I don’t know about you, but I really feel the cold. I’m always in my dressing gown, and sometimes even sleep in it! Living in an older house it can get quite cold so I’ve decided to share with you my top tips on preparing your home for winter.

• Loft & wall cavity insulation. Last year we were offered free loft & wall cavity insulation as part of a government scheme on older houses. There’s always something being offered, whether it’s a new boiler, insulation or solar panels, it’s worth checking to see if you qualify. The insulation has made a huge difference to the temperature of our house in the winter, and we have found ourselves putting the heating on less and less. I definitely recommend looking into this, even if you have to pay for it, because in the long run you will end up saving money on your heating bill.

• Wrap up! There’s nothing better than snuggling in your dressing gown and slippers with a cosy blanket. You can pick up really lovely throws or blankets in places like Primark and Matalan for really good prices if you don’t want to spend a lot, or if you fancy splashing out a faux fur blanket will become your new best friend. Wrap up and avoid putting the heating on that little bit longer.

• Candles. There’s something really special about lighting candles in autumn and winter. It’s dark earlier, it’s colder and we are staying indoors more. Get yourself some lovely smelling candles and add a calming glow around your living room or bedroom.

• Electric heaters. If you have a small house likes us it doesn’t take that long to heat up. If you don’t want to put the heating on, then a small electric heater might be worth investing in as the nights get cooler. Or if you do have the heating on and it’s still freezing then an electric heater will be perfect for adding a little more heat to your home.

• Update your radiators. How old are your radiators? Do they need updating to improve the heat output? When we live in a flat we had electric radiators that were pretty rubbish, until we learned how to use them! They spent the day filling up with heat, which is then let out when you open the vent. Electric radiators are actually pretty good if you use them correctly. If you’re thinking about getting new electric radiators click here to take a look at some from Best Electric Radiators.

• Curtains. We have absolutely no curtains in our house but I think it’s time we did. Blinds are great in the summer, but nothing beats shutting out the cold with a lovely pair of curtains. Not only do they look nice, but they help keep the cold out, so i’m definitely thinking about getting some this winter.

Those are my tops tips on preparing your home for winter. I hope you’ve found this post helpful. Let me know if you have any tips you would add to my list.

Click here to read my top tips on creating space in a small house.

Ax

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This year we have made it our mission to declutter, reorganise, refresh and update our home.

Due to a Daddy Lambs career change we aren’t going to be able to move house for at least 2 years. This is because he is now a self-employed apprentice, so not only is he on a dramatically lower wage, he also needs 2 years of tax records for us to get another mortgage. So we have created plan b.

Make space.

We are lucky to have a little bit of money saved so are using some of it to make home improvements that will help us fall in love with our house again.

Actually, we do love our house. The location, the schools, the garden, are all perfect. It’s just the size. We only have 2 bedrooms, so this makes having a second baby rather difficult. We struggle for space already, so adding another person to the equation will be hectic.

This week we made a few changes to our home that gave us a lot more space, and the vibe in our home is much more positive. It’s so nice to feel decluttered!

Living Room

I have said for a while that we should put our TV on the wall and get rid of the TV stand. As we have such a large Panasonic ultra HD TV Daddy Lamb thought it would look too bulky. I finally convinced him and we are so happy with our decision. The Virgin box is on a shelf, the Playstation is on the fireplace under the TV and the DVDs are in the cupboard.

Ta da! We have a living room you can dance in! Seriously, it has made such a difference. Everyone has commented on how much bigger our lounge looks. We love it. Highly recommend buying a wall bracket if your TV is suitable.

Kitchen

We had our kitchen refitted when Lmab was a couple of months old, so this isn’t something we have done recently, however it’s still a useful tip if it’s something you can do in your own home. We are lucky to have a cellar. A large space great for storage. I have partly turned our cellar into a utility room. When we designed our new kitchen we decided to take out the freezer and tumble dryer, and put these in the cellar. There are the two appliances we use the least so felt it wouldn’t be too much of a burden having them downstairs.

Doing this gave up much more cupboard space, which we desperately needed, especially at 2 whole cupboards are dedicated to Lamb!

Obviously very few of you will have a cellar in your house, but you’d be surprised what spaces can be used for utility. Do you have a large cupboard under the stairs? Perhaps you could put your tumble dryer in there? We have a condenser dryer which means we don’t need a vent outside, there it can be placed absolutely anywhere in the house.

What about outside space? Do you have a shed or outbuilding with electricity? Moving the freezer and tumble dryer in there will give you lots of space in your home.

Dining Room

When we bought our house the previous owners sold us their dining room table and chairs. We were moving from a flat so the table we have was compact and much smaller. We let my brother borrow this when he rented the flat from us.

We’ve lived here for 3 years now and hardly use the table. SO why have something so big taking up so much room? We got the compact table and chairs back from my brother (he no longer needed them) and sold the large table and chairs. Again, another decision we are really happy with. It has created so much space in our dining room!

This room doubles up as an office and playroom, the more space the better.

Is this something you can do to create space and declutter? Perhaps you can but a folding and expandable table? To be honest we will probably end up buying one of these when our family expands. The small compact table is fine for the three of us right now.

Bathroom

While we are on holiday we are having a new bathroom fitted. This includes removing the 45 year old water tank and getting a new combi boiler put in the loft!

Taking out the tank gives us so much extra space. The layout will remain he same as we have a sloping ceiling so are quite restricted. However by adding cupboard space and shelves we can keep the bathroom clutter free.

We have bought an new vanity unit from Ikea that gives us cupboard space for our toiletries and cleaning products, something that is normally scattered around the edge of the bath and in the window sill. We will also put up extra shelves and have some lovely baskets for the window to keep bath toys for Lamb.

Bedroom

Last year Daddy Lamb and I got married and we were very lucky to be given some money from our friends and family. With this we decided to buy a new bed and mattress. Compromising on size with my bed is never going to happen. I’ve got to have a king size. So we decided to buy an ottoman bed to give us plenty of new storage space.

If you don’t want an ottoman that lifts you could always buy a bed with drawers underneath. I honestly can’t think of a reason not to buy a bed like this. Even though standard beds give you plenty of apace underneath I always find it turns into a jumble sale under there! At least with drawers or a lift up mattress you can be a little more organised.

We got out bed from Homebase and you can read about it here.

Nursery

With the same concept in mind we also have a cot bed with a drawer underneath for Lamb. Cosatto were very generous and offered us a cot bed to review last year (read our review here). This cot comes with a drawer (Lambs previous cot didn’t) and I highly recommend buying a cot with one. At the moment we store most of Lambs clothes in there as he doesn’t have a wardrobe. It’s a huge amount of space and is ideal for anything from clothes, to bedding, to books.

The Cosatto cot bed also comes with a changing table that fixes to the top of the cot. As Lamb was a toddler when we received his cot we didn’t get to use it, however we will definitely be using it for our next baby. Not having a separate changing table gives us the space we need for a second cot, if we ever decide to have that second baby!

I hope you have found these tips useful, please let me know any tips you have that can help us create space and declutter!

Ax

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Earlier this year I wrote a post on my goals for 2015. One of these was to redecorate every room in my house. At the moment we are concentrating on our bedroom and bathroom.

So far we have invested in a new bed and mattress with the money we were gifted at our wedding. As well as some lovely new bedding and pillows… it’s lush! If you want to take a look at what we got you can read my post on our bedroom buys here.

I’m always buying second hand and have never bought quality items for the bedroom. In particular I really want a new bedside table and wardrobe and chest of drawers. The ones we have now are perfectly fine, but they belonged to my parents and are getting a little worse for wear.

I’ve found some lovely items in Next and if budget allows it I’d like to buy something like this…

Another item on my wish list is new blinds for the window. The ones we have at the moment were already there when we moved in and I’m getting pretty bored of them! They are dark brown wood and I find them pretty dull.

I’m trying to freshen our house up with paler colours like whites, greys and neutrals, with hints of metallics. I definitely think we will go for a white venetian blind in the bedroom.

As we are also working on our bathroom at the moment we have thought about adding a roof window above the bath. Our bathroom is an extension and has a slanted roof where a window would look really modern and fresh. After doing a bit of research I have found some lovely roof windows and blinds at VELUX. Definitely something for us to consider.

As we have a very small bathroom we are don’t have much room for storage. We are going for a vanity sink unit which will give us a fair amount of storage, so I just need somewhere for soaps and spare toiletries etc. Something like this will be ideal, plus it ‘s the exact colour scheme we are going for. White with hints of blue/green.

We are actually getting a whole new bathroom (I can’t wait!) so I’ll keep you posted on the progress. At the moment it is tileless and pretty dusty!

After the bedroom and the bathroom are done it’s on to the cellar! This is going be more of a utility room. It has out freezer and tumble dryer in there at the mo, but I’d like to set it up better so I can have different baskets for the laundry and ironing etc.

Stay tuned for more home improvements posts!

Alex x

 

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