A Few Freebies and Frugal Finds

In recent weeks, when I've been out and about, I've managed to come across quite a few freebies and frugal finds, so I thought I'd make a short post about them. I'm always happy to give a home to something that might be useful or solve a problem that I might have and the following items have fitted the bill perfectly.

The first thing that I found recently was this wicker basket with a lid. It was left outside someone's house as I was returning from the gym one day, so I scooped it up and brought it home. It was in very clean condition and I've decided to use it to house my fabric scraps and offcuts. It also takes up slightly less space on the shelf than the basket I was using before, which was starting to fall apart.

Another frugal find, one that I bought, but that was very inexpensive, was this small set of wooden drawers from IKEA. They cost £5 from the Tip Shop when we went up to Yorkshire to visit family. I painted them  with some tester pots we had in the paint cupboard, which cost nothing, so they now fit in well with some that I already have and they have helped to resolve some clutter issues I'm having in the sewing room. (More about this in another post) 

Here's a picture of them painted and in use:

I have an identical set and they sit on top of one another perfectly to provide a little more storage.

One day, as I was heading out to the gym, I noticed that our neighbour was giving away this plant pot, as it was sat on the wall outside their house. I quickly popped it inside our house and went on my way, as I'm always needing a larger pot to pot up house plants that I grow from cuttings or offshoots and it is a very pretty design with no damage or chips. LB later bought me a belated birthday present of a plant and here it is in the pot.

The same neighbour was having a big clearout one weekend recently, as they are moving house soon, and I picked up a few bits that they put out. One was a piece of grey velvet fabric. I have in mind a use for it if the piece is big enough. If not, I'm sure I can use it to back a cushion or something.

I also picked up this wooden bench from them. I've been looking for a bench for a while and had earmarked some on eBay, but they were £100 upwards and I didn't have the cash to buy one. This is perfect for the purpose I had in mind, namely to sit my plants on in the bay window of our living room. They struggle to get enough light on the floor and this just raises them up to window level, so they can get more light, especially in the winter. I quite like how they look more orderly lined up on the bench. They also give us a bit of privacy, as we don't have our shutters in place at the moment. 

So, I've been extremely lucky to find all these things lately, which I'm very happy about. I love looking out for things that people put out in the street, you can sometimes find some really nice items and if they are something that I can use on a daily basis, I'll happily bring them home.