Hi Honeys,
How are you today? Can you believe we're headed into autumn again? Hubby and I have been decluttering, emptying cupboards and re-organising. The contents of the kitchen cupboards have been moved around to make everything a little more accessible and to make the kitchen a little easier to work in.
As you'll know if you've visited before honeys, I have mobility issues and the osteoarthritis in my lower spine has been making life not so fun for quite a while. I have two choices dear ones, I can give up or I can try to set up systems around our home that will allow me to keep doing the things I love to do, like meal prepping, cleaning and even my beloved laundry.... what? You mean not everyone loves doing laundry? OK, I know, I'm weird 😄
Some of these new systems really are already making my life so much easier though and I'm so grateful for that.
Today I thought I'd share one of the changes that's made the most difference (so far) We have a trolley situation going on in our kitchen dear ones and I love it (or them...)
I know what you're thinking honeys. They look exactly like Ikea's RÅSKOG trolleys don't they? Oddly enough, they're not from my happy place, Ikea, at all.
Why not go grab a cuppa and meet me back here in a few minutes and I'll share all...
Welcome back honeys 💖 Do you have your cuppa? Me too ☕ Why not put your feet up and get comfy, there are quite a few photos in this post 😊💖
For the longest time (I'm talking years here, seriously) I've wanted one of Ikea's RÅSKOG trolleys. I've come so close to buying one so many times on so many store visits over the years.
To be honest honeys I just couldn't bring myself to spend £50 on a little trolley. For me. Just because I loved it and kept seeing all of these fabulous images on Pinterest showing its limitless uses. As I said, I got close.
I would always stop in store whenever I saw them on display and almost talk myself into saying "oh, go on! Treat yourself!" but would always remind myself that £50 is a lot of money. I'd have to work hours to earn it and besides there is always somewhere else for the money to go, maybe a bill or something we needed for the house.
Then a few months ago, a couple of weeks before my birthday I spotted what looked like an exact copy of the much longed for little trolley online! As it turned out though, it wasn't, as I'd thought, a RÅSKOG trolley at all!
It does look almost identical though. The only differences I can see are that it's 3 cm (or just over an inch) taller than the RÅSKOG, and has rounded (very useful) handles at the sides. This little trolley though was less expensive. At £39 it seemed somehow more affordable (at least to me.)
I showed Hubby, who had, over the years, listened patiently while I showed him countless photos online and almost every visit had said "let's get one of those trolleys you like" only to have me make a face at him and say "what? no! that's too much for a wee trolley!" (love you, sweetheart x)
Long story short honeys, as part of my birthday this year, Hubby got me this...
There are no words for how completely and totally chuffed I was 😍💖💖💖 It's even in my favourite colour too! How perfect is that? The colour is described on the box as sage but it's the loveliest shade of pastel green. Just incredibly, breathtakingly beautiful and I love it 💝
This little trolley almost immediately made an impact on how our kitchen functioned around me. To begin with it lived under the worktop and stored the glassware I was buying from Ikea for our new meal prepping system.
We've been gradually getting rid of all traces of plastic in our kitchen and building our collection of the awesome Ikea 365+ glassware which Hubby now uses for his lunches. We also use this perfect, airtight glassware for storing food in the fridge & freezer and this new little trolley seemed the perfect place to store our growing collection.
As you can see it's also the perfect home for the little glass jars I use to make up fruit and natural yogurt treats for during the week, and the tiny tubs we use as snack tubs for nuts or dried fruit too.
So a few weeks passed and then I spotted this, life changing (honestly!) new item on the Ikea website ...
The HÖGSMA chopping board is lovely, it's made of bamboo and, in addition to being a great chopping board of course, has been designed to be used as a work surface for their RÅSKOG trolley, turning it into a perfect, mobile island. Genius!
Now, it isn't a perfect fit for the Dunelm trolley, but it works really well. Hubby, bless him, went, as he does every year, to Comic Con last month. Comic Con is held quite a distance from our home but also happens to be in the same direction as Ikea. When he came home, he brought me one of the HÖGSMA chopping boards. Do I have a perfect Hubby or don't I honeys? Thank you sweetheart x
We tried the board on top of the Dunelm trolley and while it doesn't "drop in" to the top tray as it does with the fab little RÅSKOG trolleys it does sit on top very well Hubby says there is a fraction too much of the "lip" underneath the board and that's what's causing it not to drop in and has promised to sand it for me so that it fits perfectly.
Well, the addition of this useful bamboo "lid" just completely changed the purpose of that little trolley honeys. It became a mobile island or work surface I could sit at and happily work away chopping, peeling or anything else!
I'm sure I don't have to tell any fellow Spoonies what a difference this has made. As I said before, I suffer from acute arthritic pain, especially in the base of my spine, so anything that helps me to carry on doing the things I want to do, is so welcomed and I couldn't believe how much I was using this wonderful little trolley.
Long story short honeys, after our latest home delivery with more glassware from Ikea, Hubby went and bought me another trolley! Thank you sweetheart x
I'm reminded of the old saying about buses, if you miss one then two will come along at once 😄 So, having desperately longed for a kitchen trolley for so many years, now we had two of them 😍
As with the first trolley, I set about lining each tier or shelf with drawer liner, to prevent the contents from sliding about as the trolleys were rolled around the kitchen...
I also retrieved the last of the packs of these foamy sort of star shapes I bought a while ago from Home Bargains. They're intended to be placed between pots or dishes when stored to prevent damage and I so wish I had bought more of them because we've run out and I haven't seen them in store since.
I then carefully separated the glassware we'd been patiently collecting into the dishes I use to cook with and those I prepare Hubby's lunch into. For lunches I use these 400 ml square dishes...
and these 400 ml round dishes. Hubby uses these round dishes most often so we've bought a few more of these...
I then organised this glassware I use to prepare Hubby's lunches with into the two bottom tiers of one of the trolleys.
The lovely bamboo chopping board then became a work surface for that trolley...
Perfect! Even this photo makes me smile honeys 😄
This left the top tier, directly under the bamboo board to organise...
Using two acrylic storage containers, I organised all of the things that, to be honest, were making our cutlery drawer look cluttered. Then, because there was still lots of room I also added some small things hanging on our kitchen rails too.
The acrylic bins are from Poundland, they come as a set of two, one larger bin (shown in these photos) and one slightly narrower one and at £1 for both were a bargain I think. I'm sure these little organisers will be available in other pound/dollar stores too.
I do love how it turned out honeys. Everything is to hand and more importantly everything now has a place it belongs too. As you can see, it's given us a home for items such as the bag holder we use to make smoothie bags for the freezer, the hand grater, assorted ice cream and measuring spoons, scoops and the green plastic lettuce knife.
The plastic lettuce knife is useful because it helps to avoid oxidisation in the lettuce leaf when cutting it, this oxidisation is what causes the leaves to brown and wilt.
In order to protect the lovely bamboo chopping board (and for me, new work surface) I also added a glass worktop protector on top too...
With the HÖGSMA board back in place, the trolley becomes a really useful island where I can sit down and prepare food. This is so much easier than trying to stand and far less painful for my spine honeys. It really has been a blessing and now I don't know what I ever did without it.
On our latest visit to Ikea, wouldn't you know it, but Ikea have now dropped the price of their fabulous RÅSKOG trolleys to £39 too! Figures 😊 Would I trade my lovely little trolleys Hubby bought me? No, of course not. They're from Hubby 😍💖💖
Ikea have also now added a smaller version of the RÅSKOG trolley to their range, it's called the RÅSHULT. It's a perfect copy of the RÅSKOG only smaller (and very cute actually.) You can see it here honeys.
Now that I'm so, so smitten with my trolleys, and more importantly have seen how much easier they've made working in the kitchen for me, I'm thinking of treating myself (now that Ikea do home delivery) to one of the smaller RÅSHULT trolleys. It would be a perfect size for inside our large storage cupboard at the back door.
I'm still hoping that Home Bargains will start selling those pot/dish protectors again, they've been perfect when storing the glassware.
Even that problem found a solution though, when I ran out, I used paper plates between each of the glass dishes instead. If I manage to find more of those foam dividers I'll swap them over but till then, these little paper plates will do fine...
what do you think honeys? Are you a trolley fan? Do you meal prep? Are you organising and decluttering your home too? Do you have any tips to share?
Till next time dear ones, Smile lots and hug even more, hugs always xx
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