Organizing My Decorating Stuff & Why Everybody Needs An Emergency Fund

Seven weeks ago my garage door looked like this.

A little over $1000 later and it looks like that.

It is a much prettier door but it wasn't something we had planned to change out.The other door was original to the house - a nice heavy wooden garage door. About 7 weeks ago I came home and couldn't open the darn thing. I went to look at it and the springs were broken. We had the springs replaced about 5 years ago and I knew they were still under warranty. So I found my receipt, called the number, the company that had replaced the springs was now out of business some other business bought their customer list! These days businesses are closing left and right - apparently you can't count on your warranty being any good. I wonder what's happening with the extended warranties purchased at CompUsa and Circuit City? Anyway, when the repair person came he said that not only were the springs broken but the whole rod was ready to snap! It would cost almost as much to replace the rod & springs as it would to replace the door. Therefore, the new garage door.

Of course all of this was happening while we were having the coldest temperatures ever in Atlanta. I earned a new appreciation for having a garage when I had to go out to scrape ice off my windows and warm up the car every morning!

I've said from the beginning, everyone needs an emergency fund! If you don't have an emergency fund you wind up using a credit card and you pay more in the end. Not only did we have this unexpected expense but my husband also had a dental emergency that cost us $900 after insurance. If we didn't have an emergency fund I'd probably have no hair left right now becaue I'd have been pulling it out with worry! Start an emergency fund if you don't have one. Even if all you can put aside $5 a month - at least it's a start and I'm sure you'll find ways to add to it as time goes on.

I had to get my garage organized because they needed half of it cleared out to bring in the garage door pieces and the new rails. Some of you thought I was building a studio - that would be nice! The new garage doors are insulated and make the garage much warmer so I am thinking of doing something besides storing stuff in there. I showed you my messy gargage before. I had stuff laying everywhere - I never could find anything! I bought one new shelving unit the rest we already had. I started by taking everything off the existing units and when I put things back, I tried to put things in containers which I clearly marked. Like...

And Easter (which I'll be pulling out in a couple of weeks to use)

One whole shelving unit is paint! Spray paint, sample pots, gallons, quarts, sealers, brushes, rollers, sand paper & sander, scrappers, stir sticks, trays and drop cloths. Everything having to do with the painting process.

The other two are all decorating things minus Christmas which is in our storage shed. I tried to gather all the faux flowers, vases, architechural elements etc. together. So that if it's not in a bin it's on a shelf with other like items. I have two see through bins where I put some odds and ends.

This long bin is the only one that doesn't fit on the shelf because it has my extra pillows in.

I hung my wreaths out of the way on what was part of a bike rack

Gargare sale items! Yes, even though I hate having garage sales I'm having one soon. We have to go through our storage shed and closets too. I am getting rid of stuff!

Isn't that lamp on the right cute! I bought it at Goodwill a year ago and I've never been able to find a lampshade that looks good on it - so it's gotta go. The chair, remember I got two at Goodwill? Well I only need one in my living room so the other one is going. Handpainted French Country chandelier shades - going.

I usually just donate my stuff to Goodwill because I really don't like having garage sales but I need to replenish my emergency fund! By the way, the guy who installed my garage doors used to be the Field Manager for the company. They've had to let so many employees go (even though this was through Home Depot) that management is now back out doing installations. Work on that emergency fund - you never know what's going to happen these days!