Thrifty Homestyle

I don't mean to sound like a shopping snob but I had to go to insert big chain store  recently to buy some school items and I almost broke out in a plastic related rash. It had been so long since I stepped foot in a big box store I had forgotten what it smelt like. All that PVC, packaging and just general newness melding into a certain eau de plastique.  The wide open space and the concrete floor certainly has an atmosphere all of it's own.

I found this gorgeous lady at the Sallies a few weeks ago for $4, she is brightening up my shelves

She sits above these colour glaze cups and saucers that I got last year for under $5 and that gorgeous tea cosy, 50 cents!! 

Don't get me wrong, mass production has it's place in our lives, it is inevitable and not entirely avoidable in this modern life. But in the not too distant past I used to visit places like this all too often and our home was filled with items that we did not need and many of which never really delivered on the promise of the purchase.

This little basket is the handiest thing ever, positioned by the front door and the coat rack it is our key centre and I can count the number of times I have misplaced my keys on one hand since it was installed. A daily occurrence previously. 

Not thrifted just made by John and lovely

We have spent the past few years purging our home of possessions, our children now have very few toys,  my kitchen stripped of unnecessary parephnailia, the wardrobes.... well they remain a work in progress.

These plate holders are genius, they keep my cupboards in tip top shape all for $1

My table cloth collections is growing too, I love the idea that the time an unknown person once spent creating something gets a second chance

I am not however an entirely reformed shopaholic, I still feel faint at the thought of a trip to Ikea and some might say I have swapped my big box shopping for the Op shop, maybe that is true. But I like to think that the items I bring home these days are more carefully considered, they are definitely less generic and far from mass produced.  Much to my poor husband's minimalist ongoing distress, I still just really like things, pretty things, sometimes useful things but not always. The other day I did a little reckie around the house and noticed how many thrifted things I am using every day, or looking at every day. That makes me happy.