I have never regreted getting something that made my heart sing. My regrets are few, but mostly from times I passed something by. There was an antique harvest table once-narrow and long, exactly what I wanted, although I didn't have the large dining room for it at the time. What I would give now to have bought it then! It was perfect.

I say, buy it/them with no regrets.

I bought 4 brand new plantation shutter panels at a hardware store that was closing for $5 each..the only size left with mates didn't quite fit my windows (little wide) but what a deal..well we never hung them..moved..not sure where we could use them in my new house but kept them..was participating in the neighborhood garage sale..my husband says sell them..he's anal about the garage..he couldn't stand keeping them even though they were packaged and took up about 2 inches of floor space..so of course somebody paid my bargain price of $20 for all 4..I still hate him for selling them..this is what's funny..been married 43 years and I'm bossy (I admit it!)..WHY didn't I say "NO I'm keeping them"..they would've made an attractive privacy screen..so buy what you love..you can always get rid of it later..

A good compromise would be to buy them and put them in my house...Oh...wait. I don't have a place for them either.

I've done both. If I think there's a reasonable chance I'll find a place for it and the price and logistics for acquiring it are right, I'll usually go for it. Otherwise, I'll let it go, and sometimes regret not getting it. There are some bathroom light fixtures I still regret not buying off of eBay (I bid, but not high enough) and a one-of-a-kind antique rug that I missed out on and regretted for a long time, but usually I either go for it or get over it without regrets.

I'm also in the process of trying to get rid of things we don't need and that don't bring us joy, but the problem with that is I'll often check our local CL to get an idea of how to price things, and see something that calls to me. For example, I like this weird little coffee table, and the price is right, but I have no specific use for it. I'm sure I could find one once we finish our basement, but my husband thinks it's ugly and it would be a minor hassle to get it, so I'll resist.

Do you have a bathroom, closet, or pantry where you could replace an existing light fixture with the one that's calling to you? Or do you have an unfinished space you'll eventually finish where you could use it? If so, I'd go for it.

Eastautumn, I'm kind of glad we're replacing stuff that doesn't make us smile with stuff that does. I wish it was a lesson I had learned when I was younger.

The issue is with these birdcage lamps is that there are two...I just couldn't orphan one to a stranger with possible ill intent...

The second one is a "parts lamp". Just in case!

I could see swagging one over a reading chair. If I ever stop rearranging furniture then I'll do it!

It's not as if light fixtures are purely decorative -- they DO serve a purpose, and a pretty important one, too : ) .

I'm still regretting a gorgeous scarlet dress that looked like made for olden times princess..us-me and my ex-saw it by chance in a boutique in Jerusalem mall that carried stuff of well known and emerging designers. It was exquisitely made.. it looked like a fairy tale one..expensive as hell..well at least to us then..and where would I wear it? It was too fabulous. Yet even my ex who was very not into spending money especially on this kind of things said "Let's get it, you look amazing, let's just get it for you"

And I had one of my attacks of humble reasonable practicality..I felt guilty spending so much..

I mumbled "No..we can't afford it..I really shouldn't.."

I was an idiot..a twenty-something idiot. I would still wear it, would still love it. If nothing else I'd display it in my closet when I'm 64(c) to remind me of everything gone..I'd love just looking at it.

I say if you have where to store it, get it..You know how much you're in love or not. You know whether you can afford it or not. You know whether you'd find a place for them

If it's something big that I've nowhere to put-well I'm not getting it. As much as I love it-I can't just carry it around the house..:)

but i'm also not the most objective person to ask..I'm so much into lights I really try hard not to get anything, since I have all and then couple that didn't fit/DH couldn't repair in time and now busy with other things, and I could sell them for profit- they're beauties that I got for cheap..but I hold on to them because I don't have it within me to part with them yet

Another table lamp, I can see squishing in somehow..even though I have enough..

I'd also get another floor lamp instead of one I love but is too big I think given my future plans..but then where I'd put one I love too? And it's cheap from Craigslist, it's not like it's a family heirloom you know. I don't have family heirlooms..have to take care of it myself lol. Luckily my kids think I'm all that..even though my daughter hates clowns, and my son-"weird girls". Lol

Things that were bought out of pure need and from big stores-these are the ones that I'd trade for other things if I could..not all, but some. Things that I found and hunted and have a whole story attached to them- sometimes a long story too, and funny/not funny one-these, I'm keeping to

make it four cents, Becky:)

This is why I love this place. No matter how weird I think I'm being, you guys cheer me on!

I'm wondering if I could use one in my bathroom that's currently being remodeled (center of room) and one over my master bath tub. I'm sure there's a way to take out the wires and rig it with a battery operated led (with remote)...

Hmmmmm....

Weird is something totally else:)

Weird is when one of my dearest friends always had spare food with her to feed those huge gray rats in NY subway..:) Well that would be at nights since I'm sure during the day her love towards rats wouldn't be hugely appreciated by other passengers..

I am very close with this:

That's beautiful, pal.

pennydesign that light would be stunning over a tub! But don't do 2 in a bathroom, let the one be the star. It would be beautiful in a powder room as well - if you have one, that's where the second one could go. Enabler is my middle name.

I have many regrets over things I didn't buy. None over things I did buy whether they are still with me or not.

Yes, that's what I meant, DLM...one bathroom is in the process and the mb is next...

Palimpsest, I think you should get closer with that...Isn't it a necessity after all?

Well you have to get these refurbished and retrofitted with electronic ignition by a few specialists. And Id rather the smaller version, but they seem much rarer than the 42".

you know with the new ikea lamp fixtures-most big box stores have similar, you can get one then get a lamp pole or shepards pole and hang it there. this pole is from pier 1

Yes, my collection of antique Chinese porcelain. If I were to ever add up what it all cost I would faint, but it's a huge part of my life, not only the owning and seeing it every day, but the whole journey of studying, finding the eras I wanted to concentrate on, learning enough not to buy fakes, making friends with experts in the field and being exposed to their often very superior pieces and their vast knowledge - it's been an experience I can't compare to anything else.

forgive me, i lie, you reminded me. I have 6 oriental season prints and 3 original oriental works not necessarily cause i love them, but because of the originals we do love. on one of the very first ventures into estate sales backhome. the home belonged to a woman that was part of the solicial elite, not just for tampa, but i guess for the national. as we were going through seeing all these amazing photos of her with this head of state and that actor, etc. upstairs in a linen closet, stuffed toward the back of the closet were 2 oriental drawings rolled up. we took them downstairs and as we looked at the photo of her being handed those very artworks with definitely royalty standing in the background we waited for the sales lady to have them priced out. We bought them two for $5. We took them home and i tried to get frames for them, they cost a lot, so tried to get frames that would fit. We they always had prints and couple times original art work, but everytime i brought them home one of us was nutty about them and we kept them as is. To this day, these 2 originals that are probably very valuable lie stretched out carefully. lol

Well, pretty much all the art in our house qualifies. Art is one of the few things DH likes to "shop" for, so we poke around in galleries, especially on vacation. I can think of only one instance when we actually shopped for a specific need (blank wall over sofa). All the other paintings have been brought home after we fell in love with them...then we had to figure out where to put them! We now have no space for anything new, but we still look, but our standards are higher. If we find something we really looooove, we will find a spot!

We found a painting we loved in Charleston, didn't buy it, and regretted it when we got home. DH called the gallery a week later and arranged to have it shipped to us. Slight delay in understanding how much we "needed" it in our life!

I think that is the ONLY way to shop for art Sue!!!

Sue, I'd need that painting in my life too!

I buy things I want but don't need all the time then rehome the displaced item. If it's a big change then the area gets a make over.

My sister gave me the perfect painting for my front hall so off came the perfectly nice collection of cottage shaped tins with coat hooks below that had been there for 16 years and up went the new painting. I made a shallow shelf with pegs for coats underneath. Time frame was less then a week, apparently I was really ready for the tins to go elsewhere. My tins collection went into the office/sewing room above the sewing machine and inspired a makeover of that room!

A thrift store $40 Bassett Danish Modern buffet inspired a complete home makeover. It was time after 20 years of 80s country clutter. Moved to Danish Modern/50-60s comfy. First it replaced a perfectly nice Bassett sofa table then moved over and replaced a room dividing 80s TV shelf unit as I slowly replaced mostly of the furnishings in the house.

"Art is one of the few things DH likes to "shop" for"-how similar..and how lucky I must say, as most of our art was also found while traveling together, and oh, each time is so wonderful..frankly wonderful whether we actually can buy something or not. I still remember everyhing we admired together but couldn't afford..and yes we both regret things we could afford but didn't buy..:)

and yes, art, ceramics, netsuke-yes I simply need them in my life. Add books to that too. My DH is an extremely savvy person-yet he'll never say "no" to a book..he understands this.

Do I feel guilty? no, not at all

if I'm up and leave again-that's what I'll take with me, after all..Well besides my husband:) and kids if they'll want to..

one smart person-actually my boss, one of several..I was blessed with very smart work supervisors all my professional life...he said "The feeling of home comes from these very things you don't exactly need to survive"

There are levels of need..and the basics, we all know them, and they should be there since without them it's obviously really hard to strive for something else.

Even just wanting, dreaming, wishing for, admiring-you already have something extremely important. You might not realize it until you don't..

You might meet people that don't have it. They don't have it. Sometimes not at the moment, sometimes not for years. They're so deeply buried inside, so hurt, that outside doesn't touch them. It's not how we're intended to be. It's awfully sad.

It's also extremely scary when one doesn't feel himself..as somebody existing and separate you know?..

you're also not exactly into wishing for things while in that state..

so, yes, in my mind -even to want to buy somethiing you "simply need in your life", it's a blessing..it's a star in the sky..it seems so little amongst other stars, you don't know its name and its meaning..but the meaning is actually there and it's huge..you're alive, you're connected, and you want to continue to be.

hubby and i both love going to thrift stores etc. to look for abandoned art. Sometimes it actually hurts to see it there. Yep, I cry over abandoned art, no longered loved old houses, along with fuzzy people and others.

the difference, sadly is, no matter how much i love it, if you offered me a $1000 for it , i would sell it. If someone steals it, I cry but move on. That is the lesson i was taught as a child. Nothing i have has any value and can vanish at any time. With good luck I will not be blamed for it.

Sorry. but still i watch and dream and hubby tries to give me things i love and i am often very cheaply pleased. Last year found a really pretty tea cosy, use it all the time. Also, I rarely have regrets over what i do not get. i figure if it is meant to be it is meant to be I will get it at another time at price ican afford. it does happen somtimes, and isn't life wonderful.

havingfun..people ARE more important than things but some things can bring you joy..life IS full of disappointment - some petty some devastating..my life has gone on without my shutters but when I see some like them I'm mad at myself for selling them..but of course I blame him lol..

buy them.

buy them.

i assume the buy them is about the shutters, yes you should. oh nichol, i must have said wrong, sorry. I do fine, i just know many have been through my life and i speak for them, because still feel they can not. I will tell you one thing. since I started on houzz, I have over 700 pillows. I love buying things we can afford and just having it in my ideabooks, it is much like owning it. and i can share a 1000 times over and still have mine. but i do think i will start some now to keep forever even if you can not get the items anymore. just special things that i love, that way when they are gone i still have them.

april these threads are wonderful, we lost so many that were like you it is wonderful to get new ones. I had forgotten i have a few special folders from some of those friends. Let me give you a couple things from them. odd, i can not the folders do not show up here. I will try another way. hmmm, not that either. no worries, there are many other lovelies out there.

havingfun..I think the "buy them" is for pennydesign's lights..I bought shutters, never used them and regret selling them..but you put things in perspective for me..my regret is not the end of the world by any means..a very small issue..but it still bugs me lol..