Spare Room Sort Out

Last night we had our first overnight guests since we've started living together around a year ago. Before we moved into our last flat Andrew emptied a storage unit he had, so we had a spare room full of loads of boxes of unsorted bits and bobs.

With the nature of how doctor's jobs change Andrew had years of finishing work late on a Tuesday evening in one part of the country and having to move overnight to start his new job on the Wednesday. This means just throwing things into boxes with the aim of sorting them out in the future, but never really getting around to it.

Over the last year I'd say that he's sorted out and disposed of over half of all of the random stuff. There were over 2 large moving boxes of bits to be shredded and boxes upon boxes of free mugs and stationary from conferences and drug companies. Our last flat move in August was a big kick up the bottom to get rid of loads of stuff.

Living near a major airport we've really had to get our acts together and get our spare room sorted, as lots of people want to come and stay the night before a holiday. By sorted I mean at least dig out room for a bed.

We got our bed from Ikea. I was really impressed because the mattresses come all rolled up, so we could fit a double bed and a double mattress in our VW Golf. Unfortunately we didn't remember that Ikea beds are slightly different sizes to normal beds, so we have a bit of an issue with fitted sheets. It's one of their cheaper frames, but I adore it's swirly, romantic headboard. Perfect for twirling fairy lights around.

It's still full of boxes and needs a little sorting out, but it's so nice to have a spare bed and finally be able to let people stay over.

Because of (yet another) unexpected change to my future jobs, we'll be moving again in another 6 months. I'm hoping that will give us the perfect opportunity to have a little clear out of some more stuff and finally get things properly organised.

Once we've moved again I want to start replacing our mismatched, cheap and falling apart furniture with some bits that look nicer together. I keep trawling around second hand furniture shops falling in love with vintage pieces but daren't buy anything nice when so many things get damaged while moving. For now I'll have to satisfy my longing for pretty interiors with Pinterest. *Sighs*

If any one has any tips of anywhere other than my beloved Ikea to find cheap but pretty furniture and interiors bits and bobs I'd love some tips.