move. We could paint here but they charge more than it would cost us to do ourselves and we have to choose from their colors.
Car We'll be getting a car as soon as we have our income tax. The car we are sharing is nearing it's end.
My Profile
Hm, I wonder if I am cheap. I don't plan to replace anything until it has to be.
Living Room Couch/chair- We've had since we bought our first house, so 2005. I started wanting to replace it a year or so ago. I am just waiting for something to happen to it so I can.
Comforter/bedding set- Just replaced our all white bedding set that we got at our shower ('06). I will never buy all white bedding again (esp with a dog)
Kitchen Dishes- Ha we just talked about this last night. Again a wedding gift ('06) 1/4 of them are cracked or broken. Once we are down to just 6 sets (1/2 dead) we will replace.
Wall Color- so far we paint when we move in and that is it. We do touch-ups as needed.
Car- My car is 10 years old and I can't wait to replace her. BUT she runs great so I have no reason to.
Living Room Couch/chair - I thinking 7-8 for our set. We bought a leather set five years ago. It is starting to show some signs of wear. I hope to keep it for another 2-3 years until the girls get a bit bigger
Comforter/bedding set - Ours is now five years old and still looks good. In a few years we will be ready for a change.
Kitchen Dishes - I have some from my single days that Brian says are "too country' and we have some plan black ones that Brian had. I think this is one purchase that we could make in the next 1-2 years and get something we both like
Wall Color - So far I like what we have. Amelia's room is ready for a change - it is blue with yellow stripes. It was the nursery. when we switch her bed to a toddler bed, we need to get new bedding. Brian wants to keep the colors the same but I want something different. I was nice when I got pregnant with Allison and found something that matched the blue walls that were already in there.
Car - A car is simply a tool to get to point a to b. I drive my cars until the repairs get to be too much.
Living Room Couch/chair - I thinking 7-8 for our set. We bought a leather set five years ago. It is starting to show some signs of wear. I hope to keep it for another 2-3 years until the girls get a bit bigger
Comforter/bedding set - Ours is now five years old and still looks good. In a few years we will be ready for a change.
Kitchen Dishes - I have some from my single days that Brian says are "too country' and we have some plan black ones that Brian had. I think this is one purchase that we could make in the next 1-2 years and get something we both like
Wall Color - So far I like what we have. Amelia's room is ready for a change - it is blue with yellow stripes. It was the nursery. when we switch her bed to a toddler bed, we need to get new bedding. Brian wants to keep the colors the same but I want something different. I was nice when I got pregnant with Allison and found something that matched the blue walls that were already in there.
Car - A car is simply a tool to get to point a to b. I drive my cars until the repairs get to be too much.
I think Brian and I look at each other families and fear that we each may turn out to be them.
My sister buys, buy,buys. I swear everytime we go over there, they have something new or a room has been redecorated. I think she has gone through three living room sets in this house alone (5 years old).
His parents on the other hand, have done pratically NOTHING to their house in 35 years. It looks straight out of the 70s. Fabric wall paper, orange capet, and gold counter tops. His poor mom has wanted new seat cusions for the kitchen table for years and his dad won't let her. He has always been too cheap to update anything in the house. His mom made a comment that he has had these expensive hobbies all these years, but won't let her spend money to decorate the house.
So we are pretty reasonable with our budget and don't usually buy thing until we need to, however I also don't want to make sure that we don't fall into a rut and have the same decorations 10 years from now.
Typically I'd like to use things until they have to be replaced.
Couch/chair - We used old random/ugly hand-me-down (three times over!) college furniture for the first two years of our marriage, until we could afford to buy our own. I thought we made a good purchase choice at the time, but 5 years later they are not that comfortable and don't really work well in our space. I'd like to replace them but they look close to new and I'm not sure I could justify that expense.
Comforter - We will probably get a new one in the next 6 months. It's been 7.5 years.
Bedding - We are on our third pair of sheets since getting married (7+ years ago), mostly due to wear and the fact that the first pair was scratchy. I think we buy cheap sheets.
Kitchen dishes - We'll use them until the majority are chipped (currently only a couple are) or until we can't find replacements at Kohls. I don't love them and this is another purchase that I would have done differently when we got married, but there's not reason enough to replace them JUST to replace them.
Wall color - We painted the downstairs of our apartment 6 years ago. We got permission from the landlords to paint the upstairs as well, but we got burned out after painting downstairs and never made it upstairs. So I have a feeling that we'll have those colors as long as we live there.
Car - Until it costs more to repair/maintain than we can afford. In other words, as long as we can.
I have never replaced most of these things, so it's difficult for me to tell.
Living Room Couch/chair: Our previous set were hand-me-downs that were 15-20 years old. We bought our current set in 2006 and don't anticpate replacing them for quite some time.
Comforter/bedding set: Our first set lasted three years before I decided I hated it. Our current set is two years old. I still ove it, but it already has a few tears in it from cats claws-out brawling and/or racing each other on the bed. Still, I plan to make it last for awhile yet.
Kitchen Dishes: Our set is from our wedding five years ago. We'll probably keep it a few more years at least.
Wall Color: Varies depending on the room. I repaint my bathroom every few years because it's small and relatively easy. Most other rooms won't be painted until they have to be, many years down the road.
Car: The longest I've ever kept a car is four years. However, I intend to keep my current one for much longer than that.
I'm super Cheapass McGee when it comes to this and generally, if it doesn't NEED to be replaced I won't spend the money to get something new. I'll give a best estimate.
Living Room Couch/chair- 10 years. But actually, we intend to move our upstairs furniture downstairs when we finish the basement, where they will live forever. I mean, we still have Andy's couch that he inherited sometime in college. Judging from the super hip pattern, it has to have been made in the 70's.
Comforter/bedding set - 4 years. Mainly because I could probably score some cheap on a good clearance sale every few years.
Kitchen Dishes - Until they're broken. I seriously can't see myself replacing dishes unless they were broken and making me bleed every time I used them.
Wall Color - 8 years. This would be cheap enough to change up more often, but we're probably too lazy to do it that frequently.
Car - 10 years. Or until the brakes go out and I'm so sick of fixing the damn thing that I hawk it on Craig's List and have a beer because I'm so glad it's out of my life.
Living Room Couch/chair- I'm hoping that our leather sectional will last us at least 15 years (2 years old now). Before we bought that we had 20 year old couches from my parents. They were structurally sound, but ugly as sh*t.
Comforter/bedding set- I get the itch to replace this once every 2 years. I think this is a cheap way to make-over a bedroom.
Kitchen Dishes- If I don't break them all, I plan on using them forever. I don't know that our dishes will go out of style, and even if they do, I'll still use them.
Wall Color- Maybe once every 5 years depending on what's in style at the time. Right now I pretty much want to repaint the whole house and it's only been 3 years mostly because I don't think I did a good job of picking out colors back then. Oops.
Car- I hope to drive my current car for at least 10 more years.