hi Steemians! How have you been?

In Malaysia we just had our public holiday Wesak Day (where Buddhists celebrated Gautama Buddha's birthday), and I took the opportunity to actually do something practical; checking prices at IKEA for furniture for my new home.

I must say I have never really opt for anything fancy, but I always loved staring at IKEA's catalogs and observe how they could manage their space as efficient as possible. But that also means that we just learn to organise what we hoard over the years with furniture that hides those than being seen cluttering all over the place.

Often times, these also make us spend more than we should just to keep all the things we own.

Which can be pretty unpractical if you get what I mean

Because what you get in the end is more stuffs than we need, and less space than we can walk in our comfortable home.

Unless one is perfectly fine with confined spaces.

But then again...

Using that as an excuse is still causing us to purchase more than we should, and that still boil down to our financial budget.

Ever since I have taken on the challenge to acquire a place of my own, every cent counts as I am also setting funds aside for my elderly parents (you can see my original post here and my most recent progress post here) and I cannot afford to spend anything unnecessary and set aside whatever I have for things that matter.

Therefore having a luxurious place with fancy containers is not my choice.

As a learning minimalist, one not only must decide what one needs ; the whole environment has to push to the fact that simplicity is crucial without hiding anything that one doesn't need.

And that comes to my hunt for an optimum choice: space savvy and price savvy

I have checked through much places and I have to say in Malaysia, the simplest designs still come from IKEA, although there ARE some rather fancier and more glamorous ones displayed how elegant a place can be - with a heavy price on it too.

So off I went yesterday and I look through, measured, and also skimmed through every price list I can fetch from available print out detailed catalog I could find.

I first wanted to try to conceal most of my stuffs to make the place look clean and tidy, but that also mean that I have to compromise on space as I have been trying to find ways to hide furniture until needed , especially the living room.

So no matter how I tried to adjust, just the entertainment corner would have easily cost me at least $250 USD.

And I still can't hide off things that I prefer to set it aside (or at least half hidden) until it is needed.

 
Moreover I am being huge on sofa beds / day beds just to allow my living room more diverse and practical for use.

(Totally inspired by tiny house and IKEA designs haha)

So with money that is needed for a washer (which can be optional until the end of the year) and a fridge, I had to squirm a little more on other furnishings and to keep challenging myself to be as minimalist as possible.

Until I find this really nifty discovery of one of IKEA's more recent suggested designs - OPEN SPACE STORAGE

Image took and added caption from IKEA Malaysia
You cannot hide most of your things, you learn to organise it and make it neat with an affordable price.

Of course, I am not following exactly like what is shown in this picture which is almost $250 USD (even though the rest of the designs like BESTÅ would have cost you 2.5x more expensive) but I do need some really practical stuffs like having my desktop PC at a corner; so I have to mix and match something that will keep my wall clean enough for photos at also other things like a book shelf.

And being at the IKEA store showrooms does allow me to really check out how it really look and feel, measure it and even see how they make full use of their product to showcase its good feature.

These are times when online shopping is not as ideal.

You just got to really be there to have that real visualisation and feel. Even with 3D oculus you might still not have that satisfaction especially when this technology is still in its infant stage.

I even came across the BILLY bookshelf that serves a good challenge for me to expose my books and choose what to keep and what not to keep so that I can make keep reminding myself not to overspend on books that I might not read for a long time during book fairs.

So now the challenge for me is: whether should I get half of its size for half of its price, should I get this standard feature to cater all my books and my dad's books together?

I might actually still get this one and even with an extension above just so that it goes as high as my ceiling as possible and keep some of my dad's vintage literature just to see if anyone curious enough to get to the top for it. Those are actually almost half a century books and to give away good literature might not just be a good idea.

Besides, some of them are actually my favourites: Detective and trailer.

So after HOURS and HOURS of walking around, had my 2 meals there (with complementary coffee, yay!) plus talking to IKEA staff for some advises, I have come up on something really simple for one side of my living room with the white wall behind.

This rounds up about 6 feet (208 cm) excluding the bookshelf at the left side, and cost about 97 USD before adding the bookshelf.

All in all I could easily save 50% off the cost price for the living room entertainment area and that gives me more extras for my washer area and tiny kitchen that will be using the same method to arrange all my small electronic kitchen appliances and a reminder that space is limited, and to make full use of what I have.

Not to mention that I can actually roll in my coffee table (if any) and portable seats right below it, allowing more space for other things like expanded sofa beds / day beds.

So what do you think? Would you opt for open space such like this as a challenge to keep your place tidy, or would you prefer traditional concealed wall storage to keep things looking neater, even though that might cost you more including renovation fees?

 
I would love to hear your thoughts in minimalised design and would this be practical if you have kids around the house.

Part of the liking of this design for me is that you will notice that there are no furniture leg around, which also give cleaning an easier approach otherwise I would have to wall up from floor to ceiling for the storage spaces.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this discovery and sharing as much as I have enjoyed preparing it.

Until then

Thank You for Your Time