The ideal housewarming gift for new homeowners

Varsity sweethearts Landis and Elise recently moved into a one bedroom apartment of their own at Singapore’s city fringe. Having lived in their cosy one bedder for two months, Landis and Elise enjoy the freedom of having guests over on weekends for a leisurely meal over a few drinks.

“We didn’t have one big housewarming party due to space constraints. However, we managed to host small groups of friends over a few weekends,” Landis said.

“We realised that it might have been better for us to have been upfront about the type of housewarming gift we would like to receive,” the affable tech sales manager quipped.

After receiving the 9^th set of wine glasses from well-meaning friends, Landis and Elise had more than enough glasses to set up a respectable wine bar at home and were ready to put a stop to the deluge of glass and kitchen ware.

Landis shared, “I know my mates were coming from a good place. One went as far as to give me a garment steamer thinking that it would make getting the creases out of my work shirts easier. But it didn’t quite work out and I ended up selling the item online.”

However, one of their close friends Wei who went to school with the couple at the University of York knew that Landis and Elise have a penchant for keeping their living space squeaky clean and dust-free. Elise is sensitive to dust particles which triggers a runny nose whenever it gets too dusty. As a housewarming present, Wei gifted them a Dyson V8 Absolute + cord-free vacuum cleaner.

“Time is yet another resource that I value greatly, that’s why we decided to shift to an apartment six bus-stops away from my work place. What’s so great about the Dyson V8 is that it now takes less than half the time to get the vacuuming done!” Landis said.

Indeed, with its 40 minute battery runtime, there’s more than enough time to clean the 500 sq ft apartment twice over. Featuring Dyson-engineered tools, the Dyson V8 Absolute + comes with range of attachments designed for specific tasks. For instance, the crevice tool effectively suctions away dust from narrow and hard-to-reach corners.

“The Dyson V8 Absolute + transforms easily to vacuum away cobwebs and dust from the ceiling without having to use a ladder,” Landis enthused.

At just 2.6kg, the cord-free Dyson V8 Absolute + is extremely easy to manage, even for the petite Elise. “Unlike other traditional vacuum cleaners, I don’t feel the strain on my arm and shoulders when maneuvering the Dyson V8 Absolute + around the house.”

However, living together is not always a bed of roses. Elise said, “There are times where we feel that the house is quite big, and other times, too small.”

Having gone through the initial stages of getting used to sharing a common space, Elise and Landis have the following tips to share with fellow homeowners:

• Wherever possible, designate a His and Her corner in the home that serves as each party’s sanctuary for some me time. In a healthy relationship, couples should have time (and space) for themselves to do the things they enjoy, like reading a book or playing computer games.
• Let’s face it – everyone has a different upbringing and way of life. Combining two separate lifestyles and preferences is not the easiest thing in the world. Sit down and get to know more about each other’s preferences before even moving in together to avoid any potentially nasty surprises! Compromise is the name of the game – decide on what is non-negotiable and what has room for negotiation and bargaining. Afterall, you gotta give a little and take a little for things to work!
• Find a common theme or hobby that the two of you enjoy. For Landis and Elise, both have a liking for Japanese minimalism and it’s a school of thought they apply in their way of life together – to keep things clean and simple.

For the young couple, they strongly agree that less is more when it comes to the amount of furniture they have at home, and the amount of time spent on housework.

“We got a place of our own to make better use of our time to invest on activities that are important to us, definitely not to spend weekends cleaning. The Dyson V8 Absolute + cuts down the time needed to keep the apartment dust-free by half! Really people, if you’re looking to gift your friends a useful housewarming gift, give them an appliance that takes most of the fuss out of cleaning!” Elise said with a laugh.

We couldn’t agree more.

In time for spring cleaning, the Dyson V8 Absolute + is the perfect housewarming gift.

Presented by Dyson.

If you found this article helpful, 99.co recommends The homeowner’s guide to sprucing up your home for CNY 2018 and Smart home assistants that will change life as you know it.

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