How To Plan Your Home For A More Organised Life

With it looking like the majority of us will find ourselves spending more and more time at home in the coming months, this is the perfect time to get organised. Earlier this year I moved into my first home, and being the perfectionist I am, every inch of it has been planned to offer optimal storage and organisation. Not only does this make things easier to find, but has allowed us to live a tidy and minimalist lifestyle without having to get rid off all of our 'stuff'. So keep reading for my top tips on how to plan your home for a more organised life...

1. Look For Furniture With Hidden Storage

Storage furniture isn't always the prettiest and when you're lacking space, extra furniture isn't always an option. Instead look for necessity furniture with hidden storage - think ottoman beds or storage stools. We've got an ottoman bed, which is perfect for hiding away our suitcases and seasonal clothes, and also an ottoman sofa where we hide our dvd's and board games. 

2. Combine The Decorative With The Practical 

There are always going to be some ugly items in your home that you will want to hide away but where possible, try to look for things that are pretty and practical. Books and candles make lovely home decor whilst still having a function. You can also do this with more boring items such as coasters or placemats.

3. Give Everything A Home

I truly believe that when every item in your home has a place, it is a lot easier to keep things tidy and organised. So, if you're struggling to organise your home, then why not have a clear out?  Then to avoid it happening again, start to operate a one in, one out policy. Buy a new top? Then donate one that you no longer wear. Alternatively, if you don't have room for your potential purchase at home, then perhaps you shouldn't be buying it anyway!

4. Utilise Baskets, Jars and Trays 

There's a reason why Marie Kondo is a fan of baskets, jars and trays, as they are great at keeping things organised and  force you into sorting those odd bits and bobs that are difficult to find a place for. Now I'm not saying you need to go basket crazy and use them everywhere in your home but consider using them in areas you find get messy quickly like the bathroom or the kitchen cupboards.

5. Routine

They say it takes 21 days to get into the habit of doing something, so why try to get into the habit of tidying and cleaning more regularly? There's nothing worse than having to spend hours cleaning one room because you were too lazy to tidy up after yourself, so set aside 10 minutes every day to rebalance the status quo. For me that means making the bed, putting away clothes, plumping the sofa cushions and any other little jobs before I go to work in the morning. That way when I come home tired after a long day of work I can relax rather than stress about mess.

How do you keep your home organised?

Eleanor xx

Cute Ways To Use Polaroids + CHEERZ Review

With there being more mobile phones in the world than actual people and the majority of phones having a camera these days, it comes to no surprise that most people take photos on their phones. While I love being able to snap hundreds of photos on my phone whenever and where ever, I often end up with only digital copies of my photos that I forget about. But my photographs deserve more than that, they are my memories. That's why in recent years I've been trying to print off my favourite photos every once in a while. So when Cheerz contacted me and asked if I wanted to try some of their products I was thrilled with the opportunity to add to my collection.

Cheerz is an online photo printing service where you can upload your photos straight from your phone/computer, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox and more and they will deliver them straight to your door. They offer a wide variety of products as well as just prints, such as the Cheerz Box* and the DIY Photo Book* that I will be reviewing today (as well as giving you a few ideas of how you could use your photos). They also have an app so you can order photos straight from your phone, handy eh?

Their signature Cheerz Box* is a great quality little box that comes with 30-45 Polaroid style photos of your choice, that you can edit by adding captions and changing the background colour to suit your personal style. The photos come on premium photo quality paper and are printed to a very high standard, at £13 I think this would make a lovely present for someone.

Not everyone likes their photos in black and white like I do, so I ordered some coloured photos to show how well they print. The colours were exactly the same in the printed copy as they were in the digital copy of the photo, and of course the coloured photos were to the same high standard of the black and white photos.

As for ways in which you could use these Polaroids, my first idea is to display them in a photo album. While this may be an obvious idea I think that photo albums are a great way to preserve your memories forever. You can keep adding to them as time goes on  or perhaps have a different album for different occasions.

This is where the DIY Photo Book* comes in as it allows you to create your own photo album. The product includes a black classic photo book and 20 Polaroids of your choice to put in the book. Each page in the photo book has a white adhesive square in the middle making it easy to securely attach your photos into the book.

While I do love the DIY Photo Book and how it provides everything you need to create your own photo album, I do wish there were more options to customize it as when you remove the duck egg blue sleeve you are left with a plain black book. While I like the simpleness of this, others may want something a little bit more exiting. 

That being said it is a great quality set for £17, with high attention to detail from Cheerz such as the cute message in the back and the little yellow envelope that your photos come in.

Another way to use your Polaroids is to create a cute wall display using them. This is a photo of my uni room where I've arranged my photos around my Coco Chanel mirror from Debenhams. The mirror acts as a focal point, and I like to think that the quote ("In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different") really compliments the photos.

My last idea on how to use your Polaroids is to hand them on either string or fairy lights, using paper clips or small little wooden pegs. If you want to know how to make this in more detail, I've written a post on it here.

I hope you've enjoyed this post and maybe got a few ideas of how you could use your photos. If you want to print some of your own photos, then you can use my code 'ELLIGT' to get £4 off your first order from Cheerz.

Do you ever print out your photos? I'd love to know some of your ideas on how you use them!

Eleanor xx