I didn’t intend to do a lot of work around my house this week, but it looks like things just lined up that way. But I will say, it’s been nice to get a lot of things done this week that I haven’t been able to do before and I finally have them off my list. Maybe it’s because next week will mark 10 years since I moved into my house, but it’s nice that I’m doing things that feel like they are refreshing my space.
There are still so many things I’d love to do to my house if I had the money to do so, but doing little things is nice. I am also restricted with what I can do because I rent my house, but I’ve found lots of things that don’t require damaging walls (or doing minimal damage) that adds a lot to my space. But most of the things I’ve been doing lately to my house involve removing things and not adding them.
For a long time, I’ve had an exercise bike in my house. I thought I might have written a post about it on here, but I think I might have gotten the bike before I started the blog! I also thought I had a photo when my parents helped me put it together, but after searching my photos a dozen times, I can’t find it. The only photo I could find of my bike was from when I posted about it on Facebook trying to sell it.
The bike actually fit nicely into my house and I had the perfect spot to have it. When my living room was set up a bit differently, it faced the tv. After I moved things around, I had to move the bike a bit to see the tv if I wanted to watch while I was on it. Sometimes I would just listen to music and sometimes I would do something else, but usually, I was watching tv when I was on it.
And I did use that bike a lot. I have no clue how often I was using it, but it was something I tried to use pretty regularly before I discovered Orangetheory. After I started going to OTF, I would still use the bike from time to time. I would say maybe once a week or every other week, I’d use it for a low impact workout. I wouldn’t bike as hard as I knew I probably should, but it was still getting used.
But my parents brought it up to me last year that if I wasn’t using it a ton, maybe I should think about getting rid of it. My parents were the ones who bought it for me as a gift, so I never thought of getting rid of it because I was so grateful that they got it for me. But hearing them say that made me realize that there wasn’t much of a point for me to keep it for the minimal use I was getting out of it. When you live in a 400 square foot home, every bit of space is necessary. And I could use the space that it was in for something better.
Once I felt like getting rid of the bike was a reasonable option (before, it also felt like I was rejecting the idea of working out at home even though I was going to OTF 4 days a week), I decided to see if I could find someone who would want it. I have no idea how much it cost when it was bought because it was a gift and it was bought 7 or 8 years ago, but I wasn’t worried about selling it for a profit or anything. I got a lot of use out of it and I only wanted to put a price on it so that I wouldn’t get a ton of people trying to get a free bike. So I posted it for sale for $20 and thought that was a reasonable price.
I was surprised that it took a few months for me to find someone who wanted it, but I finally was connected to a friend of a friend who was looking for a cheap exercise bike. And mine was cheap plus it was in really good condition considering the age. So the other day, I had to find a way to get the bike out of my house (it was in pieces and in boxes when we brought it into my house) and off it went to its new home. And now, there is a big empty space in my house.
Just like I don’t want to waste space with stuff in my house, having so much empty space in my house isn’t what I want either. I have some ideas for what I would like to put there because I do need some more storage. But just like with my bookcase, I’m not going to just go out and buy something to have it. I want to find the right thing for the space and for what I need.
My bike has been almost like a room divider between my living room and dining room for so long, and it feels weird not to have it there. But it is nice knowing that someone who needs it has it and I have a lot of space to put something there that I know I will need more.
There isn’t much else I can get rid of in my house, but I will say these back to back projects/cleanings have inspired me to see what else I can do with moving things around in my house. I have a feeling there will be a few more posts like this one coming up soon as I continue to renovate my space to fit my life even better!
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Is It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused)
Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)
Working On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter)
Getting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House)
Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)
Spring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)
