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My SZN — Life, in season.

Hauls · ☀️ Summer

The basket test

A one-question filter for bargain shops that stops the £2 things becoming £40 of nothing.

Editorial · 3 min read · 3 min read

A wire shopping basket on a wooden floor holding cream candles, a ribbed mug and folded neutral tea towels

The B&M and Home Bargains kind of shop is genuinely brilliant, and genuinely dangerous, for the same reason: nothing costs enough to make you stop and think.

This is the question we ask at the shelf. It has saved more money than any budget ever has.

What caught our eye

The best of these shops is the boring middle: storage, glass, candles, tea towels, cleaning things, plain kitchenware. It's the seasonal novelty end that quietly empties a wallet.

The test

  1. Pick the thing up and name where it will live. If you can't name a shelf, a drawer or a hook, it goes back.
  2. Ask whether you'd still want it in a different season. If the answer is only 'in autumn', it can wait until autumn.
  3. Ask whether you own something that already does the job. Two mediocre versions is worse than one good one.
  4. Put it in the basket, then do one lap. Half of what's in there won't survive the lap.

Usually worth it

  • Storage that matches something you already have.
  • Plain candles, in quantity, if you actually burn them.
  • Kitchen basics — tongs, sieves, jugs — that you're currently improvising.
  • Anything that replaces something broken rather than adding to something full.

Usually worth leaving

  • Novelty seasonal signage. It's the single most-donated category in charity shops.
  • Miniature versions of things you already own full-size.
  • Scented anything you haven't smelled.
  • A third set of fairy lights.

Budget-conscious alternative

Charity shops and second-hand marketplaces are usually better than bargain aisles for glass, ceramics and baskets — the same objects, already made, often better made.

Make it yours

Kept for later 🤎

Kept ideas live in My Keeps, keep their category and season, and can be planned, lived and remembered later.

My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.

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