Episode 22 - Temporary Fixes for Rentals or Pre-Renovation

Maybe you are in a short-term rental or maybe you are living in your home before you renovate it. Either way, this episode is all about quick fixes that you can implement easily and without breaking the bank to make your home feel a little bit more comfortable while you're there.

Items mentioned:

• Tension rods for temporary curtains
• Voile curtains - lightweight - Ikea Hilja
• Window insulation film
• Brush strips
• Draft excluder
• Foil balloons for chimneys
• Contact paper / vinyl wrap
• Window film - reeded or frosted for privacy
• Decals for tiles 
• Command hooks
• Elfa wardrobe system
• VanDel - removal and delivery company
• Plug-in oil-filled radiators 

Simple quick fixes:

• Rugs
• Cushions
• Throws
• Baskets
• Plants
• Lamps and lampshades 
• Prints

Transcript

Jen: [00:00:00] You are listening to rip it up the renovations podcast. 

Kate: hi, I'm Kate. I run the Instagram page, @victorianrathmines

Jen: . And I'm Jenny. I run the Instagram account, @workerscottage.

Kate: This podcast is all about renovation and interiors from the renovator's perspective. We've been through it a few times between us and it hasn't scared us off. 

Jen: In fact we loved it so if you are planning to do up your own home you can expect to hear lots of advice from our own experience along with plenty of tips and inspiration.

Maybe you were in a short-term rental or maybe you are living in your home before you renovate it. Either way, this episode is all about quick fixes that you can implement easily and without breaking the bank to make your home feel a little bit more comfortable while you're there.

Jen: Welcome back to the podcast. Hi, Kate.

Kate: Hi Jen,

Jen: How are you today? 

Kate: I'm good, good.

Jen: Great. Um, this is our, we have a live episode

coming up next [00:01:00] week, which is really 

Kate: Oh yeah, 

Jen: listening now, not next week, sorry, but our, our next, uh, our next release, which is two weeks away. So anyone listening now, stay tuned.

Cause that's going to be a really fun one. We're going to have some, uh, Q& A from my live audience. , so anything that we haven't covered so far will be covered there. So stay tuned for that in two weeks time. But today we're talking about kind of, kind of a two prong strategy, right? To

living in a temporary 

Kate: temporary places, which I've just moved into actually, moved out of my own house for my renovation, so I'm in a new rental and I've been kind of trying to make it a home, let's say, for the last week.

Jen: Yeah. Cause you're going to be there for a while.

You need

Kate: I'm gonna be here for, yeah, the guts of the guts of a year, hopefully a little shorter, but yeah, 

Jen: yeah, 

Kate: trying to make it kind of comfortable and

look somewhat nice as well.

Jen: yeah, which is without spending all your money that you actually want to spend on your permanent house. So. This is for you if you're potentially, if you're renting, you know, you don't want to make any permanent changes or any [00:02:00] very expensive changes, or maybe you've moved into your house pre renovation and it needs some touches to feel more comfortable and a bit more livable, but again, you don't want to spend a fortune on it.

We've both been there a few times in rental houses and in pre renovation houses.

So, um, we have lots of ideas and tips and tricks for what you can do with that. Okay, number one. , I think my favourite hack for making a house a home temporarily is just soft furnishings. Like, it's that simple. I think rugs, curtains, throws, blankets on cushions, whatever it might

be. It's kind of an instant

lift. 

Kate: it is an instant lift and like I suppose it depends on your rental or the temporary accommodation you're moving into. What I moved into here was completely unfurnished. So we brought, like, some of our own furniture, we got rid of some that wouldn't fit. But, um, I think it had a good basis, as in the rental was unfurnished, but everything was nice, neutral palette, kind of relatively [00:03:00] new.

So it made it very easy to kind of bring in our own stuff. But then, obviously, unfurnished had no wardrobes, had no storage, so I was kind of on the hunt for that kind of stuff as well. But, like, things that I had already. Like rugs and things like that. I could make them work in a lot of the spaces. So that, my throw cushions.

I have like a million throw cushions. I love throw cushions anyway. But like just rejigging things around to make them work and the things I can kind of bring with me. even if I bought them for here as well. So I love, I love throw cushions. I love kind of relatively, at this stage in our lives with a dog and two toddlers, relatively inexpensive rugs, I would say.

I've tried a few wool rugs, not the time in my life for wool rugs, I will say. 

Jen: They're really hard to clean and the moths get at them. They're nice, like, once they're an investment and they're worth it, but they're

difficult to maintain for sure. 

Kate: Yeah, they are, they are. So like, I have a few kind of relatively inexpensive kind of distressed rugs and I feel like they, they just add a bit of character to what's usually a pretty [00:04:00] bland rental space.

Jen: totally. And warmth as well because usually if you're, if you're renting or if it's pre reno, I know when I moved into my house pre renovation, um, it was all lino floors and it was quite cold because, you know, there was, there wasn't, it was a very old house. There was no insulation. And the difference that some big rugs made, um, was gigantic.

Like it really transformed the space. It was so much cozier, even like less echoey and definitely warmer.

Yeah, it made a huge difference. 

Kate: Like, we had, I remember saying this in an earlier podcast, when we got, moved into our last house, when we bought it, it was all carpeted, and it was so disgusting, like I just, you were 

saying it too, you hate somebody else's

carpets, the thought of it, and we were the same, and we eventually ripped them out and sanded the floorboards, but like, immediately you did feel the cold, like it was amazing the layer of insulation that brings, so I think we brought it back in then by putting big area rugs, but we still had the kind of, you know, You know, nice sanded floors around it, but I think, um, yeah, area rugs, big area rugs, covering a big space [00:05:00] Great for drafts, great for a bit of coziness, great for a bit of color if it's a really bland space And that combined with throw cushions on the most basic of couches will definitely give the place a lift Do you know what I also love as well?

And, um, you can get them on Amazon now You can get some on Ikea, whatever. It's loose covers for sofas 

Jen: Yeah. 

Kate: if you move into a rental and it's just got a hideous sofa or like a really horrible old like tatty leather one or a pattern that you hate or something like that? Those tie loose covers that are just like in a linen fabric are really inexpensive but they give a lovely kind of neutral palette and then you can kind of lift it again with the throw cushions and stuff like that. 

Jen: Cause you 

Kate: And it feels a 

bit cleaner right?

Jen: Yeah, it feels cleaner because you can throw a blanket obviously over, um, over a sofa. But I always think it looks messy. You know, if you want to cover the entire sofa, it just looks a bit messy. So sofas are generally, I mean, obviously they come in all shapes and sizes, but they're, they're generally fairly standardized.

So yeah, you can get fitted ones. You can get ones that

kind of are a bit of a [00:06:00] stretchier 

fabric and 

Kate: Yeah like an elasticated

kind 

of 

Jen: Yeah, and I always think like just something in a really basic neutral colour combined then with some nice throw cushions and some nice little throws, um, or blankets, I'm sure you've a brand new sofa and that'll do you

for, for nearly a year,

you 

Kate: and talking about those stretch fit ones, you can actually get those for divan bases as well. So a lot of rentals have those really ugly old divan base beds. 

Jen: Why are they such weird colours? There's like a blue tartan that I feel was

everywhere for ages. It's, it 

Kate: there's a real gray, gray and

pink 80s pattern as well, or 80s or 90s kind of pattern. 

Jen: And then floral. So many florals. Like, why? No, Like,

Kate: But if you have those divans I think those stretch fitted fabric covers are amazing as well just to kind of neutralize the whole thing or a nice a nice kind of linen box valance or something 

Jen: Yeah, 

Kate: you know just to hide it.

Jen: Agreed. And then I think further to the soft furnishings discussion,

curtains make a huge [00:07:00] difference. 

Kate: Yeah and they're really good like relatively again relatively cheap you know pre packaged pre made curtains nowadays they're not raggy crappy ones you used to 

get. 

Jen: Like you get a pair of curtains from, from 50 euro I'd say. I got a fab pair in Ikea. They were kind of this lovely mustardy yellow color, one of my favorite colors. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jen: not the most popular. But like they were pretty sturdy and they were, I won't say fully blackout, but they really were, you know, pretty effective at keeping a lot of the light out.

And they were lovely and heavy and they fell really nicely. Um, so that's a really handy one. Now oftentimes in rentals, I think what you end up having is

blinds, those kind of. 

Kate: Just basic roller 

Jen: plastic y blinds, yeah, or even basic roller blinds. So you might have a bit of a trouble in installing a curtain unless there's a curtain rail already.

You can get, one thing I did in a rental property or rental apartment when I was in my 20s,

was I got these tension rods that 

you 

Kate: Oh yeah. 

Jen: [00:08:00] set inside a window frame. So these kind of screw out to a certain a width, usually an adjustable width that you can pick yourself, and they kind of press inside the inside of a window frame and hold themselves up.

So you can't hang anything too heavy on them, but you could at least put up a nice voil

or a

net or 

something like that just to warm things 

up a 

Kate: Soften that window,

like, 

Jen: Yeah, yeah, 

Kate: But I think those thermal, or sorry, those blackout curtains you were saying are really good for thermal as well, if you're living in a cold house. 

So I think you kind of get a win win with the curtains from that point of view for dressing the window and for thermal But I think the um, I love the voiles just diffuse the light a bit making that look not so harsh And I love the Ikea Hilja ones.

H Hilja. I don't know how 

to say it. H H I H I L J A We'll put it in the show notes, but I just think it's such a lovely um They're soft. They're not shiny. Whereas some of the voiles can be very shimmery shiny almost. This one's quite a quite matte Looks nice and it's pretty cheap.[00:09:00] 

Jen: some of them can be a bit kind of plasticky, you know, cheapy looking. Um, I do, I love that matte look. I think it's much, much nicer. It can look really, really sweet. You mentioned thermal there, and I think that's a really important point. Especially, you know, most rentals now are probably fine, but definitely my house when I moved into a pre rental or pre renovation was not.

Liveable, like it was absolutely Baltic, like dangerously underheated and under insulated. 

Kate: Same. 

Same. 

Jen: I think you gave me the advice at the time, there's loads of things you can do to warm it up. So curtains do help, rugs do help, like it all helps, all those soft furnishings help. Um, but you put me onto this brilliant foil that you can get, it's like a wrap that you put onto the window.

It's like a window insulator. I look up the

name of it and put it in

the 

Kate: It's like a film, is 

it? 

Jen: Yeah, film, 

Kate: And you kind of like stick it on and then you

shrink it with the hairdryer. 

Jen: Yeah, it's like a shrink wrap almost. Insulating window film.

Kate: Yeah.

Jen: And it comes in a roll and you stick it up against the window and just be a bit, you [00:10:00] know, rub it on with maybe a squeegee or something like that to make sure there's no massive bubbles in it and it doesn't look awful. And then you put a hairdryer on it and it kind of shrinks onto it.

And it turns, like, even the oldest single glazed windows into basically double glazed windows.

Like, it was really effective. 

Kate: Again, it's just

for like those drafts, especially in old houses like ours. The old sashes, if they hadn't been repaired, or the old casement windows. Like the amount of drafts through those, and just like, the brush strips that were there once upon a time were probably gone, or maybe they were never there.

But I think, yeah, just blocking out those little bits of drafts makes such a big 

Jen: Yeah, brush strips is another good one. I bought a packet of, they're those, um, kind of spongy looking strips that you stick around the edges of windows. So anywhere where there's a tiny bit of a draft coming in, it's so important to get something around that. So the window film, the brush strips, and if it's under the door, under your front door, getting one of those brush stick on brushes to go underneath it, the back of a letterbox, there can be a

lot of drafts coming in there. [00:11:00] 

Kate: Unbelievable that my current rental actually has a letterbox. I need to get A draft excluder. Anything that you can exclude drafts from in an old rental or an old house as a stopgap before you renovate.

Jen: And one thing that made a huge difference in my house as well pre Rena was the, um, a foil balloon

that you stick up the chimney. Did you 

Kate: The chimney, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've had them, we have them in most our rooms at the moment actually, just because there's a fireplace in every room and they're all disused. But like, they're, yeah, they're good, but sometimes they can be noisy on really windy days. That's the only 

thing. 

Jen: Yeah. but they are really good. Like, you would be on, you'd be so surprised at how much heat can go out of a chimney breast. Um, so those foil balloons, they're, you know, just basically just a big ball of foil

And you stick them up, um,

you 

Kate: And it's got a long kind of straw on it and some of them pump by hand and some of them you actually have to blow them up physically when they're 

Jen: Yeah. So they expand, they take up all the available space. You just have to be

very careful not to light a fire once 

there's a foil balloon up there because it can go very wrong very fast.[00:12:00] 

Kate: I um, I remember trying to measure for those before, because your chimney kind of, what will I say, it gets wider after the first, like, couple of feet, to help with the draft, I guess, so you have to actually measure that big void up there for the balloon, and I sized them wrong one time and they just fell straight back down.

But, um, yeah, it's a tricky one to measure. You need bigger ones than you think. 

Yeah, 

but really, really

good. 

Jen: easiest thing on the planet to use. It's surprisingly sturdy. And you literally just roll it out. and stick it down on a surface. And like, it's not bulletproof. You know, you And I love It I think it looks really nice. You can get a whole 

bunch of different types of finish. Like they have like wood 

effect finish, 

or you know, different types of stone, or different colors, or patterns, or 

whatever. Um, I thought the, marble done was quite nice. It was pretty, you know, 

it wasn't too over the top.

Kate: Yeah. I love the, um, window film as well. 

Jen: Oh, tell me more about this now. 

Kate: So, like, I 

we 

had, uh, sash windows in a lot of Victorian homes just 

had plain glass. You know, they didn't do the

privacy 

glass. [00:13:00] 

In a lot of the bathrooms, originally, so Like, obviously to use it for a shower and

standing up and not just 

bathing or whatever, you need some sort 

of privacy 

glass.

So I 

get the fluted or reeded glass, so it comes in like a sheet 

again, Like a contact sheet or whatever, and you 

just spray, um, like a solution of whatever, washing up liquid and water, and then it just squeegees out all the bubbles, and 

it's literally just, it looks like reeded glass. 

Jen: yeah, That looked fabulous. I thought that

Kate: That makes such a big difference.

And like it comes off completely perfect. Then the glass is perfect. Doesn't leave any residue or 

anything 

like that. So it's great even if it is a rental and not your own house. It transforms it and 

I'm 

sure 

people would leave it up anyway. But like You 

can take it 

off 

if you need to.

You know where the landlord doesn't want anything up.

Jen: Another thing that's really handy actually is um, for a rental property, if you hate the tiles, you can paint them, but obviously that's It's quite hard to undo, so you'd need to 

get 

permission first, but you can 

also get tile decals. It's kind of like contact paper. Again, they come off, they leave no trace.

You can buy them in all different shapes and sizes and patterns and 

[00:14:00] colors and everything. And they literally just stick on over the existing tiles and they can look really, really good. Yeah. 

Kate: I actually saw decent ones, and you can do floor ones as 

well, 

like in um, 

Oh, I don't know, Mr. Price or Deals or one of those, I think it was Deals actually, but like 2 euro a box of, I don't know, 4 or 5 tiles or 

something, but like, you know, a really good way if it 

was 

horrendous kind of patterned old tiles or something like that and you just, again, 

want to neutralise the 

space. Um, really 

inexpensive and, like you said, reversible as well then, if the landlord doesn't 

want it to stay.

Jen: Sinead Ryan that I, um, on Newstalk, that I do the home show with, uh, she, um, did a brilliant job on her downstairs bathroom. I think she did a how to on her Instagram, SineadRyan100. Worth checking out. Because I think the before and after looks amazing. Like, it's, it's really 

genuinely very good. I think it's brilliant.

Another thing that leaves no trace, 

my absolute favorite. I have these all over my house 

permanently, not even just as a temporary solution, is command hooks. How, what are they made of? Like they're 

Kate: I don't know, but it's like a no brainer, isn't it? [00:15:00] Like, you can hang up pictures. 

You can even hang up 

small ish mirrors, I would say, with them, if you 

get the decent sized ones. Um, but as long as you do it 

right, because I didn't do it right before, 

I didn't use the right amount of hooks per the weight and they kept falling off my wall, but if you do it 

properly they're brilliant and they actually do leave no trace 

if you take them off. the right way. 

So that's 

Jen: the instructions for putting them on and taking them off. I use them for my Christmas decorations. I have them for coat hooks. I have them, I got their own, they're just, I love them. 

Kate: yeah. That's great, 

like, because that's one thing I find when you go into a rental or 

in a temporary place, like, I've no photos up at the moment. I have everything kind of still in 

boxes, but like, just being able 

to 

hang up a few pictures 

and, you know, photos, and you come in that it actually feels

like a house, and it's not just some generic place that no one lives in.

Jen: Totally. Yeah. 

Kate: But yeah, the command hooks are a great shout. Do you know what I also love? I love them in my own house, whether it's a rental or not, is baskets.

Jen: Yeah. 

Kate: just love baskets. It's just like when you don't have built in furniture or like specific items of furniture for stuff 

I just think baskets are lovely for throws.

[00:16:00] They're lovely for firewood They're lovely in the bathroom 

where there mightn't be storage and it'll still look nice to hold your 

toiletries 

So I just think like nice 

baskets. You can never go too far around even for laundry 

baskets and things like that as well

Jen: Instant kind of clean up as well, isn't it? You just grab everything and you throw it into a basket and off you go. 

Like, away with 

it. 

Kate: have a huge one at our console table in the 

hall 

and just all the kids shoes and jackets just fire in 

there because they're never, they're never going 

anywhere else, like so they may as 

well 

be tidy 

and behind a 

nice basket. 

Jen: Where do you get nice ones? 

Kate: I 

TK Maxx, HomeSense, uh, Woodies. I got some lovely ones in Woodies before, I think they were called Lily. Um, I still use all those in the kitchen, kind of utility 

space and stuff. 

Um, but yeah, 

where else? Dunn's have lovely ones as 

Jen: Yeah, Dunn's have lovely ones 

Kate: The DePaul Costolo ones. I have this huge one from there, big log basket.

That's the one I have in my console table, 

actually. It's really nice. I just think 

they 

just tidy up the space, but they're better than just having a big plastic box or a big, you [00:17:00] know, like, you know, 

I don't know, the fake poly rattan never 

looks as nice as kind of real rattan or real 

rope 

baskets. yeah, 

Jen: expensive, like they're totally worth it. 

And they last forever. they're 

Kate: Do you know one thing I struggle with a little bit 

in 

rentals is lighting 

because 

Jen: Mmm, it's basically 

always 

Kate: I'm sitting under one right now, it's just like, well this one's just 

a

one single bulb hanging from the 

middle of the dining room, so like I need. shades, but like just the basic big drum shades as big as 

you can get pretty much like I'm talking like 40 50 centimeters anything less less than that they look too small in the room but I just think

like inexpensive they just soften the light they diffuse it a little bit 

you know it's it's just a nice 

way to kind of tidy it up a bit because you're not going to go fitting new pendant lights do you know 

if it's a stopgap place or a 

rental um but I think just drum shades really change change 

Jen: And just basic colour, like even just a nice cream colour or whatever it might be, like something kind of neutral, [00:18:00] it's purely just to diffuse the 

light. You can often find them in charity shops, like you pick them up for nothing, just buy a null lamp, um, And they've loads of them and then obviously Ikea and the likes of that as well have, have cheap ones.

Kate: Talking about IKEA, actually. I was out there the 

other 

day because this house is unfurnished that I'm in and we didn't have any wardrobes as

such to bring. Um, I have my alpha system at home but like I couldn't fit that.

to the 

wall here. 

So, we had like one 

freestanding wardrobe that was in

Matt's room. Um, my G Plan one, I'm actually looking at it because 

I couldn't get it up the stairs here. It was too big to get up the stairs in the rental, the movers. So 

Oh, 

I wasn't leaving it behind, but I'm actually looking at it and it's actually full of all our booze and glasses at the moment. I'm thinking of doing a bit of a 

An upcycle to a bar cabinet maybe?

I think it would make a

really 

cool bar 

cabinet. But anyway, 

I had no wardrobes. So I did a little bit of an Ikea trip. Now I did 

look on adverts as well. And adverts can be great. And I missed out on a few just timing wise. Wasn't aligning. But like, I'd always check adverts [00:19:00] first. Because there's always people reselling Ikea stuff for, you know, and if you can get a Govan and grab it, you can get it for nothing.

For like drawer units, whatever. So I got a little kiddie wardrobe and that's it. a three drawer kind of unit for our room just to have some sort of storage and just the heavy duty kind of clothes rails 

but um I think like second hand if you can for furniture as well if you get into rentals because you don't know if it's a rental especially 

maybe if you're 

planning to renovate that house you can buy stuff that you think will fit the house when it's done.

But if it's a rental, you don't know where you're going to next. Don't go 

spending A fortune on furniture that's not going to fit the next place. So like, get second hand, you know, if you 

can't 

get second 

hand, get some cheap kind of basic units that will sell on. And I think the plain 

white Ikea ones or Yusk ones or whatever, they'll always resell on at adverts.

So just think about it that way. Yeah, you should buy it now upfront, but you'll probably get 50 percent of the cost back at the end

Jen: totally. Charity shops like Vision Ireland, that used to be the 

NCBI, they have really good furniture. You'd 

never know what you'd pick 

up in there. [00:20:00] And then obviously adverts. ie or Dundeal or Facebook Marketplace or something like that. It's just so worth it. Like, don't invest too early 

because you'll change your mind and then you're stuck with something expensive that you don't want.

Kate: Yeah.

That's a lot of kind of fixes. One thing I 

would actually invest 

in, because it is something you could bring, is bedsheets. Nice bedsheets. And I think, like, it's such a big 

area that, like, when you go into your room it makes a big impact. 

So you may 

as well have nice bedsheets, because you're going to bring them with you anyway.

Jen: Even a mattress, like if you know, if you're sure what size bed you're going to have in your new house then a good night's sleep. There's no point in cheaping out, like why not get the

Kate: Yeah, yeah. Get the good one there, yeah. 

Jen: It's just hard to like, make sure you've got a mover because moving a mattress, is hell on earth.

Kate: Well I didn't do that now this time because I've 

done it a few times before and moving mattresses nowadays, they weigh a 

ton. Like I couldn't, actually the movers I got last week called Vandal Couriers, they were unbelievably good and really 

reasonable but they were 

like, They were in, the three of them were upstairs, they had my mattresses bagged, 

I 

bought mattress bags, but they already had them, they were so good, like, and they had the [00:21:00] beds disassembled, the mattresses in bags, and like, within 15 or 20 

minutes they had, like, the 

upstairs bedrooms cleared out.

I couldn't actually 

Jen: Wow. It's so worth it, isn't it? Because I 

Kate: came to this place, yeah, assembled the 

beds, had the mattresses 

on and everything, just like, 

it? made life so much easier. Like, whatever 

Jen: V A N D A L is it? 

Kate: A N D E L 

Jen: V E L. I'll look it up. I'll put it in the show 

Kate: Um, but they were excellent. Like, they were so good 

and it just took so much stress off. Like, I did some of the 

smaller boxes myself in car runs, but like the big stuff like that when 

you're moving, 

just do yourself a favour and don't go trying to move mattresses in beds.

Jen: It's, it's one of the most stressful things you can do in life, is moving. So I think just get the pros in, like it's so worth it It's the best money you'll ever spend. it's not that much. Um,

Kate: to, have a little, bit of an overlap between when you're out of one and into the other

because, in my opinion, there's 

nothing more stressful 

than moving out of one house and into another all in one day. 

Jen: oh my god, It's not possible. I don't care how minimalist you 

Kate: a, it's a 

Jen: how little stuff you think you have. it's not [00:22:00] possible to move in one day. 

Kate: And no matter how 

organized 

you 

think you are, you end up just throwing a load of shit into giant shopping bags by The end, do you know?

Like you just can't, like, so if you can't have an overlap at all, try.

Jen: Yeah. The other thing that's not a bad 

investment that you don't need to cheap out on too early is some gadgets like if you know you need a 

good hoover, get a good hoover, you know, if 

you know you're going to have a really, if you definitely want an air fryer, get an air 

fryer. Like there's certain staples that are, you don't need to cheap out if you know 

what you want and what you're going to keep using, 

Kate: yeah, 

Jen: um, as long as it doesn't like alter 

the layout of your home.

So you need to redesign it or 

something around it, but yeah, 

Kate: yeah. We were really lucky in this rental that we have, there's um, a garage. So, like, we're storing a 

lot of, like, tools and stuff like that. So if we have a bit of overflow, we've, um, storage in there. But when I moved 

into our last house, we had no kind of,

utility space. 

So I bought this kind of, it was kind of an island, I suppose.

It's a freestanding kind of steel frame island in Ikea, a white one. Yeah. And it was unbelievable for like the amount [00:23:00] of storage I could fit there because we had this tiny kitchen that was really old. And that little utility kind of unit stored all our appliances, all like our pantry goods, all that. 

And it just took that mess out of the kitchen.

So like little pieces like that, 

if 

you 

have any kind of odd room that 

you don't know what to do with, it works great for like a, like a pantry space or storage unit or something like 

that. So I think it is 

worth, it's always worth investing in one of 

those 

as well, I 

think. 

Jen: Definitely. Um, just remembering one thing I did in an old apartment, um, that I was renting. It had these dining chairs that had fabric seating on it which were just stained and it was dirty and they were driving me mad but like I didn't have space to throw it anywhere do anything with it so I 

just bought fabric 

unscrewed the base of it and then stapled the fabric over the existing fabric 

and it it was easy like you could rip it off when you're

moving out and it was 

such an instant uplift like it looked way 

Kate: yeah 

Jen: yeah. 

it 

was really handy as temporary one 

Kate: That's a great shout, yeah. Oh, plants! Sorry, do you know what I never 

said? Plants. I have so many [00:24:00] plants. I think, I'm sorry, I think plants 

immediately make your home 

feel 

like a home. Or like, feel a bit more lived in and a 

bit 

alive and not so clinical and 

cold. 

And like, they're something that you'll 

bring with you anyway, so why not?

Plants.

It's totally worth it, 

and again, so inexpensive these days, like in Aldi, 

Lidl, they're always doing 

plant specials and stuff like that. So it's totally worth it.

Jen: Yeah. I mean, I kill all plants, so I can't speak for, uh, everybody

Kate: You've had a nice, you have a nice one in the corner for a 

good

Jen: there's a lot of stuff. I 

don't 

know how it's still alive, but it is still alive. Yeah. Fair play to it. Against

my best efforts. Um, but yeah, 

they make such an instant difference. 

Kate: Or, if you don't want to get plants, or you don't want to commit to big plants, herbs and pots on your

windowsill Even Even in your kitchen, just like those, 

those, like, whatever ones when you're picking up your shop. I think just those 

act like a little plant and then look nice in your kitchen 

and 

soften it a 

bit. 

Jen: How much basil can I kill in one lifetime though? That is the question. Like, I 

Kate: designed, I will say, those plants are 

not 

Jen: they're not. No, 

Kate: I [00:25:00] saw some lady 

on Instagram or something and she took one of 

those um, there's so many seeds in one 

tiny 

pot 

that like 

they're destined to die but you can actually take them and 

break them up and then she repotted it in 

this 

huge pot and then 

she 

said she had like a basil tree in her 

kitchen. 

No, it was in America I think but it was inside like it was 

indoors 

but like she had it just inside her window and she had it in 

like a drip tray 

kind of 

pot but like it grew huge so 

I was like I'm trying this. I 

Jen: If you're listening and you can keep basil plants alive, good for you. Well done. It's not easy. 

I applaud you. I applaud you. Um, we kind of touched briefly on paint there, but it's an interesting, because if you're renting, two things, right? If you're renting, sometimes you might be allowed to repaint, especially if it's a neutral color, or if you agree to paint it back a neutral color before you leave the property.

So check your, um, Check your contract and check with your landlord. The other thing is though, if you're in a house that you're planning to renovate, um, even if you're going to be knocking down walls or whatever, no harm to try some paint out on some of the walls and just see how it works with [00:26:00] the light.

Uh, we touched on this a lot in our paint episode because paint, not, all paint, is created equal. As in, one pot of paint will look very different in, uh, in one room versus another room, depending on how the lighting works. So, 

um, if you're in 

a room that isn't going to change too much in terms 

of lighting, like you're not ripping out the window or ripping down 

a wall or something like that, it's a good 

opportunity to test out the paint there and see how it works with different lighting.

Kate: Yeah.

Yeah, I think, well, you'll be comfortable enough in your stock gap if 

that's the 

case. And if it's 

absolutely freezing, just 

get a 

load of hot water bottles. or maybe even an electric blanket. 

Jen: I have a lovely, um, Electric hot water bottle. 

Kate: remember you telling me this before. 

Jen: You plug it in and it's filled with some kind of like liquid or gel or something that gets hot and it stays hot for so long 

because then you're not messing around. I find like pouring a 

kettle of boiling water into a hot water bottle is a risky gamble.

Like, you know, I 

always like burn my hand.

Um, this 

is the business. I

love it.

[00:27:00] Okay. I 

think 

Kate: that 

Jen: best tips. Don't burn your hand. on your hot 

water

Kate: Don't burn your hand out of your water bottle. 

Jen: But they are better for keeping you hot, I think. Oh another thing is 

plug

in radiators. 

This was brilliant in my 

Kate: these. Yeah.

we had the oil 

filled 

Jen: oil 

filled radiators, Yeah, and they're not that expensive.

Kate: No, they're not, and they make a

big difference. The oil filled ones, and then there was kind of electric panel ones as well that you can put on a smart timer or something.

Jen: Yeah. And usually those oil filled radiators, you can put them on a timer or

at least you can get a plug maybe that has a timer associated with it, um, to come on maybe just before you come home from work or just before you wake up in the morning or whatever. They make such a huge difference, definitely.

Kate: do. a huge

difference. 

Jen: it, 

Kate: staff gap a bit more comfortable. And I'm 

off to get a few packs of command hooks and get some pictures up on these 

walls.

Jen: makes such a difference. I love it.

Kate: I know, 

Yeah. 

Jen: for our live episode. 

Live from the Ideal Home Show with audience Q& A. So can't wait [00:28:00] for that. 

Kate: Okay, see you in two weeks guys. 

Jen: See you in two weeks. Bye. 

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