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"I didn&amp;#039;t notice them until the day they were taken down. For 13 years, I had successfully ignored the little pieces of newspaper that my home&amp;#039;s previous owners had used as shimmies for the clear fasteners on my bathroom window.  Did I mention the fasteners were clear? So that you could see the half-inch by half-inch pieces of folded newspaper from the 1980&amp;#039;s used to secure the window treatment. Well, you could see them, if you weren&amp;#039;t in denial. The previous owners had spent all their effort (and money) on the front end of the house. That&amp;#039;s why our living room and dining room have gorgeous wood flooring, recessed lighting and fancy curtains, while the back end of the house is held together by newspaper shimmies. Our kitchen, for example, has crooked cabinet shelves made from particle wood and, not one, not two, but three kitchen floors laid on top of each other. The top layer is made from a big piece of cheap laminate that always looks dirty, because the clear coating has been rubbing of for more than a decade. If that&amp;#039;s an improvement over the other two layers, I&amp;#039;d hate to see what they looked like. But here&amp;#039;s the problem: We spend 90% of our time in the back end of the house, especially in the sunroom that was hastily slapped onto our kitchen, presumably by the same people who used newspaper shimmies. We use the beautiful dining room once a year, on Thanksgiving, and the living room for Christmas morning and when grown-ups who need to be impressed come over, which isn&amp;#039;t very often. In short, my house is like the average person: You put your best looking stuff out front for people to see when, really, you need to put more effort to what&amp;#039;s deep inside.  When my contractor ripped out the bathroom window and replaced it with a nice new one, the newspaper shimmies went with it. Soon, he&amp;#039;ll tackle the kitchen floor(s). I can&amp;#039;t wait to fix what&amp;#039;s shimmied under there. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a2064/good-grief-081007/?src=shelter_footer>