Update On Our 'Homely Home'

I'm still working on making our rented flat as homely as possible.  Whilst there is one thing we unfortunately can't do, which is put up pictures as we can't put holes in the wall, there are a few changes we have been able to do.  We have tried those Command Hooks for the pictures, but so far only one has actually worked so I might need to play around with that a bit more.

We now have two covers for the sofa as I brought an extra one from a charity shop and we also have two table clothes for the coffee table (also a charity shop find).  We rotate these to keep them clean, but it also means that we can make the room look slightly different each time, which works with my restless brain.  We've also changed the candles a little on the coffee table as well as adding a cup that I had made when I was looking after my niece and nephew.  I haven't decided what to put in there yet, but it's a nice little personal touch.

One of the most awkward things about our home was the amount of stuff we had tried to fit under the desk and which I have to squeeze between whenever I use the sewing machine.  It also meant that the chair couldn't fit under properly, making it awkward to walk by.  To make this area work better I've removed the two storage boxes that were there and move the contents of them elsewhere (more on that later).  The empty storage boxes I've hidden beside the sofa and am using as a type of stand for my craft projects bags.  It's much easier to use that space now.

We've added a bookcase (borrowed from my Dad) to our sitting room area and filled it with the smallest books we have, including what was left in one of the storage boxes under the desk.  The ornaments that were on the collapsing side table have now been placed on top of the bookcase and the side table moved closer to the sofa and now contains my knitting projects and our wedding photos.  There's something about books that makes a space so much more colourful and we both really like this area now.

There's now quite a bit more space on our old bookshelf and I'm using that to store the craft items that were previously under the desk as well as the stationary that was in the other storage box, which I've put into these recycled paper totes I'd found in Wilko's.  Doing all this has actually meant that I've been able to take a proper look at what I have and organise everything into categories a bit better.  There isn't much I'll need to buy in the future and I was able to get rid of some things I wasn't using.  These bookshelves will obviously change a little as we go through the books and crafts, but I plan on letting the spaces that appear remain until we're back down to just one bookcase again.

The next real project is to sort out the airing cupboard which has literally turned into a catch all area for things I'm not sure where to place.  I definitely need to give it a good declutter for starters and probably move all the cleaning products to underneath the sink with similar items.  I can definitely move the food dehydrator to the back corner as we don't use it often enough for it to be at the front.  Then I'll need to find proper storage for my tools and the plant pots that we got for when I replant the cacti.  I think I can reuse a storage container I freed up when I reorganised the car boot, but a proper tool box is probably a must.

Unfortunately not my cat.

Our flat definitely feels more like our own place now and it'll keep evolving and changing as we do.  We have had to be quite good with our storage as we don't have a lot of space to store all our things and when there's two people there's always quite a lot of things, but we're getting better at that.  All we need to do now is remember where we've cleverly stored a number of these things when we need them.