Little Upgrades

Hey friends! We are having a VERY hot week here in Western Australia. This week feels like a real Perth Summer, the kind where it’s too hot to do just about anything besides jump in the pool or stay inside under the fans and air-con. Sigh. It is going to be very unpleasant.

Summer heatwaves are not what I came here to talk about. What I was going to talk about are little changes I’ve made around the home that feel like an upgrade, even though they are just regular things. Sometimes, we live with something being a certain way for so long that we don’t even realise it’s not working anymore or that there is a better way of doing things.

A quick word before I tell you about these things. I shop at cheap places, places other people may deem no good, world-ruining places and boycott. I choose places to shop for ease, convenience and my budget, so I do use places like Kmart, Amazon, and even Temu, along with the op-shops, department stores (online and IRL), the markets and Depop. I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I am just a regular, middle-class, working woman/mum/housewife/person doing my best and sometimes my best isn’t that great.

Ok. On with the chatter.

One such upgrade I made over a year ago was to put a lazy susan next to my cooktop to hold my cooking salt and pepper (different to my table s&P), olive oil and paper towel. I got sick of having to step away from cooking to grab the things I needed, so a cheap, lazy Susan from Kmart did the trick! Everything is right where I need it to be all the time.

I am a soft drink-loving person. I am addicted to Coke No Sugar, in a can, so we always have them in the fridge. Always. My husband likes a can of regular Coke every now and then, and my kids think having mini cans of raspberry Fanta is the shit, so I keep those around too. That meant cans were falling everywhere in our garage fridge. Enter these can holders from Amazon, and suddenly, I feel very fancy and organised!

Two small upgrades I made for the dining room table are- having paper napkins IN A HOLDER and keeping salt, pepper, toothpicks and chicken salt on the table. I had/have linen napkins, but only four of them, which wasn’t cutting it. I found some old Christmas paper napkins at the back of the pantry and was grabbing some each night before I bought the holder. I eventually got a holder from Big W after searching the oppies for weeks. I love having them RIGHT THERE!

The same goes for the salt, pepper, etc. I was grabbing them from the pantry, then from next to the cooktop, but people were putting them in all sorts of places they did not belong. Having a table set just makes things nicer and easier.

Now, this upgrade might seem wasteful, but for me, it saves me time and makes things easier. I buy multiple things I use all the time or I really like. The list of multiples I currently have are-

Lip balm. I keep one in each of my two handbags, in my car and next to my bed.

Phone chargers. Do I need to explain why? But I have one in most rooms of my house and in my car.

My favourite t-shirts. It just makes sense to have the same shirt in different colours.

Last are hair turbies. Little towels just for your hair. I know they may sound dumb, but I have short hair, and Sadie wasn’t able to dry her own hair, and turbies were the answer. I’ve bought some from Big W, some from Temu and some from Kmart. So much better than wrapping a bath towel around your head after a shower.

And that, my friends, are the little upgrades that have made my life just a little nicer.

Talk soon xx

P.S. I have three more 1-month subscriptions to Wallflower Cordial to give away. If you’d like one, DM me your email address, and I’ll send one to you xx