It takes time and energy to fully integrate new items into your household. For example, our family received a patio heater as a gift. We absolutely love it and are excited to use it. Here are the steps it took to integrate it into our household:

1.      Assembly:  2 hours

2.      Purchase propane tank: That went on the To Do list but will take about 45 minutes to do the errand and install it

3.      Dispose of packaging: 10 minutes – I like to keep packaging for a couple of weeks to ensure I like the item and it works. I put the packaging in our “hold for a week or two” area of the garage. I broke down the external box because it is so large. I put all the plastic wrap and styrofoam in an internal smaller box.

4.      Other items in the box:  5 minutes

• The lamp came with a cover, what a nice feature. So what do I do with that? I opened a blank Word doc, typed “cover for outside heater” in 72pt font, printed it, and put it inside the plastic sleeve. I stored this right inside our garage door for easy access.
• Lastly, there was an optional kit included to bolt the heater down for windy areas. I don’t think I’ll ever need it, but would like to save it just in case. I labeled the parts and stored it with the cover.

The total time was about 3 hours. No wonder why we all delay these sorts of projects. It is fun to receive a gift or buy something for yourself. Just don’t forget that sometimes there’s a lot more involved in “I’d love to have a heater for the porch” than you think.