Isn't it funny how one little idea can spark your imagination and lead to more and more ideas?!
Last week, I decided that I wanted to start reading more again so Mike and I went to the local library, got a library card and borrowed a few books. I got a few novels out to read as well as some books on vegetarianism and clean eating.
Clean eating is basically getting rid of all the processed foods in your diet, eating fruits, vegetables, beans, lean protein and whole grains. It's focus is mainly on adding more whole grains to your diet, and since Mike and I are now veggies, I found it very interesting. We were eating lots of fruit, vegetables, beans and soy protein but I wasn't doing a very good job of incorporating grains into our diet and we were still eating quite a lot of processed foods.
So, on Saturday morning as we were taking Sandy on her usual 3.5 mile walk around the lake, I said to Mike that I would like to go to Whole Foods and get some grains. Which in turn, led to us deciding that we were going to go to IKEA to get some glass storage jars for the grains because I had seen some there before that I liked.
So, we went to IKEA and as we were walking around we really took notice of how IKEA is all about maximizing small spaces. Living in an 800 square foot condo has it's challenges space wise and we decided to pay attention to how the individual spaces were laid out. After seeing how things were laid out, we realized that we could do a lot more in our place to make better use of the space. We came up with some ideas of what we could do and on the drive home we discussed all the possibilities for re-arranging. AS we talked, we realized that the space where we wanted to move the TV didn't have a cable jack. We could have the landlord run a new cable line through the wall but Mike brought up the idea of getting rid of our cable altogether and getting Apple TV. Apple TV is a small device that hooks up to your television and uses wi-fi to stream shows. You can purchase your shows or seasons a la carte through i-Tunes so you are only paying for what you really want to watch instead of a monthly bill. You can also purchase a Netflix online streaming subscription for 7.99 a month and stream unlimited movies, shows, etc.
So...
On the way home we stopped at the Apple store and bought Apple TV :) and I signed up for Netflix and we canceled our cable.
When we arrived home we decided that there was no better time than the present to start re-arranging so we went right too it. We moved all the furniture in the living room, switched out our big dining room table for the smaller bar height one we had previously used and were storing on our deck. Then we reorganized the bedroom as well and discovered a way to give us a lot more usable space. We were busy and after I de-cluttered some of my knick knacks we found that the new lay-out had really given us a lot more usable, functional space.
The ending to my story really does have a point :)
In my quest to want to read more books, we've incorporated more healthy grains into our diet, rearranged the house and made it more functional and we ultimately ended up getting rid of our cable so we can spend more time reading. When we want to watch TV we can watch the shows or movies that we really like instead of sitting mindlessly in front of the television for hours every night. It gives Mike and I more time to talk, read, play a game of Scrabble or just hang out and enjoy the silence.
It's amazing what one little idea can do and how much you can change your life in just one little weekend :)
