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Tuesday Tidbits | The Best & The Worst

April 10, 2018

I’m Laura.
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Abe and I have been married almost 8 years now, and its amazing as I sit here and reflect on just how much has changed in 8 years for us. When we got back from our honeymoon, we packed up our car and wedding gifts and drove across the country from Colorado to Virginia to start our lives together. And now fast forward 8 years, 5 moves (including a cross country move back to Colorado), and three adorable little munchkins later our home looks quite a bit different!

In fact, I still remember moving into our first apartment together. We had no TV, we used Abe’s college computer monitor on the fireplace in the living room as we sat on a single twin mattress Abe had been given. We slept on an air mattress with some old floral hand-me-down sheets. And the twin mattress doubled as our dining room table. Those were such sweet memories! And now as I sit on my couch surrounded by hot wheels, pillows strewn everywhere, and duplo legos awaiting an unsuspecting parent I realize how quickly we accumulate stuff!

Some of that stuff that we received as wedding gifts has lasted us so well, and others has not faired well at all! In fact, there must be something about 8-10 years that stuff just reaches its limit! I thought it would be fun to list out some of the things that have been well used and that we’ve both loved and others that haven’t lasted like we hoped – sort of a review, I guess!

First the things that haven’t lasted so well –

  • Our crock pot was on of the first things to die this last year. It was a Crock Pot brand and one day it just decided its buttons wouldn’t work anymore. You could plug it in and see the lights flashing, but you couldn’t adjust the temperature or timing any longer.
  • Just this last week our little Oster blender blade just disintegrated. So no more smoothies for a while, I’m afraid :/
  • Another thing I was surprised to see wear out was our Pottery Barn duvet cover! I remember spending something like $100 on that duvet thinking it was worthwhile since it was Pottery Barn and surely would last us for many years! Well, 7 years and it had completely worn through. But I’m not complaining about updating our bedding! 🙂 And I may or may not have just bought another Pottery Barn duvet cover, haha
  • Our teflon pots have gotten very sorry in the last few years, we’ve already thrown half of them away! I actually don’t remember the brand, but the pots have been the first to wear out.
  • When we had Evan we decided we wanted to cloth diaper. We’ve loved our BumGenius cloth diapers (they’re all-in-one meaning the absorbing pads and water proof liner are all sewn together and can be washed together without sorting). I was so surprised that our set of them didn’t last beyond our two boys. In fact, I think I’m still in denial that they really are garbage because they’re still sitting in a bag in the basement since I bought new BumGenius diapers for our Adeline a couple years ago. Maybe thats par for the course, though, with cloth diapers?

And some of our favorite things that have lasted us so well these last 8 years:

  • Our Dyson vacuum has not disappointed us! To be fair, we actually have not had it since we were married. We’ve probably had it only 4 years now, but its going strong and we’ve both been pleased with how well its worked.
  • Another thing that we technically have not had for 8 years is our microfiber couch. We bought it second hand off of Craigslist 3 years ago, and I think its from Macy’s, but I’ve been thoroughly amazed at how well its held up to our kids jumping on it and drawing on it and spilling stuff on it.
  • Our iMac has been our little work horse of a computer these last 5 years and is still working well. It has slowed down a lot since I’ve added lots of photo editing software and images to the hard drive. So we got a new work laptop for me and Abe will format the computer to give it some new life. So if anyone is in the market for a used iMac let me know!!
  • Our KitchenAid mixer has been amazing! Its heavy and bulky but has worked so well for big and small recipes! And we got a plastic bowl scraping mixer blade that helps tremendously!

I’m sure there are more things I’ll think about as I go about my day tomorrow, but those are the first things that have come to mind! I’d love to hear about the things that have lasted you well and the things that haven’t! I’ll leave you with a picture of our very first apartment (this was before my Dad arrived with the rest of our wedding gifts, so it was very bare bones!)

And after we had it set up!

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  1. Steph Wolfgang says:

    I love reading your thoughts about life and your reflections on the last 8 years. I still have wedding gifts. Unfortunately the Fenton glass gifts have all broken, but they would have lasted were it not for the accidents that caused their demise. The longest lasting gifts have been my Farberware cookwear and my Cutco knives (except for that little cute one that accidentally got thrown out with the potato peels and remembered after the garbage pickup). I even have things that were given to my parents as a wedding gift. Amazing that some things survive life. Even with the kids all grown up, I still feel like I have too much stuff to keep track of. More minimalism is in my future.

    • laura says:

      I didn’t know you used Cutco knives, too! I have 3 of their knives now, and they’ve been great! Hopefully they will last us just as long too 😉 And I know what you mean with too much stuff!

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