When we got the keys to our bare and dusty condo unit, it was overwhelming. The echoes of every sound we made in the vacant rooms reflected how much work had to be done to even make it liveable.
The good news was that we weren’t in a rush to move in. That meant we had time to do our due diligence in researching for the best furnishings that fit our needs in terms of design and pricing.
For those who are immediately rushing to the nearest IKEA or other retail stores to furnish your new home, read this article first. From a rough calculation, we saved about 30% from our total expense, so you very well could too.
But allow me to start first with a disclaimer. Although we are writing about a Shopee promotion in this piece (RM15 off with the code in this article!), all the items mentioned here were not sponsored and were fully paid by myself.
Therefore this is an unbiased summary of how I recently furnished my newly renovated condo unit by leveraging on helpful platforms like Shopee and Lazada. Here are a few main categories of items that you should consider buying online instead.
1. Pet-Related Items
Cat trees are relatively pricey in pet stores, even single or double-tiered ones would already be RM100-200. Anything more than 2 tiers would be easily above RM200+.
I got this large wooden cat tree on Shopee for only RM150 excluding shipping. Complete steal. There was a discount voucher for shipping too.
Other than that, smaller items like cat toys, hammock, and cat litter were bought on Shopee at a low price as well.
Tip: Wooden cat trees are much less prone to dust and cat fur compared to fabric ones.
2. Kitchen Appliances
Buying kitchen appliances online was a no-brainer because I did the same when furnishing our office too.
After checking the measurements to see if it would fit my kitchen island and making notes of the prices, I could check in the store itself if the prices were cheaper online.
In the end, almost all my main kitchen appliances (microwave oven, electric oven, kettle, slow cooker, baking mixer) were bought via Shopee.
Tip: Despite retail stores pushing promotional items, always check online prices first because I’ve found that usually, prices on Shopee are still lower.
3. General Electrical Items
My husband wanted to have a smart home, but since we can’t always get what we want, we settled with just getting smart light bulbs.
We got the Philips Hue Starter Kit just below RM700 on Lazada (usual price is around RM830!) and we’ve been enjoying different ambient lighting since.
Our Philips steam iron was ordered via Shopee for about RM580 (original price is above RM1000, most retail stores are selling for around RM660). It’s a lifesaver because it easily cuts my ironing time in half.
Tip: Always go to retail stores first to check out what kind of model you want because there are various types of steam irons. For our ironing usage, this model is more than enough.
4. Hardware Tools
As most of the furniture comes pre-packaged and not pre-installed, my husband and I had to build and assemble them ourselves. By purchasing heavy-duty tools and parts through Shopee, we were then able to DIY without hiring additional help.
My husband chose to get a new power drill and rotary tool on Shopee. He even bought screws because some of the sizes were hard to source from stores and he’d had to take a gamble to check retail stores if they had stock. On Shopee, he could just simply pick the screw size and type that he needed.
Tip: Even some cleaning materials like polishing compound and isopropyl alcohol are sold on Shopee. To our surprise, these chemicals were packaged and shipped carefully, and we received them safely in perfect condition.
5. Cooking Utensils
Personally, I am sceptical of branded utensils. Of course, with branded goods, they might look and feel more premium. However, I’m no Masterchef so they all work the same to me.
So instead of heading to expensive retail stores that only sell branded utensils, buying them online was a cheaper bet. I snagged this 10-piece silicone cooking utensil set for RM41, and I’ve been cooking frequently with them, no complaints so far.
Tip: There are many cooking utensil sets being sold, scroll for the best bundle set that you can get.
6. Bathroom Accessories
Being someone that enjoys a tidy bathroom, I absolutely had to get my hands on bathroom shelves that will keep all my bathroom goods neat.
This rack fits just nicely above our toilet so it’s space-saving and it’s below RM40.
Tip: I generally recommend racks that are not flat-surfaced because they are more prone to collecting dust and hair, especially in the toilet.
7. Water Filter
Now this one was a surprise even for us because my husband and I have never bought a water filter online before. Due to the design of our sink and countertop space, not many water filter brands would fit.
With some extensive research, we found a water filter brand with a design, performance, and price that fits our requirements.
The specific model we were looking for wasn’t even sold in retail stores! We installed it ourselves and saved another RM100.
Tip: It is recommended to buy water filters that have NSF certification (National Sanitation Foundation) so that it meets a certain level of performance for filtration.
8. Furniture
I must admit, buying furniture online was particularly tricky due to quality, and comfort is subjective.
For example, you wouldn’t be able to tell the firmness of a sofa cushion just by looking at the pictures. We did manage to find a simple fix to this problem—by calling up the merchant and asking if we could drop by their showroom to personally check out the sofa.
Once we were satisfied, we could confidently buy the sofa from the merchant on Shopee. As for other furniture, we decided to go for the ones that had a decent number of feedback and reviews from previous customers.
Home Sweet Home
Overall, I’m very pleased with the loot that we got and the total money saved from being resourceful. I’d admit it took some additional time to find everything that we needed and more than a bit of effort to install certain items ourselves; but at the end, there were no regrets.
If you’re itching to get your own home items via Shopee, here’s how you can save even more:
- Plan ahead by adding your items to your Shopee cart.
- Make sure that you have over RM150 worth of goods.
- Check out your shopping cart on a Monday (every Monday from now till the end of December).
- Pay using your Standard Chartered Bank Mastercard Credit Card and remember to use the code SCBMON.
- RM15 will be discounted from your total bill!
Personally, I probably need to get a good vacuum cleaner soon. I’m not a fan of sweeping my home twice a day.
There are other deals that you can take advantage of with the Standard Chartered Bank Credit Card if you’re shopping on Zalora, Lelong.my, and more. Read about the deals here, or check out the table below.
| Day | Deals | Website | Code |
| Monday | RM15 off with minimum purchase of RM150 | https://shopee.com.my/ | SCBMON |
| Tuesday | RM15 cashback + 10% extra RebateMango rewards | https://www.rebatemango.my/scb | VISA or MAST |
| Wednesday | 25% discount | https://www.zalora.com.my/ | SCZ25 |
| Thursday | RM15 off with minimum purchase of RM150 | https://www.prestomall.com/ | |
| Friday | RM18 off total purchase | https://www.happyfresh.my/ | |
| Saturday | Max RM20 off with minimum purchase of RM150 | https://www.lelong.com.my/ | SCBSAT |
| Sunday | Max RM20 off with minimum purchase of RM150 | https://www.superbuy.my/shop/ | SCBSUN |
- This article is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank.
- Get RM15 off when you spend over RM150 on Shopee when you check out with a Standard Chartered Bank Mastercard Credit Card. Use promo code SCBMON.
- Do note that there’s a limited number of codes that can be used per day, so be quick!