Wednesday 27 December 2017

The big Christmas clearout!

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas!  We've thoroughly enjoyed our quiet Christmas at home, just what was needed after such a busy year and it was so much fun seeing the twins really getting excited this year.  Other than the general excitement, one of my favourite things about Christmas Day and that weird limbo time before New Year, is sorting stuff!  Even as a child, I remember the joy in finding homes for all my new things, sorting out old stuff, having a clear out and tidying everything away.  Yep, always a nerd me.  Lots of that stuff was stationery.  Always loved some good stationery.

I actually started the big clear out before Christmas as we are finally getting some bits of the house sorted after we inherited a little money recently.  I've already managed to get a lot of the spare room sorted and after trying to give stuff away with no success (and FAR too many time wasters stressing me out and making me grumpy), we've organised a furniture collection by a local charity shop.  It's so close to being finished but I need your help on that below, we're stuck on some replacement furniture choices!



Anyway, as for today's fun (Boxing Day) I have gutted the playroom, literally took everything out, rearranged and got rid of so much old stuff, making way for the new but also managing to create some more space as we tried not to get the twins too much for Christmas.  Annoyingly I haven't managed to sort their books out as the bookshelf I bought on Amazon last Tuesday (with Prime delivery) has STILL not arrived despite numerous promises that it would be here by Christmas when it failed to show up when it should, I'm seriously hoping it turns up today.  Luckily I'm finding the general sorting very therapeutic. (Once it's done, pretty stressful during to be honest as the kids were into everything!  Note to self: do it when they're asleep next time!)

The whole house has been stressing me out lately, I started KonMari a while ago (I think it was last year?) but never got very far as it's such a big task when we have too much stuff.  Decluttering always creates a horrendous mess before it gets better.  In fact our home currently looks like a giant recycling bin with piles of cardboard and wrapping paper along with bin bags of stuff sorted for charity or selling or, dare I say it, re-gifting, shhhh.  (They actually only received one duplicate pressie but I also found a brand new unopened pack of something we have 20+ others of so that's gone into the gift drawer - you all have one right??)

Next on my list is to sort through all our towels and bed sheets, I already made a start on this too and managed to get rid of loads, not least because I got some beautiful new ones for Christmas, thanks to my in-laws for perusing my Pinterest wish list!  Part of the spare room sorting meant getting rid of one of the wardrobes in there to create more space.  Once was filled with my dresses so I sorted through them and have got rid of a few and boxed up most of them to put in the attic.  It's years since I wore them but I'm not ready to get rid yet.  I may feel more like dress wearing again when the kids are older and I'm not constantly down on my knees playing with them or sorting them out.  Plus Priya might be interested in going through them when she's older, I would have loved to go through my Mum's 70's wardrobe!

Getting rid of a wardrobe has reduced the storage in there though and although it's just a guest room which will be rarely used, I know my Mum will be panicking about storing her stuff when she does come to stay from Malaysia.  I've kept a few dresses in the other wardrobe and we've also got rid of the bookshelf in there, the room is so much more open and spacious but we do need some more storage so a chest of drawers is on the shopping list.  It also gives me another surface to dress, we got an amazing vase at the recent local pop-up which will look fab on it, not to mention my awesome new dinosaur bookends.

So here's where I need your help.  We had four contenders, we don't want anything too dark as we've gone for the gorgeous but dark Hague Blue on the walls but I don't want more white furniture either so we're back to my favourite, grey.  If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen our new white bedside tables in my stories.  It had plain wooden legs which I've spray painted gold, Swoon Worthy style, thanks for the tips Kimberly!

As for the chest of drawers, we've narrowed it down to the bottom two but which should we go for?  They're roughly the same size but one is quite a bit pricier.  I'd rather spend a bit more and get something we love that will last though but I'm just not sure which one I like best.  Nik likes both and I'm being my usual indecisive self!

Elona from Made.com - turned out to be a bit too wide

Stretto from Made.com - decided this was a bit officey

Vintage Drawers from Maison du Monde

Hedra from Made.com

Hedra has a geometric design on the bottom two drawers and brass detailing which I like but I also like the simple design of the one above.


Do let me know of any other shops we could try looking in too, I know lots of you are savvy shoppers with good style.  We've checked Swoon Editions and a couple of others but these are the only ones that stood out so far.

3 comments:

Anita said...

just wanted to say I'm so glad I'm not the only one who regifts -I am an expert in it, I keep spreadsheets of who gave me what and when so I can make sure there's no chance of something accidentally circling back close to the original giver!! I dream of having enough space for a gift drawer, I just have several gift tote bags that live in my storage cupboard :)

as for the drawers, I much prefer the geometric design ones though can see the attraction of the simpler ones too!

Bex said...

Thanks Anita! I'm finding it so hard to choose!

LOVE that you have a refitting spreadsheet! Good plan 😉

Lynky said...

I also like the geometric ones but think the simple one is a little too simple however it could look a lot nicer if legs were sprayed to match bedside tables.

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