I live in a small rented cottage with my husband and my toddler. Because we’re saving for a deposit for a mortgage and because our daughter is only just two, our house is rather chaotic and shabby.

Most of our stuff consists of cast-off items no longer wanted by friends or relatives. We can’t paint the walls the colours we’d like, because we don’t own them. There is constant mess.

I don’t like living this way.

The thing is, we recently decided NOT to live this way. We earn enough cash between us to actually have nice things and save. OK, so we may not be able to paint, but we can put up shelves and spruce up old furniture. As long as this is our home (which it will be for a while longer at least) we want it to be a nice place to be. Working 70 hours a week has to have some benefits.

So we’re starting with the bedroom. Continue reading »