@Gwyneth – thanks for your comment! I’m glad to learn I’m not alone in sitting on a dining room chair in my office. We too lived with a wretchedly old toaster for a long time. Then last Christmas I decided I’d had enough and bought my husband a new one. The kids use it daily for toaster waffles and bread and there is less whining over it being burnt. Money well spent!

This can feel pretty overwhelming if the house is big and/or the list is long, but there’s no need to organize or prioritize the list at this point. The time you spend just writing it all down will be enough to bump all those things a little further up through the layers of your subconscious so that you’ll notice that you suddenly start finding the exact things you’ve been needing or wanting for years without even having to set aside specific times to shop for them.

Mentally re-categorizing amorphous pipe-dreams as specific tasks that are already in process (by writing them all down on a real list) gets your subconscious on-task and on-side passively keeping an eye out for all the household items you’re seeking, instead of negatively nagging that you have no time for home improvements, have no flair for home decor, etc.

By all means prioritize your initial list as the spirit moves you, but there’s no need to force yourself to do this if you’re feeling overwhelmed. The more items–big or small, high or low priority–you can go back and cross off your list, the more momentum will be generated to do more, regardless of the order you do them in.

In terms of actively dedicating chunks of time and/or money to specific household projects, since you can’t change everything at once, I advise my feng shui clients to make the most of their emotional momentum by starting either with whatever they feel the most excited about changing or with whatever annoys them the most in its current state.

As to when and whether one “should” or “shouldn’t” replace old things with new things, there’s no one right answer. As sentient beings, we react to every object we see or use every time we see or use it, and each positive or negative reaction raises or lowers our mood and energy level accordingly. So it’s important to keep in mind that different people can react to the same objects in different ways–e.g., some people might get a lift from being surrounded by shiny, new things, while others might find this feels cold and soulless.

I personally believe we as a society are appallingly wasteful and would do well to heed the old New England adage: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without–within reason. I spent years burning and scraping toast made with my grandmother’s old toaster oven (that had been handed up to her by a niece), only to replace it with another secondhand toaster oven (passed on to me by a friend who was getting married and discarding duplicate kitchen equipment) that turned out to be yet another “roulette toaster” before I finally learned my lesson and bought myself a new toaster oven that works properly, making my mornings much less painful.

On the other hand, nowadays it’s very much true that “they don’t make things like they used to,” so I wouldn’t dream of discarding any of my grandmother’s wooden-handled kitchen utensils, aluminum saucepans, etc. that are literally irreplaceable.

The best litmus test is just to take a moment to notice your reactions to the household objects you see and use on a daily basis and decide accordingly whether to keep or discard them.

P. S. I also find dedicated office chairs to be extremely uncomfortable and am much happier using an old dining-room chair abandoned by a former roommate as my desk chair. However, I was not happy about the discolored, stained seat cushion that had been shredded by her cat, so I had it re-upholstered and now–as someone who’s never liked sitting at desks–dislike doing so that much less.

@Shelley – I agree that having a party is a great forcing mechanism. We got a dining room table as a rush job because I was hosting Thanksgiving that first year in this house. We redid two bathrooms because we were having a large party. So I guess I just need to plan another one to redo the other stuff!

There are design services that will tell you how to arrange stuff. I just read about this service called Modsy – which I’m going to try as I can’t figure out what to do with my living room. I read about it here: https://everyday-reading.com/20532-2/

@omdg – perhaps I will move the screens to the top of the list! Our beach rental house relied more on screens than AC to cool down, and I loved feeling the breeze as I was sleeping. Obviously my home bedroom will not involve ocean breezes, but still, I think it could be nice.

@Gillian – do it! I have gotten through lists of projects in the past by assigning myself 1-2 projects per weekend. When that’s all I need to do, I’m good. If I try to get through 10 things…that’s just discouraging.

That last bit is a goal of mine! It’s not a skill set I want to take the time to learn, but I want the end result. Outsource is the solution