Home Good Sale Shopping Calendar

Shopping can be hard. Especially when your shopping for expensive things. Few things are more complicated to shop for than home goods. It’s easy to go to cheap and end up having make a return or start again. This can quickly gets complicated if you're buying something large or if it's a faulty appliance. Plus you may not get a refund on the money you’ve shelled out;  meaning you’d have to start over but without the money you already spent. Alternatively, you could overspend on something and end up eating sandwiches for a month on a stove that isn’t all that great, and you won’t even be able to enjoy until you can afford groceries again. There is no need to despair over your shopping woes for there are glorious things called sales that exist; but how are you supposed to know which ones are worth your time and your money when the market is oversaturated with advertisements and fake sales where the prices have been jacked up so they can be brought back down to the same price? Well, you’re in luck, here’s a month by month list of when you can find the best sales for whatever household good you’re looking for.

January: After Christmas sales trump the Christmas sales almost every time.

Storage Stuff (good for organizing all the stuff you accumulated over the holidays), Bedding and Linens (the white sale strikes again! (If the store is out of what you want in stores you can probably ask for it and get what you actually want at the discounted price)),  Major Appliances (Stores are trying to get in new inventory, which means there are good sales to be had on last year’s model of whatever your looking for), Flooring and other Renovations (Most people don’t do any major work on their house during or just after the holiday season so those jobs are going to be cheaper during this season), Paint (again nobody likes to do stuff during holiday season, they’re just happy you’re buying something), Roof (Who gets their roof done in winter? You now), Furniture (New furniture is coming in February so it goes on sale January).

February: Good for buying more than just leftover pink and red stuff from Valentines day

Mattresses (Presidents day has arrived and brought sales with them. You get major sales on mattresses around this time!), Roof (You heard me).

March: The Spring sales are starting!

Winter Stuff (You know when winter stuff is on sale? When you don’t need it anymore. Snowblowers for everybody!), HVAC Equipment (When you don’t need a heating system installed? The spring, so I guess it’s time to buy one),

April: Spring sales in full swing!

Winter Stuff (You know), Vacuum Cleaners (New models come out in June so the old ones go on sale to make room). HVAC Equipment (Same).

May: End of the Spring Sales

Mattresses (Memorial Day, second verse same as the first. Major mattress sales!), Vacuum Cleaners (I already told you why), Paint (I don’t know, it has something to do with mercury), Roof (Materials are at their cheapest at this time).

June: Here comes summer.

Power tools (Apparently dads like tools so they go on sale for father’s day).

July:

Grills (no, not in time for the 4th,  right after it. You missed the holiday and now grills are on sale in time for you to enjoy the second half of the summer), Furniture (New furniture is coming in August so it goes on sale July).

August:

Grills (Just when you have one month left to enjoy it), Storage Stuff (good for storing all the summer stuff you’ll need to put away over the next season).

September:

Plants (People don’t usually garden as the season are turning colder but that doesn’t mean you can’t. Research what plants will thrive if you buy them in September. You’ll get them between 30% and 50% off )

October:

Major Appliances (Stores are trying to get in new inventory, which means there are good sales to be had on last seasons models of whatever your looking for), HVAC Equipment (Moderate temperatures mean not a lot of work for HVAC people… so it’s a good time to buy one).

November:

HVAC Equipment (Moderate temperatures mean not a lot of work for HVAC people… so it’s a good time to buy one).

December:

Powertools (Apparently dads like tools so they go on sale for the holidays), Flooring and other Renovations (Most people don’t do any major work on their house during or just after the holiday season so those jobs are going to be cheaper during this season).

Adding a Fireplace

Ready or not it’s winter! The solstice has come and gone. The days may be getting longer but it’s still gonna be cold out for the next two months. What better way to wait out cold winter days than in front of a fireplace? So what if your house doesn’t actually come with a fireplace. You can always get install one. Yes, I just told you to install a fireplace in your already fully built house.

Here’s the thing, we’re deep into the late 2010s. You don’t need to take out part of a wall and build a chimney to get a fireplace if you truly desire one. It’ll definitely cost money, a lot of money… it’s an investment. Think of a fireplace as a slightly risky investment, an investment you can enjoy and could, maybe payoff.   

So, fireplaces are a desirable feature. Almost 40% of homebuyers said they would pay extra for a house with a fireplace. The best way to maximize the payoff of a fireplace is to ensure that the price of the fireplace is proportionate to the overall value of the house. A fireplace isn’t calculated separately in a professional home appraisal a $10,000 fireplace holds its value in a $1 million house because buyers expect this feature in an upscale home but a $10,000 fireplace won’t be such a crucial component of a $100,000 house. The fireplace is not going to be the main draw of a lower scale home… so maybe focus on other stuff, like curb appeal.

Also, put it somewhere it’ll actually be used, like a den, family room, great room, etc. Equip your fireplace with energy-efficient glass doors and an exterior venting system that prevents heated air from being pulled out of rooms. If you want fireplaces for smaller rooms, if you are so inclined, to think about a small gas fireplace that’s easy to maintain.

Home Buying Fees You Might Not Know About

The buying process is complicated, super complicated. There are all sorts of variables and things to look out for. One of those things are fees. We all know that buying a house is expensive but what do you actually have to pay for besides the house itself?

Application Fee

Ah, applications. You need to pay this to even start the process. This is a fee the lender charges you… because they can honestly. You can ask for a breakdown of the application fee and might get a little more information but mostly it's an unavoidable nonsense fee that you should expect.

The Home Inspector

I hear what you’re thinking and no, you can’t skip it. Inspectors are what stand between you and utter ruin. They are your champion in the house buying process. Structural issues, mold, roofing, anything that could go wrong, they’re the experts that keep you from being buried under a pile of problems. That can all come to at an easy payment of 300 to 500 dollars. Yes, you still have to pay them if you decide not to buy the house.   

Appraisal Report Fee

This appraisal report fee is also charged by your lender… figures. This one actually goes towards something though. This one pays for the lender to appraise the cost of the house in question so that the buyer, a.k.a you aren’t paying more than the house you’re trying to buy is worth. This costs between 200 and 425 dollars. At least this fee does something useful.

Title Service Fees

Title Service fees covers several different services. Appraisal covers a lot of the necessary government paperwork. Searching public records for the houses title, notary for the person bearing witness to the signing of documents, government filing, etc. This will cost you between 150 and 400 dollars all together.

Lenders Organization Costs

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Your lender with another fee for you. Nope, not very funny unfortunately it’s not a joke. This is an upfront fee for processing the application (yes, the obligatory application fee doesn’t cover this), underwriting (researching your loan), and funding the loan. I really don’t get it either but either way it’s gonna cost you somewhere between .5% and 1.5% of your total loan.

Survey Report

Literally this is just a report that shows you the boundaries of the property, features and dimensions. It costs between 150$ and 400$.

Tax Payment Fee

Here we’ll end with a light one that won’t hurt your soul as much. Tax payment fee basically insures that tax payments on the property are up to date and that the payments you make are appropriately credited to the right home. This costs you about 50$.

So… I’m sure your super discouraged after seeing all of these fees and the numbers that go along with them. Here’s the thing, print out all of your documents, go over them, ask an obnoxious amount of questions you might be able to haggle down the prices of some of them. BE SURE YOU’RE GETTING THE BEST PRICE POSSIBLE! There are far too many fees to have necessary amounts of money taken from you for any of them.

Taking Care of Clutter: Part 1

Clutter. You put it away, you throw stuff out, you’ve done everything you can think of to get it
off of your floors and tabletops. Yet, here it is, back once again. Making the room you just
cleaned, visually look messier than it really is. So, what can be done with an unruly item
that can’t be thrown away and refuses to stay out of site?

If you can’t beat the clutter one way you can manage it by putting it on display. You may
be thinking that your clutter being on display is the entirety of the problem. That’s why you
need to curate the way your clutter is displayed. Do you have a lot of one or similar items? I’d
call that a collection. Give that stuff a specific shelf or shelves, arrange them aesthetically,
and there it is your unmanageable clutter has become a display. I have a thing for tea and
buying teacups and pots, so much so that I literally have nowhere to put them. I use the cups
that I don’t regularly use as decoration or to store small things like coins and keys aesthetically.

Your “collection” doesn’t even have to make sense. Make a display of stuff, that kinda looks
good together. IDK, go on Pinterest, Pinterest will teach how to display stuff. When I display
things I look for shapes and colors that compliment each other and give them a similar purpose
or at least make them hold things that have a purpose and then it doesn’t look like you’re
wasting space but using it very prettily.   

The tea cups may have told you that I like collecting knick knacks. The majority of my property
may just be stuff I bought on impulse at vintage and antique shops. What I’m trying to say is
that I have swords, tea cups, plushies, a metal top hat, and ceramic moose a friend got me as a
joke displayed equally on my headboard. You can arrange anything and make it make sense.

Letting in More Light for the Winter

Winter is finally here! I don’t know about any of you but between the cold and the dark it’s a struggle for me everyday not to hibernate. One way to counteract this is to brighten up the interior. If you can utilize what little natural light there is it will go a long way to brightening up the interior. Letting in more light will also naturally warm up your space, saving you money on heating as well as helping you fight off winter drowsiness.

One thing you can do is get rid of your window screens. Removing the screens will allow around 30% more light through the windows. Keep them somewhere they won’t get damaged, so you can put them back in the spring.

Update your rooms with light colors. Objects, furniture, walls light colored things bounce light instead of absorbing it like darker colors. The more light you have bouncing around the room the brighter the room will be. For more temporary fixes you could pick up lighter rugs and chair covers.

Another way to bounce more light around the room is to have reflective surfaces. Consider getting things with mirrored or reflective surfaces. You could make a cool gallery wall with mirrors and frames with reflective surfaces.

Consider replacing heavy curtains with a lighter fabric for the winter. While you’ll lose a little insulation and warmth; however with lighter curtains you will gain a significant amount of light. Getting lighter curtains will also open up the room and make it feel larger.

If you have any overhanging tree limbs or shrubbery blocking your windows… well get rid of it. It’s winter, it’s time to cut back any overhanging foliage anyways. You can do as many light enhancing tricks as you like but if sunlight is being literally blocked there’s only so much you can do.

Last tip, clean your windows. Didn’t think about that did you? Dirty windows block out a lot more natural light then you would think. I suggest you do it now before it gets to cold.

Keeping Your Home Miraculously Clean Part:1

One of the main reasons we accumulate clutter is because all the stuff we have lying around doesn’t have anywhere better to be. Where do expect your stuff to go if you haven’t given it anywhere to belong! Of course, everything is piling up on your counters and conspicuous corners. You need to establish a place for everything to belong.  Shoes, jackets, mail, things that would come out of pockets, and miscellaneous things.

Have hooks and cubbies for Jackets, Coats, Shoes, and other things that live by the door and leave with you when you leave the house. The kind of storage you’ll need will depend on your daily activities. Then banish all other shoes and outerwear to rooms, closets, or whatever other designated organized space.

Build a system to deal with mail as it comes into the house. Mail has the ability to get super unmanageable, super quickly. The best way to do this is to sort the junk, fliers, packages, bills, and other mail worth looking through as soon as you bring it into the house. Recycle whatever you need to get rid of, get a small bin for whatever mail needs to be shredded (shred as soon as it gets full for cleanliness sake), and get a mail organizer and sort whatever’s left, tossing the nonsense and putting the keepers in an assigned spot.

For all the stuff you just don’t know what to do with, if you can’t figure out a category to put it into it might mean that you don’t need it, and it should go into the trash. If you’re sure you can’t throw it away or repurpose it than I suggest getting some sort of drawer organizer and making yourself a good old-fashioned junk drawer.  

To keep this system functioning I suggest you clear out your storage spaces once a month. I’m not saying to toss out everything or completely reorganize every month, that would be ridiculous and annoying. Just move anything that doesn’t particularly belong and put them where they actually belong, instead of letting it clutter up the wrong space.