At recycledfurniture.com decluttering creates an opportunity to sell furniture and buy furniture.  And that’s good for the enviroment and good for you.

 We recently bought a winter home in Florida and everything we bought in Florida was for that specific house.  When we were done we found we had everything we needed and not a lot more to clutter up our lives.  At our other home we have accumulated stuff over more than 25 years in this home and 15 years worth of stuff from older homes.

The more we looked at our clutter the more we became determined to change our enviroment which meant getting rid of a lot of stuff.  If I hadn’t needed something I was saving for twenty years, I likely wasn’t ever going to need that piece of stuff for another twenty.  And even if I needed that exact piece of stuff the very next year I decided I’d rather have the space and buy the purged stuff when I needed it in the quantities I needed and discard the rest in favor of decluttering.

So my rule was simple, if I hadn’t touched or needed the thing I was holding in the last year, it was either discarded or sold.

In the garage my life became very simple.  I knew what I had and where everything was, with the results being clear isles at the side of the cars,  room to store the new giant trash cans required by the city and boxes of great garage sale items other guys would need to clutter up their garage.

The basement was very similar in results lots of great garage sale items and getting rid of some old lawn furniture and ping pong table gave us tons of room we didn’t have.  We even took a shelf we didn’t need in the garage any longer and put it in the basement to help organize our stored items.

But the biggest change that I see every day was in our office.  Old office furniture stemming back from the days of huge computer monitors and desktop computers served to store a lot of unecessary stuff.  These days we have two laptops, a need for file storage and a wanting for more room.

We sold the old computer desk and hutch, the office desk, bookshelves and printer stand.  Once all the clutter was gone we were amazed how big the space was.  And even more amazing was how many of our children noticed one of the walls in the office had tongue and groove oak paneling.  It has been that way for all twenty plus years we have been here.  The clutter was the first thing that caught you eye. 

Now we have two regular desk, a printer stand/file storage and a bookshelve that is both attractive and functional.  And the space still looks large.  Here again I thought I had an idea what was in the office furniture….. I didn’t.  I do now, and I know where everything is. 

I am very careful what I keep these days, I like being decluttered.  The net results was that the sale of furniture and garage sale items yeilded a net gain after purchasing the new furniture.  The new furniture was new to us, looked brand new, but we bought furniture that was previously own and gently used.

A win-win life altering event.

We recently got a goldendoodle puppy that was 10 weeks old.  He is and will be a joy in our life for many years to come we hope.  But one of the trying times with a puppy is  from about that 10 week old time until nearly a year when they try to eat everything in site including your furniture.

 When we thought we might be getting  a dog and talked to our friends about it, most all of them told us about “The Dog Whisperer” on TV, so we started watching.  Like most people we learned that it is us that needs most of the training not our dogs.  And a lot of Ceaser Milans wisdom we have try to employ, so far very successfully.

First and foremost is to excersize your pet.  A tired puppy is a sleepy puppy and a sleepy puppy is a puppy that’s not eating my furniture.   Second is training.  Don’t let your pet up on any furniture if you don’t want him on even just one piece of furniture.  They understand much better that they can’t get on any furniture rather than  not being able to get on a specific piece of furniture.

And lastly you can show them praise and love.  When they are behaving well around your furniture show them that is action that get’s them love.

You have to give them every opportunity to succeed by sending them as clear as message you can.  For example don’t go in your backyard that has 15 tennis balls in it and decide to teach your dog to fetch.   He won’t know which one to retrive.  Teach him to fetch with only one ball to fetch.

In this same light if you come into our house unanounced you will find about 15 chew toys scattered about our floor.  This isn’t to confuse him, it is to give him many options of things to chew on that aren’t furniture, drapes, carpet, etc.  He knows his toys and he knows he can chew on his toys.

While we don’t promote one product over another however I have to make an exception in this case “Granny’s Bitter Apple” is a spray avaliable at most pet store that will help train your dog not to eat whatever it is you want to protect.  We’ve used it on plants, furniture, throws, extention cords and everything else we want our pet to not eat.  It works rather well and won’t hurt your dog.  You will have to reapply the spray routinely until the urge to eat that protected object passes.

I’m sure we will have some future articles about repairing furniture chewed on by a pet but so far we are feeling very lucky.

At one time caning of chairs and furniture was an art form to get the cane pattern precise and taught but no more.  Caning replacements are mass produced in sheets available in some hardware stores and most craft stores. 

After measuring the size of the existing cane add two inches (minimum) in both directions to account for mounting methods.  Typically cane is held in place by a backer rod or fits inside a strecher loom.

If the securing technique is a backer rod simply place the cane sheet over the opening and space equally over all sides.  The flexible backer rod fits in a slot in the furniture piece so locate the slot and begin a the most visible spot of the cane and drive the backer rod into the slot being careful not to fold or crease the cane.  At this time I cut several small pieces of the backer rod and drive them into the slot equally around the cane opening, securing the cane into position as I go back the the main backing rod and continue to drive the rod into the slot working your way around the piece.

 As you come to the small pieces of backer rod remove them and continue with the main backer rod.  When the piece has been completely installed cut the backer rod so the entire rod will fit into the slot.  Typically the slot and backer rod is covered with a piece of wood configured to fit the perimeter to the cane.  Re-installing the finish piece will complete the project.

Similarily strecher looms are used in some cane applications.  These looms are very similar to the looms used for embroidery  or making rugs.   The cane is laid over the smaller loom and the outer loom is pressed over the cane and tightened to secure the cane between the two looms.  Here again a finished piece of wood typically covers the loom to give a clean finished appearence.

You may finish the cane with stain or leave in a natural color.

This is a fairly easy project once you have located the source of the cane material.  Let us know how your project goes.