Category: gimme five

Gimme Five! Magazine files

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selection of magazine files

We’re finally getting around to sorting out our home office. Boxes have been unpacked, bits of shop stock assigned to the correct storage area… and the printer has actually been moved off the floor and placed on a desk after 8 years!

We accumulate TONS of paperwork annually which we need to keep for at least 5 years for tax purposes. Recently, it’s been stored in random sweet and biscuit tins but it don’t look great. Utilitarian, yet beautiful, magazine files would look so much better! Each would be given an attractive label, marked with the tax year of its contents, lined up neatly (chronologically of course) and placed along a top shelf out of the way.

  1. Simple style brown kraft magazine file: £4.19, WH Smith
  2. Calculator magazine file: £7, Paperchase
  3. GARNER orange magazine file: £8, Habitat
  4. McGregor magazine holder: £25, Urban Outfitters
  5. KNUFF magazine file set of 2, plywood: £7, IKEA

Gimme Five! Radiators

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Selection of 5 radiators

Sometimes product design really bugs me. There are certain things that you just think not enough effort has been put into designing them. Most camper vans fall into this category; we’ve been researching what’s on offer over the last couple of years whilst we’ve been saving for one – and there are certainly a lot of great big, ugly, white boxes on wheels to be found!

For many years, computers were the same – until the gloriously fun, boiled sweet-coloured Apple iMac G3.

There’s a similar problem with the vast majority of modern radiators; great big, ugly, white boxes that you attach to the wall. They occupy so much space in every room of the house – they should be made to be more attractive.

I’d love to replace all the ones in our house with original, reconditioned Victorian or Edwardian cast iron ones. We have 11 radiators in our house, so we’d have to upgrade them one by one… cash flow dependant!

You can, if you scour the ‘net, find brand new ones that are better looking and more stylish than the norm. Here are a few that we found – both new and true vintage – that we’d love to put to work keeping us warm in the chilly months ahead.

  1. Various cast iron radiators: from £11, eBay
  2. iBathUK | 600 x 1200 mm anthracite column designer radiator horizontal double oval panel: £169.99, Amazon
  3. Duett vertical tube horizontal designer radiator (anthracite): from £287.99, Agadon Designer Radiators
  4. Victorian ‘Slim’ cast iron radiators: from £130, Trade Radiators
  5. Sterling Edessa – traditional black 2-column horizontal designer radiator 400mm x 1055mm: £179.99 BestHeating

Gimme Five! Dish drainers

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Selection of 5 dish drainers

Dish drainers aren’t the sexiest of items, but every kitchen needs one. Ours has just given up the ghost after 10 years solid service. It deserves a medal – we don’t have a dishwasher and we do a lot of cooking that generates mountains of washing up.

Not to mention its moonlighting shifts as paintbrush rack, allotment vegetable washing zone and cloth dryer. We’ve been browsing the ‘net for a replacement – here are five of our favourites that form our current shortlist.

  1. DECKER stainless steel single level dish drainer: £21, Habitat
  2. Extend™ expandable dish rack with draining plug: £50, Joseph Joseph
  3. 2-tier dish and cutlery drainer, stainless steel: £35, John Lewis
  4. Drainer by Jocca: £48.99, Wayfair
  5. ORDNING dish drainer: £12, IKEA

Gimme Five! Reusable shopping bags

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Selection of 5 reusable shopping bags

From this week, in England, you will have to pay 5p for each new plastic bag you use when you do your shopping at any of  the larger shops and supermarkets.

I’m really happy that England has finally brought in this legislation, single-use plastic bags cause a lot of litter and are harmful – even deadly – to wildlife both on land and in the world’s oceans & waterways.

I got into the habit, many moons ago, of having a few reusable shopping bags folded up and stuffed into most of my everyday handbags. They’re not too bulky or heavy and are mostly cheap to buy… or even make if you’re of the crafty persuasion. After just a couple of months of using reusable shopping bags, they’ll have paid for themselves!

  1. Canvas shopper bag: £4, Next
  2. Carrot shopping bag: £13, Etsy
  3. Hearts foldaway shopping bag: £8, Cath Kidston
  4. ASOS shopper bag: £20, ASOS
  5. Fairtrade recycled cement shopper bag by recycle-recycle: £15, notonthehighstreet