Part of buying a home that someone else has owned and lived in is that there will be he need for some paint touch-up. It may be a place where a picture or other wall art was hanging and the previous owner used hollow wall fasteners to insert screws into the drywall. Perhaps a pet left behind a bit of damage to woodwork or paint. A room may have been freshly painted, but the process of moving furniture left a mark on a wall. There are lots of different reasons for paint touch-up in everyday living. The thing about purchasing a new-to-you home, however, is that matching colors can be a significant chore.

We have been in our new home for more than a month and yesterday I had a breakthrough of sorts. I found the right color to match the paint that was used for hallways and a couple of the main rooms in our house. It came after a significant amount of searching. The walls are a color I describe as light gray, though when I found the correct paint, the official name of the color is some form of silver.

The challenge in finding the correct paint has to do in part with the fact that the former home owner left behind dozens of cans of paint. Amazingly, a lot of them are shades of gray. After failing to find the correct color on my first four attempts, I went over to the shop at our son’s farm and cut myself a couple of dozen stir sticks. I then started opening cans of paint, stirring the contents, and then dipping a popsicle stick in the paint and allowing it to dry. The painted sticks, which didn’t come from popsicles, but are sold as craft sticks that I use to stir small batches of epoxy, were used to compare colors. After creating sample sticks of nine different shades of gray paint, I finally found the correct color. I went around the house painting the spots where I had filled holes with sparkle, in hallways, in the dining room, living room, and entryway of the house. Success! It was the ninth shade of gray that I stirred. No home needs nine colors of gray paint, but we have them.

That is if you don’t count the three spots on the downstairs bathroom wall where that particular shade of gray isn’t the right match. After that paint dried, I got out the popsicle sticks and tried to compare again. So far, I have found two more colors of paint that are wrong, but haven’t found the correct shade yet. I’d like to have a conversation with whoever thought that the bathroom needed to be a different color than the hallway. I’m tempted to simply go ahead and paint the bathroom to match the hallway if I can’t find the correct color.

It is important that homeowners be very careful about the disposal of paint. Paint that is buried in landfills can leech into the ground and contaminate ground water. Over the years there are some paints that contained lead and other toxic chemicals. Furthermore, if it is donated before it gets too old, places like Habitat for Humanity Restore locations will accept donations of paint. For oil-based paints, most communities have systems for properly disposing of paints that may contain toxins.

I don’t know what was going through the mind of the seller of our home that resulted in them leaving behind a clean home with two dozen gallon cans, five or six quart cans, and three five-gallon buckets partially filled with paint. But I do have some personal experience with leaving behind paint. When we sold our home in Rapid City, there was a bit of extra paint left behind. First of all, I left on the shelves cans with touch-up paint from the rooms in the house. Because we had lived in the house for 25 years, we had painted all of the interior rooms over the years. In contrast to the home we just bought, each can of paint was clearly labeled with which room it matched. Then there were several cans of exterior stains, some of which were no longer the current color of the house. I labeled the current exterior colors, but ended up leaving behind older cans of stain. Before moving, I called the local landfill for instructions for disposing of old stains. They said that they should be brought to a community toxic waste day. I asked when the next such day would be. They gave me an April day. Since it was October, I explained that I was selling my home and would not be around in April. I asked if there was any other way to responsibly dispose of the stain. The person at the landfill said, “Most homeowners simply leave them in the home when it is sold.”

So that is what I did. I’m not proud of it, but I failed to find another solution. I’m resolved not to leave a similar situation when I move from this house. I’m going to get on top of sorting all of this paint and disposing of all of the paint that is not needed for touch up. I’m also working hard to label the paint that I am keeping so it can be used for touch-up without having to go through can after can to find the right color. The fingerprint of paint intentionally left on the lid of the can by the paint store is insufficient to match colors, especially when there are several shades of similar colors. I’m pretty sure “Southwest Bedroom” is clear enough to identify where the paint goes.

Some of the lighter shades of paint can be mixed together and used for primer for new construction by Habitat for Humanity. Other colors can be sold at greatly discounted prices at the Restore. And, if I have some paints that can’t be donated, I’ll check with local authorities and figure out where it can be responsibly disposed of. This time, I won’t have the deadline, so if I have to wait, I can be patient.

And, when I paint an entire room, which I’ve already done with one room and I’m sure I’ll do with others in our time of home ownership, I’m going to choose a color that contrasts with all of the other colors in the house. It won’t be gray or silver. You can count on that.