After a long tiring day, all we want to do is to come back to a warm, clean, comfortable home where we can lay back in a corner, put a relaxing Illayaraaja classic and have a good book in our hands. But the reality of things especially when we have very little time to clean up, organise and run out of storage, the house can be in a terrible mess & uncomfortable. Image source: Pexel/Photo by Donald Tong
Read these first:-
- Money 101: Best Things I Ever Bought Via Online Shopping Part 1
- Moving New House 2006: In God, We Trust Part 4
- Prepping 101: 5 Essential Things You Must Have When You Move To New House
- Budgeting 101: Easy Project – Things To Make Life Easier At Home
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This is one of my favourite Youtube channels at the moment as there are plenty of great makeover & storage ideas shared on this channel such as this one on storage solutions for small homes. Daniel Titchener is an architect now based in Vancouver, Canada and I love the way he ties up the makeover with furniture bought online.
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The Current Situation
It has been almost 17 years since we moved into the current home and due to the very little savings that we had back then, we did not do any substantial renovation. The only major renovations that we did apart from the usual grilles to the windows & front door are that kitchen extension and the tiled table top. We did not do any major furniture purchases back then & simply reused the same furniture from the old home when we first moved.
But over the years, some pieces of furniture were bought or replaced but these too if it is truly necessary or when it is broken. One of the key pieces of furniture that are worth the investment that we had is the law books strength bookshelf which forms the “library” in the house. We definitely need to add another bookshelf to the “library” in the near future.
One way to spruce up a tired-looking home is to get a fresh paint job done. We got this done after several years of abuse and our kids as active toddlers used the walls as their canvases. It was not cheap considering the job is done by experienced contractors and we had to contend with the painting works whilst we are still in the house. So we have now to consider other areas of a makeover so that it will be the ideal dream home.
And since we have kids at home and despite them having their own rooms now, they still prefer to keep their personal items & books in the living room so that it is easier for them to pack for school and this messes up the living room. The same goes for the other rooms. We will need to buy enough drawers or shelves to store these items in the living room without making the place look too crowded. Out of sight, out of mind is a concept that we need to consider seriously.
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Decluttering is a simple process of putting things back into storage and organising them for ease of taking them out when we need to use it. And this includes some decluttering ideas, especially where space for storage is a premium.
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The Broken Wardrobe
For personal items, we were also running out of storage space, especially in the lone wardrobe that we had. Obviously holding back old clothes or old books is a contributory factor to the clutter and shortage of storage space. Pretty sure if housekeeping is done on regular basis, there will be less mess.
Apart from running out of storage space, we also need to buy some small pieces of furniture for the house, one of which is a small table & bar stools for the kitchen that fits the small area without obstructing the walkways. Unlike some kitchens, there was no space to build an island when we first renovated the kitchen to have tiled table tops. So a small table with some stools would make slicing & dicing easier and also be used as a small dining table if there is a crowd.
We also need to replace our old wardrobe which we had for almost 20 years and is solidly made. But its door has broken no thanks for one energetic nephew and it looks ugly without a door in the bedroom prompting many guests to ask what happened to the door. I have tried to fix the door but it is too heavy & the latch points are totally useless. So it seems the right time to throw away that old wardrobe.
There is a secondary reason for wanting to replace the old wardrobe because over the years, I used to have almost half of the wardrobe for my clothes but I rarely buy clothes unless it has worn out badly. So over the years, the storage for my own clothes has been shrinking, overtaken by my wife’s clothes & other items. So it was clear from the onset that we needed smaller, separate wardrobes for each other.
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In addition to the issue of decluttering and finding enough storage space, the other big factor when it comes to having a cosy, comfortable home is a clean home. Dust is the key problem at home and despite vacuuming & cleaning the floor very regularly, specks of dust still accumulate.
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The Next Phase
Identifying the problems at home is the first step to identifying the solutions and after 17 years, the home definitely needs a major makeover. We need to seriously look at storage spaces all around at home so that the clutters that are obvious on sight are tucked away and well organised for ease of retrieval. And this time, we wanted to avoid visiting the dubious furniture shops that are basically run by Bangladeshis who promise good quality furniture but the prices are not despite their so-called discounts.
Online shopping from a trusted supplier is definitely the next way to go and when we talk about furniture, one site that keeps props up is IKEA and for organisers & small shelves, then Shopee & Lazada. The disadvantage to this is that we will not be able to see & touch the furniture upfront before we make the important decision to buy it. Obviously, there are going to be plenty of measurements to be done and some good imagination on how to arrange effectively in the available space that we have now.
To be continued