Three trips to Ikea, a lost child, a couple of blisters and a LOT of furniture re-arranging. That has been my past week, but the result (bar the lost child) was WELL worth it!!
Now, no skipping to the end!! You have to take the journey with me. If you haven’t yet seen the before photos, read the post titled ‘From Hobby to Business – The Before stage…‘ Once you’ve had a look at the photos there and seen what it was like before, then you will see just how truly awesome the new set up is!
First, you have to appreciate just how many packages I had to bring home. Ikea is known for it’s ‘flat packed’ furniture which is nice and easy to get home (mostly), but it also means a LOT of construction!!
There is actually six long boxes pictured there! And those are just the frames!!
My draws – in the boxes stacked up. At first I was happy with how light they were, but that happiness was quickly replaced with boredom at having to put together fourteen draws that each had about ten pieces each. Geez that got old very quickly!
The plastic tub draws I liked. Which is a good thing as there was a LOT of them!
Opening this box was a great feeling. It was the first box to be opened and started what I thought would be a couple of hours until my new office. Oh how wrong that thought would be!! It ended up taking nearly a week to get everything sorted and a full weekend just to get back a usable room!
I knew there would be mess. I knew there would be temporary clutter as things had to be moved out, before other items could be moved in.
Thankfully the Universe played it’s cards so that the week I had the money to do this, was also followed by a ‘daddy weekend’, so both kids weren’t forced to breath in like I was if they needed to pass down the hallway. That was a TIGHT fit!
And of course, with no kids around, my priorities could be put in the correct order without any concerns!! Yup – my grocery shopping sat there for nearly the full weekend haha. Except the cold and frozen items of course…
The mess and ‘furniture placed in the middle of the room’ was crazy! FAR worse than I had predicted it to be.
The mess outside was even worse!!! That said, the kids had a blast breaking up all the Styrofoam pieces and jumping on the cardboard.
BUT …
Eventually the mess makes way for…. *drum roll*
Organisation!
Which leads too….
DUN DUN DUN Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
My neeeeew set up!! At first I was really unhappy about having the table moved to the middle of the room (you’ll see why it’s there shortly), but this past week has actually proved it to be quite useful! And for once it’s being used as a table and not a dumping ground!
Ok, so starting from the outer edge, we have two of these draw sets. They were actually from the kids section and meant for toy rooms, but are perfect for holding my soap molds as it allows me to have different depths for my draws. The top draws house my single molds – cupcakes, flowers, embeds, cars, etc. While the bottom draws house my multiple molds – the plastic ones with three or four sections and the mixed silicone molds.
Apart from the bottom white tub that houses the plastic containers I use when I mass measure out my CP soap batches, the rest of the draws are all molds! AND, that’s not even all of the ones I have! Tucked away on the cube bookshelf is two more boxes of molds – mostly the ones I don’t use and the ‘holiday’ ones that don’t get used often. But still.
I have another set of the plastic tubs that house my toy embeds and other nick nacks pictured below.
Moving along we have the draws. THE. Draws. The most expensive purchase but one I fell in love with as soon as I found it. Each draw has a gap, which allows air flow. And both sides and the back of each draw is only half as high as that front panel, so again, more air flow. Can you say PERFECT soap curing draws?!?!
It also just happens to be THE perfect height for my bars of soap. I mean really, Ikea might try and claim this is a “dee vee deeeee” draw, but we know better. Clearly it was meant to hold soap. Perfect width, perfect height, and air flow. HA. As if DVD’s…
Next comes Billy. My Billy. My Billy bookshelf. Complete with matching doors that have plastic in the middle to save glass around little kids.
Open the doors and … VOILA!! All of my soaping stuff in one place!! Top has the super special oils, next one down has lip balm ingredients followed below by those glorious blocks of M&P soap that fit oh so perfectly!
Moving down you hit Bath Bomb, Bubble Bar and Playdough ingredients, followed by more special (but not super special) oils and butters and then down the bottom is the really bulk stuff.
These have come from my kitchen cupboards, the cube bookshelf, the laundry! All over. And now, all neatly in one place!
This cupboard / bookshelf set was the reason for trip number two to Ikea. While I was there on Tuesday checking everything out, I was slipped a bit of a tip that on Thursday of the same week, this set would be HALF PRICE! Who can argue with half price? And, with my Ikea Family discount, it worked out about 40 – 45% of the original price. Schweeeeeet.
And why was this item so important?
Because it is the PERFECT set up for my essential and fragrance oils!! The entire thing is only about 20cm deep, so you don’t lose bottles behind one another, and with a couple of additional shelves purchased, I am able to fit everything in without wasted space!
The dark doors also keep everything nice and dark and cool inside. Another thing just meant for us soapers! I looooooove it!
So perfect is my set up that even the little nooks and crannies hold things perfectly!!
My kitchen cupboards have finally become usable again. Gone is the mega clutter and having to reach over bottles and jugs to find the item I need. Now, the main cupboards in front of my legs house the items I need constantly – my measuring jugs, colouring and fragrance mixing pots, etc.
MUCH happier with this set up!
As I am with the ‘utensils’ cupboard. Trying to get one of the stick blender components out was usually met with frustration and something falling on my foot as the cords became tangled quite often. This is much neater and only made possible because half the other items are now over on Billy.
The only hiccup was the Cube bookshelf. I tried to get maneuver it down into the kids bedroom, but I couldn’t get enough of an angle to slide it in. I tried the toy room but became stuck in the doorway. I could pull it apart and move or store it, but it weighs a tonne and you really need two adults to tip it over onto it’s side so you can dismantle it. I am awesome, but still only one adult.
So instead the dining room table was moved from this spot and now resides in the middle of the room, and the cube bookshelf has taken up residence here. I am actually liking it as I’m using it to display some stock – with the possible thought of allowing customers to come into my home. Maybe. Not decided on that one yet.
The boxes below also house other random items – bottle packaging, gift basket items, etc. Two of those hold the molds I mentioned before. I just can’t get over how much stuff I have!!
Was hard to capture the front shot as the ONLY sun that has come out the past few days came out right as I was taking this shot haha.
The back section has also proved VERY useful in housing my incredibly large selection of colours, micas, glitters and more. I mean seriously, how did I end up with so many colours?!?!
It was a lot of work, especially as I did it all on my own. There was some mild frustrations as I misjudged the distance between the draws (at first I had no gaps, so had to remove and redo ALL the draws), and hanging doors on your own is NOT easy trust me.
BUT. It was soooooooo worth it. Words can not say how much it was worth it and how much I love the new set up! This was my birthday / mother’s day / new business present to myself. I want to keep growing in my soap and eventually would love to either have my own shop, or have sections in other people’s shops permanently offering my soap and other items for purchase.
And this… is the first step! So, what do you think?
ShareThree trips to Ikea, a lost child, a couple of blisters and a LOT of furniture re-arranging. That has been my past week, but the result (bar the lost child) was WELL worth it!! Now, no skipping to the end!! You have to take the journey with me. If you haven’t yet seen the before…
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