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New house!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I've finally been offered a council house! Its a 2 bed with a drive and a garden. I've got most of the furniture, but its the little bits around the house that I can't think of.
So far I've got-
Beds
2x bookshelves
1 chest of drawers
washing machine
fridge freezer
sofa
2 bedside tables
sideboard
towels
tea towels
bedding
half a set of crockery and a few pots and pans
and asides personal bits thats about it...
What else do I need? Oh and carpets! The place I'm moving into has had all the carpets pulled up (council's policy - hygiene reasons aparently!), any idea what I can do? Any charities I can apply to for funding for things like that? Theres going to be some minor DIY stuff that needs doing (shelves putting up stuff like that), and I can't do it due to my disability. Any ideas again on that front?
Any ideas on any fronts would be greatly apreciated! I've been reading Kirstie's homemade home and its given me too many ideas!
So far I've got-
Beds
2x bookshelves
1 chest of drawers
washing machine
fridge freezer
sofa
2 bedside tables
sideboard
towels
tea towels
bedding
half a set of crockery and a few pots and pans
and asides personal bits thats about it...
What else do I need? Oh and carpets! The place I'm moving into has had all the carpets pulled up (council's policy - hygiene reasons aparently!), any idea what I can do? Any charities I can apply to for funding for things like that? Theres going to be some minor DIY stuff that needs doing (shelves putting up stuff like that), and I can't do it due to my disability. Any ideas again on that front?
Any ideas on any fronts would be greatly apreciated! I've been reading Kirstie's homemade home and its given me too many ideas!
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Comments
It's so exciting getting your first flat! For me it was a real turning point.
I'm so happy for you.
As for what to get I would think carpets are pretty important although you may be able to make do with a few rugs.
I don't know what it's called but there used to be some type of grant for people moving into their first council homes where you could apply for money and get about £500, I remember some of my friends doing it but I don't remember what it's called or if it still exists.
But it sounds like you've got the basics covered. You could just move in first and see what you find you need. Have you got things like plates, bowls, glasses, corkscrew etc?
You can get 6 glasses for £2 at Tesco.
You could get yourself a plastic one and some cheap glass ones for guests. Then you could always use your plastic one.
What me and Emma have done is drawn a plan of our new place with a list next to each room of what we need for it. Basically let us visualise walking through and what we need / want and where.
This is a brilliant idea, some real visualisation exercises will help you out.
Like... hallway I'm gonna assume you have a hall distinct from lounge. You might want a mat to wipe feet, a place to put shoes, somewhere to hang coats, a mirror.
Kitchen, you'll want a draining board, sponges/brushes, cleaning soap/sprays, two saucepans and a frying pan, some utensils, some tea-towels, a net curtain/blind, oven gloves, toaster, kettle, teapot, chopping boards, fridgemagnets.
Bathroom, bathmat, loo brush, bleech, towels, shower curtain, blind, soap, place to store pills/razorblades/toothbrushes.
That sort of thing?
I can post you one or just visit www.procook.co.uk :-)
Community Care Grants are being abolished from 1 April, to be replaced by a local authority scheme.
Many councils will offer you a furniture pack for when you move in, you repay it over 12 or 24 months as an additional payment on your rent.
Wilkinson's are great for random bits of shite for the house, especially plastic glasses and crockery and cheap cookware. I get quite a lot of my stuff from there.
My sisters council house had no carpets when she moved in. Might just be a coincidence. I paid to have my mum's ex council carpeted last year at £700 as well.
My friend had to buy her own carpet too.
Concentrate on how to cook dinner, rather than fussing over all the ifs and buts and maybes, and just maybe you'd have fewer problems with it. And on those lines, stop fussing now about the fact you left the hob on. Most likely outcome from that is you get a slightly higher energy bill and the room gets warm.
Not having a cooker isn't great - but it's manageable.
Not having carpets is going to be ugly, but that's about it. Carpets are by no means an essential item to make a place inhabitable.
Where stuff is going to go is realistically wherever it gets placed, however things happen to work out on the day you get it there. Over time you'll decide that things would be better in a different place and they'll get moved.
The only way you're going to get support is if you live there on your own, and you and the system work out what you actually can and can't do. It's a sucky system, but pretty much the only way to get help from it is to prove that you need it by failing in the first instance.
I'm going to see if I can see it before we get the keys - just so I have an idea of what it's like. I don't know if there's a dining room or if its all open plan down stairs. I think that would lay most of my worries to rest. I have got a microwave so I can at least do some stuff in there until I can get a grant from the local charitable trust. Carpets - yeah I'm still worried about the tripping and slipping, I do it enough on carpet but I think it might be something I can get a grant for again.
I just need to keep packing up now, and hope its ok when I get there!
Can always help you with little bits, just at the minute am doing my own move, contending with a cold AND now contending with a fucked up foot.
Freecycle is something I'm really hot on, but its ferociously competitive around here. Things go in seconds!
Gumtree and eBay all the way for me. Gumtree seems to be 1/4 of the price but has the same problem that good things go quickly.