My MIL has a name for all those projects that go unfinished; she calls them "2-year, 20-minute projects," meaning that they only take 20 minutes to accomplish, but it takes 2 years to get around to them!
Maybe you don't have these types of projects, but I suspect you do. You know, that hard-to-reach light bulb you haven't changed for months, that hook that is loose so instead of fixing it you just never hang anything too heavy on it, or maybe a paint retouching project that you think about every time you walk past a certain scuffed baseboard or gouged wall but then forget immediately.
Well, I am committing to tackling some of these projects this summer. To keep myself accountable, I'll share my progress so far:
First up, I polished some silver salad servers with wood inlaid handles. They looked like this when I bought them:
After 20 minutes of polishing them in the kitchen while I chatted with my family, they now look much better:
Next up, I tackled a toilet paper holder in the kids' bathroom that had been broken for a while. Periodically the part that held the roll would fall out, and I would hear it clanging on the tile floor, followed by the anguished cry of a four-year-old: "Oh no! I ruined my bathroom!!!" (Sometimes he's a little dramatic.)
While J. was sleeping and Josh was out for a run, I took down the old holder, drilled a couple new holes, sunk my anchors, and screwed in the new toilet paper holder. The whole process probably only took about 15 minutes, since I did have to go hunt down a few tools. And to think, we lived with the broken holder for months!
The last quick project I've done recently was to replace a hydrangea that didn't make it through the winter. I guess technically this isn't a "two-year" project, but it's been dead (at least visibly) since April and it's now past mid-summer, so I finally gave up hope of seeing some little green leaves pushing through the mulch.
Before: look how welcoming this bundle of brown sticks is beside our front sidewalk!
After: symmetry and greenery are restored to the plant bed!
So what about you? Any 2-year, 20-minute projects you need to tackle before fall gets here?
2 comments:
I think that technically I planted the hydrangea ;-)
Josh
Are you kidding? I have MORE than a few 2-year-20-minute projects! This post is encouragement to not walk past those projects any longer! It's sad that you become used to living with something long enough, that it won't bother you anymore! This post was just the push I needed! :)
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