Shopping for Joy
One of the most fun parts of moving overseas (and not bringing anything with us) has been starting from scratch with all of our furnishings. When Joshua and I got together we were still students, and our first flat together was a mixture of op-shop finds, IKEA pieces, and council-clean up treasures. We spent the better part of a decade in that apartment with many of the items being rotated out for nicer pieces, but many staying because it felt wasteful to get rid of things that were perfectly functional.
It’s a very strange (and fun) position to be in now, having to start again with all of our furnishings, but having the benefit of adulthood bringing - subjectively - better taste, and a year in varying degrees of lockdown making sure we really know we utilise every space in our home.
The thing I’ve been most conscious of is buying ‘for joy’, actively trying to choose items that I know will make me smile every time I use them, or that I’ll be just as happy looking at in 20 years time as I will in 2 months time. There are so many appliances and home goods that I have to buy - like a vacuum cleaner - so why not choose the one that will make me the happiest each time I pull it out of the cupboard - like the pink, fluttering eyelash-ed Hetty Hoover?
Most of these purchases seem quite silly on the surface, but I genuinely love having them in my home.
Some of my favourite things I’ve bought for joy:
Hetty Hoover — The famous British Henry Hoover’s sidekick, doing the vacuuming with Hetty is like having a hungry little friend follow after you. We refer to her with the deepest affection (come on, Hett!) and so far I’ve not felt annoyed once about having to do the vacuuming.
MoccaMaster in candy pink — the appliance that gets used the most in our house is our coffee machine. We figured that using something at least 2 times a day is worth the splurge, and the fact that it is pink is a very big bonus for me.
Mepra coloured cutlery — if you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d willingly spend my hard earned money on a cutlery set… well, I wouldn’t have believed you. Opening the cutlery draw to this rainbow though, I haven’t once wished I’d got something cheaper. I love making different colour combinations with each meal (tomato soup with the cobalt blue spoon! Choc-orange ice cream with the pale pink tea spoon!)
Happy Hooks — our hallway and entrance is quite dark, and quickly became the dumping ground for all of our renovation supplies. We didn’t do too much to the hallway other than painting it a fresh, bright white and installing some hooks for coats. We each have our own Happy Hook and it is a literal smile on the wall that greets you each time you hang up or put on your coat!
Heart Shaped Combination Lock — our apartment has a small storage shed in the basement where we keep our empty furniture boxes and leftover paint supplies. It was encouraged to fit a lock to the cage, but we couldn’t find any padlocks that were long enough to fit through the hole. I found this heart shaped padlock in a discount store one day, for $3, and thought it would do the job perfectly. I know it’s not really the most sophisticated loss-prevention device, but I figure if anyone wants the storage box for Hetty Hoover so badly that they’d cut my lock, they can have it.
Disco balls — admittedly, a mirror ball does what it says on the tin, and by default brings a little celebration to the room it’s in, BUT there is just something so fun about a disco ball in the house - a gold one at that - that only sparkles when the light comes at 4.30pm — right at knock-off time! I also bought a set of 6 miniature disco balls that I move around the shelves in the studio… I think of them as a portable polka dot party for the pink room!
