Renting tips – how to store your landlord’s stuff

If you’ve ever rented in Dublin [or Ireland], chances are, you moved into a furnished apartment or house. This will sound strange if you live somewhere where apartments and houses come unfurnished as standard, but here in Ireland, when you move into an apartment you acquire a lot more than just a lease. An apartment can come with furniture, accessories, knick-knacks, and depending on your landlord, a spectrum of interesting things.

Our current apartment came with a lot, most of which we found we wouldn’t need. Knowing what to do with our landlord’s things took some planning, so I figured if I had this problem, there might be other people out there in the same situation. There were things like vases, framed prints, photographs, pottery sets, curtains, objet d’ art and kitchen accessories that either weren’t to our taste or we didn’t need, so I carefully packed them away for storing. As the years went on, there were larger things we didn’t need either [a shelving unit and a double bed], so I spent some time planning how to store it all. Our apartment has very limited storage, so I looked to the unused areas of our home to store our landlord’s stuff …

The larger pieces like the double bed that was in Cora’s room before it became a nursery and the unused middle shelving unit in our living room were both disassembled and carefully placed under our bed. It was the perfect space to store both disassembled pieces. 

TIP! If you don’t have instructions for a piece of furniture, photograph each step as you disassemble it so later when you reassemble the piece, you can look back at your photos and can be put it back together in the right order. 

The top of the wardrobes in our bedroom and in Cora’s nursery took a lot of secret storage. It’s only when you stand at the far side of each room and look directly at them that you can see there’s stuff up there. I managed to hide quite a lot above each cupboard. There’s everything from pots and pans to mirrors carefully wrapped in newspaper to a samurai sword.

TIP! Make a list of what is in each box so if you need to find something quickly, you know exactly where it is.

Above the cabinets in the kitchen was another great place to store things. I took empty printer paper boxes, painted them white [this was during my nesting period], and was able to carefully store quite a lot. The boxes seem pretty obvious in these pictures, but our kitchen is very small [and DARK and impossible to photograph], so from the living room you don’t see these boxes as there’s a wall between the kitchen and living room, except for the door opening.

This has been another one of those blog posts where I’ve thought, people are going to think I’ve lost my mind because this is boring as hell, but I always find if I have a problem like this, there are other people too with it. Knowing what to do with your landlord’s extra stuff can be overwhelming, but all it takes is planning and a bit of creativity!

Agatha at Mendl’s by Rachel Corcoran from April & the Bear

When I was planning how to change our spare bedroom into a nursery, for the longest time I wanted to design Cora’s room with a Grand Budapest Hotel theme. I had chosen beautiful donut themed artwork, found handmade GBH room keys on Etsy, and even dreamed about Grand Budapest Hotel Pink walls, complete with paneling. The more I got into it, the more I realised it was a theme I should really only try when we have a home of our own because a lot of my ideas were not realistic as a renter. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and Siobhan from April and the Bear shared a new print they had in stock by Irish illustrator Rachel Corcoran of her Agatha at Mendl’s illustration and I immediately wanted it. I had just treated myself to their letter board so I was like, woah hold on just wait a minute before you buy something else, so I was waiting for a nondescript thing to happen so I could treat myself to some Agatha [am I the only one that does that? Waits for some kind of justification before buying something? Because I know it’s crazy, but I do it]. 

A week or so later I actually ended up winning a voucher from April and the Bear for sharing photos of our new letter board on Instagram (!!!), so I had thee perfect excuse to go back and get my hands on Agatha. Cora and I made our way to Cows Lane and we picked up the last print in stock [I’m sure they have loads still so don’t worry]. When we got home, I realised we don’t have any picture frames big enough for her, so I put Agatha on Cora’s top shelf out of harms [tiny, sticky fingered] reach. 

Rachel’s illustration perfectly captures Wes Anderson’s innocent whimsy. It is so beautiful and perfectly captures the movie. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of its sweet details. Rachel also has two Gilmore Girl’s illustrations as well as a healthy choice of frightening female prints featuring the likes of Wednesday Addams, Lydia Deetz, Ripley from the Alien movies and Winifred Sanderson. All of which I now need and to further instill my it’s Halloween all year theme. 

Thank you again again again Siobhan for the voucher and for stocking such dangerously beautiful things in your store, and to Rachel for your mad skills. You have both stemmed my need for a GBH theme. Temporarily 😉

Also featured – cardboard monogramfaux taxidermyswan mobile

Our (temporary) baby toy storage solution

For a long time, I’ve hoped to use an old coal chest to store Cora’s toys and an old coal bucket to store her diapers. They’re not what most people would think or want to use in their home, but they’re what I’ve wanted. 

I found a really well kept coal chest in an Oxfam a few weeks ago, but I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to lug it home [plus, I had Cora and the pram]. I went back a few weeks later and as you can guess, it was gone. 

Until now, we’ve been using a rather elite plastic bag to hold Cora’s diapers. As for her toys, they tend to stay on the living room floor or end up in a paper bag next to her crib. I can’t see either her diaper or toy bags from the hallway, but I know they’re there. Lurking. And they bother me. I know the mess is only going to get worse, so until I find an unobtainably pristine child-friendly secondhand coal chest, we can use my old storage trunk. I bought it years ago from Argos and it’s served us well, but the current colour is too close to the colour of our walls. I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons, but I’d like to update it and make it look a bit more sophisticated – if possible. It’s a basic wooden chest, but I have no idea what to do with it. I was thinking of turning the top into a padded seat [and even adding a buttoned chesterfield-style top], but the rest; clueless. 

I’m still on the lookout for a secondhand chest and bucket, but in the mean time, I really don’t know what to do with this one. The only colour I’m vetoing is WHITE. It can’t be painted white because of those god forsaken dicoloured Ikea shelves. White only magnifies how yellow our landlord’s shelves are [I’ve considered painting them, but that would be more hassle than it’s worth].

I’m kind of thinking painting it black and adding a chesterfield buttoned top, but I really don’t know. Any and all ideas would really be greatly appreciated. What would you do with it if it was yours?