Good Ideas and Storage

One of my best ideas came to me in Asda the week after the Shopping Haul Challenge on my other blog.  Perusing the homeware shelves I had spotted hot water bottles in cosy 'jumpers'.  I thought they would most likely be pretty welcome in the Van during the first few months of the open season. ... and then again during the last.

So I called back in the next time I was fuelling the car, and lo and behold there they were reduced to clear at just £5 each.  I can honestly say this has been the best ten pounds I have spent over the last few months.

I pop both onto my side of the bed sometime during the evening when I'm here alone, and then once we go to bed I move one to the edge of Suky's little dog mat on the bed, but still under the duvet, and the other stays by my feet while I read for a while and then goes in between me and Suky for shared warmth.

In their little 'jumpers' the bottles are good to cuddle up to without risking a burn and stay lovely and warm all through the night.

So warm in fact that I use the water out of them to wash the first pots of the morning.  We're not on metered water here, but I still don't like to waste any if it can be used for something else.

An area of storage that I absolutely love is hidden under the king sized bed.

It's this huge space ... the full size of the bed.  Which cleverly lifts up easily with just one hand and lowers equally simply. 

At the moment it looks pretty full, but that's mostly because the twin beds aren't made up so all their bedding ... Winter and Summer duvets, mattress protectors, four pillows and four bedding sets are all under here, as well as the Summer duvet for our bed and four spare pillows in case we decide we ever need to use the pull out double bed, that is hidden under a couple of the sofa seats in the living room.

Talking of the living room, there is also a huge void for storage under the rest of the sofa seats but this is empty, we just don't have any 'stuff' that needs storing ... and hopefully it's going to stay that way.

And talking about storage ... the little homemade shelf in the kitchen is working out brilliantly. 

As is the idea for having some fruit and vegetables out in a basket on the worktop for the few days ahead.  Seeing what you have makes you want to use it.  Since this photo was taken though I have used some of the garlic, so the rest of the cloves were seperated and popped into a little box in the freezer.  I find garlic stores much better this way.

Sue xx