Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:04 am
I'm dressed now. First load of laundry (boys quilt plus some blankets) is in the dryer. My fine washables are in the washer. You can bet I'm checking the lint catcher in the washer after EVERY load, just in case there are dead surprises in there.
I've also cleaned and tested the toaster, blender and hand mixer. All work. The toaster was $70 and is a design fail. The crumb tray at the bottom catches only 1/5th of the area (and to the side) and there is no way of brushing crumbs towards it. When you take it out, there's the solid bottom of the toaster. On mine, the crumb tray is 100% under the bread slots and when you take it out, the bottom is now open to the counter. Yes, that can drop crumbs onto the counter from time to time when I pull out the tray but that is preferable to having the crumbs trapped in the toaster forever. Twenty minutes of shaking got the equivalent of one bagel of crumbs out of the dang thing but there's still burnt crumbs I can't brush away. And while it doesn't sound as bad as it did, when I shake the toaster to try and get crumbs out, it sounds like there is rice kernels shushing away in there. No wonder this almost new, expensive, toaster was donated. That took over 30 minutes to get cleaned up (and another 10 to clean up the crumbs all over my kitchen sink and counter.)
Never again. I'm never again volunteering for this sort of thing. I'll say, if you have something to donate, present it directly to the refugees yourself so they know who gave them dirty junk.
Even the new stuff is difficult to accept. Someone bought deep purple toilet cover and mat and a lilac bath mat. Neither match any of the 3 shower curtains we have! Someone else bought 6 bath sheets in teal. And then there are three new smaller towels. No hand towels or wash cloths. Of course, they may not use wash cloths, I don't know the culture. I, on the other hand have 3 - face, body for sponge bath and body in the shower (it hangs in the shower because I kept forgetting to move the sponge bath one to the bathtub before showering. For $1 I solved that problem!
I just want them to have nice things. Modest, but nice and it kills me when I see bought things that don't coordinate. When things are bought and donated, beggars shouldn't be choosers, they should get to choose colours so things match. For used items, I take the most dominate item in the room and try and coordinate around that.
The boys room was just given a quilt and pillow sham. I'll buy a pill for it and there was another throw blanket donated that picks up one of the colours in the quilt so it has been assigned to the boys room. The quilt will be on the bottom bunk, the blanket on the top with sham. So we have a focal point and such a strong one that anything mismatched in the room won't be noticed.
The daughter's room is going to be pink. A pink flowered love seat will be in there, along with a pink flowered comforter. They'll look good with the white metal bed and the pine dresser. I saw a $20 U table (the kind that slip under a sofa so you can eat at the sofa) and I'll pick up a white one for her and she'll have a desk surface when sitting on the love seat. I'll let her pick a rug for her room (nothing has been donated.)
The living room is a white sofa (3 boys, this will be a challenge!) and a pink floral love seat (yes, I have two but different patterns.) The table is maple with 4 chairs and a green bench with storage in it. That won't look too great but it is behind the table so not really in view.
The parents' room is a bed on a metal frame (unless we buy a bed from IKEA) and a dresser. There's a nice burgandy/green/gold comforter that will pull in the colours from the dresser. No bedside tables that I know of. We may buy wooden tv tables for those. That's what I have in my spare bedroom.
Sorry for inundating you with all this. I'm desperately trying to get it all straight in my head.