I turned my kitchen into Santa’s Grotto with 12 Christmas trees & mini villages – but I didn’t pay a penny, here’s how
A MUM has revealed how she transformed her home into Santa’s Grotto with 12 Christmas trees and an abundance of miniature festive villages she got her free.
Laura Melling, is a Christmas fanatic, and loves decorating her home for the festive season.
She has transformed the outside of her home into a candy cane wonderland, using her impressive DIY skills, and has now turned the inside of her house into a magical grotto aswell.
Taking to TikTok, Laura (@lauramell17) explained that in the UK, there is an auction website called ibidder.com, which sells pallets of returned goods.
The mum of two bid on a pallet of Christmas decorations for £37.50, and then sold on anything that she didn’t want from it.
“As long as we make our money back, then all the stuff we keep is technically free,” she said.
The pallet came with 12 Christmas trees and 12 toddler guard rails, the latter of which she sold for £10 each, making £120 in total.
Since she had spent £37.50 on the pallet, she made an impressive £82.50 in profit.
Laura revealed that all of the Christmas trees are from Costway and would originally have been priced between £15 for the two foot mini tree to £100 for the large flocked pre-lit tree.
Last year, Laura bought another pallet, which cost her £50 and included 10 Christmas villages and 12 Christmas inflatables.
She sold the inflatables on for £10 each and made £70 profit from the pallet.
Laura explained that some of the products on the pallets have been returned because they are damaged, whilst others were returned simply because the customers changed their minds.
“The majority of them do work”, Laura revealed, showing off the sweet mini villages, which she has displayed on a Christmas stand in the living room.
One of the heads of the plastic women in one of the villages had fallen off when it arrived, but Laura quickly glued it back on, meaning that the village now looks as good as new.
Some of the lights also don’t work on some of the villages, but Laura said that this doesn’t bother Laura, as the festive scenes look good regardless.
“I love them all”, she said, proudly showing off her Christmas display.
However, Laura warned that if you are interested in getting return pallets for yourself you shouldn’t do it at this time of year, but should instead wait until May or June, as this is when the prices will be at their lowest.
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She added that you need a van to pick the products up in, as the cost of shipping is extortionate.
Explaining some of the cons of the pallets, she added: “You never know if something will be damaged, it takes a lot of time going through everything and checking for damage.
“Also, the auction houses sometimes are not close to where you live – the auction house this year was 1.5 hours each way.”
And it’s not just Christmas decorations that Laura has managed to nab from the auction site.
She revealed that she also bought a 12ft trampoline for £50, and then sold it on for £100, and bought three pallets of outdoor clothes and shoes for £300, which she sold on for £600.