Gimme Five! Shoe stores

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selection of shoe store options

The room where I keep my clothes & shoes has slowly been taken over by boxes of shop stock. I also have shoes stored in drawers under the bed in our bedroom, shoes stored in drawers under the bed in another bedroom… these don’t include the walking boots and wellies stored under the bench in our porch.

I need one, proper place to store ALL my shoes; a single shoe store like one of these pictured above. I like shoes uniformly out on display – it’s easier to choose which ones to wear. Do you have shoes stored away in boxes, in overhead cupboards or under beds that you forgot you have? I know I do!

I don’t like the metal over-the-door racks you can get, I don’t like the cheap-looking hanging ones with plastic pockets either. I once had the idea of wrapping all my shoe boxes in pretty patterned paper and then snapping a Polaroid of each pair of shoes and taping it to the front of its box for quick identification. A very time-consuming option if you ask me.

The circular, rotating ‘Lazy Shoesan’ option is a great space saver and it stores more than 36 pairs. My favourite though has to be the antique one originally from a shoe factory. I love its industrial look, but the £800 price tag is eye-watering!

  1. Urbane Designs rotating shoe cabinet: £179.99, Wayfair
  2. nomess COPENHAGEN clear drawer: £18.50, John Lewis
  3. Wall mountable shoe rack: £18.99, eBay
  4. DIY lazy Susan shoe rack organiser pattern: £12.17 (or $299 USD + P&P ready-built), Etsy
  5. Vintage Shoe Trolley by Manon: £800, Notonthehighstreet

Charity Vintage: Vintage suitcases

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collection of vintage suitcases being sold on eBay for Charity by Isabel Hospice

In yesterday’s Gimme Five! post, we featured a few things you can do with vintage suitcases. A quick browse on eBay for Charity came up with ten of them currently being sold by Isabel Hospice* alone!

We’ve done a little mosaic of just four of them to give you a taste. The lot are available at individual ‘buy it now’ prices of between £12.50 & £30 and all have 20-odd days left to the end of the auction.

*Isabel Hospice is a charity needing to raise nearly £4 million per annum to provide their free services to the people of eastern Hertfordshire. Their ethos is that they treat the whole person, not simply the illness. They offer a complete hospice service through their team of Community Nurse Specialists, a 16-bed, in-patient hospice, a day hospice, outreach day hospices, hospice at home and a family support and bereavement service.



Gimme Five! Upcycled suitcases

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selection of vintage, upcycled suitcases

We came across vintage trunks, vanity cases and travel bags all the time at auctions and flea markets. They’re often no longer practical for their original use. People now-a-days use lightweight rucksacks or those flight cases on wheels that, once upon a time, used to be the sole preserve of airline pilots & flight attendants.

Upcycled suitcases have found all manner of new uses – coffee tables, desks, shelving and even luxe pet beds. They can be picked up cheaply and, if you’re of a crafty bent, transformed into beautiful bits of furniture. Here are some we found online.

  1. Vintage repurposed red suitcase dog bed with hairpin legs: £34.22, Etsy
  2. Heisenberg retro suitcase speaker by Bass Trunkies: £390, Notonthehighstreet
  3. Occasional table suitcase leather hide low table: £60, eBay
  4. Wooden vintage trunk repurposed as a coffee table: £493.92, Etsy
  5. Pair of wall shelves made from a vintage metal tweed stripe upcycled suitcase: £91.66, Etsy

Gimme Five! Recipe organisers

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selection of 5 recipe organisers

I have a big, bright yellow ring binder which has been my recipe organiser for years. It lives in the bottom drawer of the butcher’s block in our kitchen. Unfortunately, it was one of the many casualties the day we flooded – that’s how high the water got!

Luckily all the sheets of paper were inside plastic pockets so they were salvageable. That was nearly 2 years ago now – and I’ve still not got around to giving my recipes a nice, new home. I think the time has come – here’s my short-list…

  1. Black Toast Hatch recipe journal: £15, Emma Bridgewater
  2. Filebox with 8 files by Bigso of Sweden: £26, Amazon
  3. Recipe organiser: £16.66, Ryland Peters & Small
  4. Personalised recipe book: £35.55, Etsy
  5. Full page collected recipes cookbook – Colorful Kitchen: £14.32, The Cookbook People