Looking for inexpensive home improvements

[momxx5]

I am looking for ideas on where to find extremely inexpensive toilet seats, door knobs, ceiling fans and even light bulbs.

We are at the point where things are starting to show wear....and its not pretty. Our home is almost 19 yrs old and the ceiling fans and door knobs are all original. We are extremely lucky to purchase this home at a great price over 10 yrs ago. When it was built the owners have mostly top of the line of everything put in.....but with 7 people living here, time have taken its toll.

Having 4 boys in the house(DH & 3 teenagers) and 3 girls, embarrassingly I must say we need to replace the toilet seats. After years and years they simply cannot be bleached to death anymore.

Also, it seems like all our door knobs and ceiling fans have decided to all fall apart or stop working within the past 4 months. Each room has a ceiling fan and only 1 room has a working one. While they are not neccessities, they certainly do help to cool/heat rooms.

Who would have ever thought that a toilet seat is a luxury?!?!

Our area used to have a Habitat Resale store, but it closed down. I did hear that something similar was opening and I am keeping my eyes open. GoodWill and Salvation Army do not carry such items. We have a few nicer thrift stores in the area that I need to check into.

Thanks in advance for all the ideas. I know y'all have the best ideas and places that I simply do not think of.

 

[brenalexacamp]

I'm sure you can find a toilet seat for 15-20 dollars at Home Depot, Lowes-even Walmart sells them.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

My only suggestion is to keep your eye out for them on clearance at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, etc. Can you replace the toilet seats one at a time? We need to replace ours too but that's because our lazy landlord should've replaced them before we moved in and didn't. They're gross and I can't stand trying to clean them anymore. Definitely look for ceiling fan deals at Lowe's. Go on a Friday night. My parents always hit Lowe's on Friday night for deals and many times if you find a sales person, you can ask them if they are willing to go lower on something on clearance there. My parents do it all the time and get great deals on their appliance and ceiling fans. You might be able to do the same for door nobs. Or look for wholesalers online. Good luck!

 

[cjdj4]

Does your area have a Habitat for Humanity? In Tampa, the Habitat has a store that accepts donations, which they sell to anyone. Mostly I think they sell appliances, but you could call and see if they have the smaller home improvement things you want/need.

 

[njmom47]

Have you tried Freecycle? I don't know if I would take used toilet seats but sometimes I've seen people apparently remodeling and they're freecycling all kinds of stuff. You can also ask for stuff, but should offer items also.

 

[DawnM]

I often find this sort of stuff at yard sales in large neighborhoods. Many times owners buy the house with the builder grade hardware and rip it out within a year or two to upgrade. It is still in very nice condition but is usually white and not top of the line.

I would also check craigslist for contractors who take out the above and the owners say, "just haul it away" I see them selling the items on craigslist.

If you lived near me I would tell you to come and get all of our older model ceiling fans that still work perfectly. I wish they would die!

Dawn

 

[momxx5]

Thanks for the ideas.

Honestly $15 is too much right now.

I know I will be doing it one at a time, so I'll try the contractors way or freecycle.

Thanks again.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Well....I think most of the stuff you could find at a resale shop but I personally wouldnt buy a used toilet seat...Most of the time they are less than 20.00 and you could probably get away with replacing one at a time....We bought our house and it was built in the 1950s and have replaced almost everything in it...Stroll the stores and keep your eye out for in store sales....alot of stuff is clearanced out without ever going in the paper... Good Luck!!

 

[Shelby5514]

Menards has toilet seats for $5. We're renting a place and that's the first thing we replaced. Knowing we'll only be her for a year, $5 was all we wanted to spend on them. I'm sure Lowes or Home Depot would have something similar.

 

[kelly1218]

Home Depot has a toilet seat that is either $5 or 6.

I'm not sure what area you are in...but in my HD store...we have light bulbs on sale.

Incadescent bulbs...16 packs for about $3 (60 or 100watt)
Compact Flourscent 12 packs for $3.47 (14w.... 60watt equivalent)

These are not black friday sales...I believe they are running through until the end of December.
I do know different markets have different prices... so I'm not sure of the prices in your store.

I don't work in hardware often....so I really can't tell you prices of doorknobs off the top of my head


ETA

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 $5.74 for the toilet seat

If you want to call your HD for the price of the CFL light bulbs...the SKU # 785800 the online price is still $15.47.

I was looking a ceiling fans....I really can't remember the store prices...but I do know we have ones in store for about $25-35 each.

I know how tight money can be (heck...I work at Home Depot...the pay stinks ) Good Luck.

 

[sarah4770]

Do my points and cash out for a walmart or home depot gift card.

 

[NMW]

My house is 9 yrs oldand this past year I replaced all my door knobs and hinges for the doors. I had brass and wanted the brushed nickel. I had replaced all my light switch covers with brushed nickel as well as my ceiling light fixtures and thought I needed the doors done to complete the look.

I bought them at Home Depot. I did Schlage lever door handles (locking for bed and bath) and non locking for closets and pantry. The hinges come in packs of 3 (you need 3 for each door).

I had my husband help me remove the doors and replace the hinges and I did all the door handles by myself. It was easy...I am by no means handy...I just followed the directions.

I can't tell you what a huge difference this has made. I swear that this, combined with the outlet covers and light fixtures, has made the house look younger.

This summer I plan to replace the outside shutters (hunter green and faded from the sun) with black ones. They are fairly cheap as well and I think will have a big impact.

If you have hard wood floors you can get them refinished. My neighbor with 3 boys and 2 dogs just did that and it looks amazing!

You could replace ceiling fans one room at a time. My husband can do this, so it's not hard. He is not handy either.

The biggest thing is to just get started. Oh, and I can't say enough how much a new paint job freshens up a room. Good Luck!

 

[herdtoDisney]

Walmart has toilet seats for under $10. I got mine there-toilet seats are one of those things that just have to be replaced here and there, they get beyond cleanable.

Can your dh or an older kid tinker with the ceiling fans? Sometimes they just need a connection tightened to get working again. We have had a few quit but dh got them going again.

Doorhandles can add up to $-I'm still not done replacing them in my house. Got the first floor all in brushed nickel, but I'm rockin' brass (worn brass, too, lol) upstairs yet. I like a PP's idea of cheking out tag sales or freecycle for some from another house-I've seen really cool old knobs at tag sales (not for my style house though).

 

[Chokky]

I am looking for ideas on where to find extremely inexpensive toilet seats, door knobs, ceiling fans and even light bulbs.

We are at the point where things are starting to show wear....and its not pretty. Our home is almost 19 yrs old and the ceiling fans and door knobs are all original. We are extremely lucky to purchase this home at a great price over 10 yrs ago. When it was built the owners have mostly top of the line of everything put in.....but with 7 people living here, time have taken its toll.

Having 4 boys in the house(DH & 3 teenagers) and 3 girls, embarrassingly I must say we need to replace the toilet seats. After years and years they simply cannot be bleached to death anymore.

Also, it seems like all our door knobs and ceiling fans have decided to all fall apart or stop working within the past 4 months. Each room has a ceiling fan and only 1 room has a working one. While they are not neccessities, they certainly do help to cool/heat rooms.

Who would have ever thought that a toilet seat is a luxury?!?!

Our area used to have a Habitat Resale store, but it closed down. I did hear that something similar was opening and I am keeping my eyes open. GoodWill and Salvation Army do not carry such items. We have a few nicer thrift stores in the area that I need to check into.

Thanks in advance for all the ideas. I know y'all have the best ideas and places that I simply do not think of.

Home Depot sells brand new toilet seats for only $5.74 each.

 

[Beckypooh1972]

Our salvation army store often has these types of items. Even if your store doesn't have them now you might check back.

Be on the lookout for clearance at discount department stores like Meijer, Kmart, Target, etc. We replaced our hall light fixture for $5.00 - found a stash of clearance items in the garden center (of all places) at Meijer. Consider replacing the ceiling fans with light fixtures instead of replacing the fans.

I know times are so tough right now... we have many minor cosmetic repairs/improvements we've had to "back burner" for now.

 

[dawz1026]

Direct buy.......